and hindering Licentiousness, advance their own Interest, as well as preserve the Laws of God from contempt and violation.
15. It is a Blessing to Mankind, that by this over-plus of Males there is this natural |71| Bar to Polygamy: for in such a state Women could not live in that parity and equality of expense with their Husbands, as now, and here they do.
16. The reason whereof is, not, that the Husband cannot maintain as splendidly three, as one; for he might, having three Wives, live himself upon a quarter of his Income, that is, in a parity with all three, as well as, having but one, live in the same parity at half with her alone: but rather, because that to keep them all quiet with each other, and himself, he must keep them all in greater aw, and less splendour; which power he having, he will probably use it to keep them all as low as he pleases, and at no more cost than makes for his own pleasure; the poorest Subjects, (such as this plurality of Wives must be) being most easily governed. |72|
CHAP. IX.
Of the growth of the City.
1. IN the year 1593 there died in the ninety seven Parishes within the walls, and the sixteen without the walls (besides 421 of the Plague) 3508. And the next year 3478, besides 29 of the Plague: in both years 6986. Twenty years
Ingram, Hist. of Political Economy, 51; the suggestion is followed by Bevan, Sir W. Petty, a Study, 53. The figure in which the idea is expressed apparently reflects the current notion, at least as old as Aristotle, that the female is passive in generation. Legouvé, Moral history of Woman, tr. Palmer, 216. Even the form of expressing the analogy is, probably, older than either Graunt or Petty, for both place the words in brackets—a seventeenth century equivalent for marks of quotation—and Schulz, in his translation of Graunt, writes, "weil, nach dem Sprichwort, die hander der welt vater, und das land derselbten mutter ist."
