The celebrated Baron Puffendorf, in his work on the law of nature and nations, has treated the subject of marriage with great ability. From that work we give the following quotations: "Among the old Peruvians the Yncas alone were permitted to marry their sisters, and all other men forbidden to take the same liberty. On the other hand, the Romans abhorred this practice as most odious and unnatural. Plutarch, giving the reason why the women, in that nation, saluted their relations with a kiss, hath left this remark: When the laws had prohibited the marriage of near relations, they yet allowed them to proceed to this innocent expression of love; and this became a mutual pledge and mark of their alliance. For, in ancient times, the Romans abstained from wedding their kinswomen in any degree of blood, as they at present forbear their aunts and their sisters. It was late before the marriage of cousin-germans was dispensed with."[1] Let the reader compare this testimony of Plutarch with the quotation given above from the Puritan in regard
- ↑ Puffendorff, p. 594.
