Women, in hot climates, are marriageable at
eight, nine, or ten years of age;
[1]
thus, in those countries, infancy
and marriage generally go together. They are old at twenty: their reason
therefore never accompanies their beauty. When beauty demands the
empire, the want of reason forbids the claim; when reason is obtained,
beauty is no more. These women ought then to be in a state of
dependence; for reason cannot procure in old age that empire which even
youth and beauty could not give. It is therefore extremely natural that
in these places a man, when no law opposes it, should leave one wife to
take another, and that polygamy should be introduced.
In temperate climates, where the charms of women are best preserved,
where they arrive later at maturity, and have children at a more
advanced season of life, the old age of their husbands in some degree
follows theirs; and as they have more reason and knowledge at the time
of marriage, if it be only on account of their having continued longer
in life, it must naturally introduce a kind of equality between the two
sexes; and, in consequence of this, the law of having only one wife.
In cold countries the almost necessary custom of drinking strong
liquors establishes intemperance amongst men. Women, who in this respect
have a natural restraint, because they are always on the defensive, have
therefore the advantage of reason over them.
Nature, which has distinguished men by their reason and bodily
strength, has set no other bounds to their power than those of this
strength and reason. It has given charms to women, and ordained that
their ascendancy over man shall end with these charms: but in hot
countries, these are found only at the beginning, and never in the
progress of life.
Thus the law which permits only one wife is physically conformable
to the climate of Europe, and not to that of Asia. This is the reason
why Mahometanism was so easily established in Asia, and with such
difficulty extended in Europe; why Christianity is maintained in Europe,
and has been destroyed in Asia; and, in fine, why the Mahometans have
made such progress in China, and the Christians so little. Human
reasons, however, are subordinate to that Supreme Cause who does
whatever He pleases, and renders everything subservient to His will.
Some particular reasons induced Valentinian
[2]
to permit polygamy in
the empire. That law, so improper for our climates, was abrogated by
Theodosius, Arcadius, and Honorius.
[3]
