"Therefore, in conformity with the general mercies vouchsafed to the faithful, none but the Prophet were permitted to have more than four. But as he was the paragon of all justice, he was allowed to have nine. This might be supposed to forbid a plurality of wives, but every sensible man must see that the reduction of the number of wives to one would also reduce men to difficulties. For, it is the desire of most men to take women without any sort of restraint ; and it is well known that the object of Mohammed's law was to diminish difficulties. It has been our object, therefore, to show that Mohammed's taking more wives than he allowed to others was not founded on lust, but with the view of diminishing the difficulties above mentioned; namely, to point out the difficulty of other individuals preserving justice among four; and that this was not the case (with respect to Mohammed) in a number exceeding five, six, or more."

(A rich specimen of reasoning certainly; but let us see what he thinks of our law of marriage):—"The law, however, now in the hands of Christians, is, as every man of sense knows, of a very different description; and, therefore, can never have come from God . . . . Their women, too, being allowed to take any man they may please, and whenever they please, cannot but superinduce great confusion in their tables of pedigrees, and must put an entire end to that chastity which, everyone knows, is both necessary and proper. In such a case no one can possibly know whose son he is" (p. 380).