rded as
merely a civil contract, magistrates having, equally with clergymen,
the right to solemnize it, though it is usually the practice to have
it performed by a clergyman and attended with religious ceremonies.
Marriage, as a legalized custom, is of very ancient origin. It is
doubtful whether even the primitive man was not governed in the
intercourse of the sexes by some recognition of the union being
confined to one chosen one. No greater promiscuity can certainly be
supposed than occurs in the lower animals, where pairing is the law.
The nobler animals, as the lion, elephant, etc., never have but one
mate, and even in case of death do not remate. As men advanced, civil
codes were inaugurated and certain protection given to the choice of
the parties. The earliest civil code regulating marriage, of which we
have any account, was that of Menes, who, Herodotus tells us, was the
first of the Pharaohs, or native Egyptian kings, and who lived about
3,500 years before Christ. The nature of his code is not known.

The Biblical account extends further back, but it does not appear that
any laws existed regulating marriage, but each one was allowed to
choose his wife and concubines, and it is supposed that common consent
respected the selection. Next, Moses gave laws for the government of
marriage among the Israelites. The early Greeks followed the code of
Cecrops, and the Romans were also governed in their marital relations
by stringent laws. In fact, the necessity of some law regulating the
intercourse between the sexes must have become very apparent to all
nations or communities at a very early period. It certainly antedates
any legal regulations with regard to the possession of property. It is
very probable that every community did by common consent afford to
each male one or more females, and the presumption is that such choice
or assignment, as the case may have been, was respected by common
agreement as inviolable. It is doubtful if ever promiscuity was the
law or privilege with any community of men, even in their primitive
state. The possession of reason is antagonistic to such a belief; and
man was most probably elevated above the beast by the faculty of
reason in this respect as in others. Promiscuous indulgence is always
evidence of debauchery, and a departure from that natural course which
is prompted by an innate sense of propriety characterizing mankind.
The law is very indefinite with regard to what constitutes