t, and they ought to take part,
with the mother: she is the injured party; the shame brought upon her
attaches, in part, to them: they feel the injustice done them; and, if
such a man, when the grey hairs, and tottering knees, and piping voice
come, look round him in vain for a prop, let him, at last, be just, and
acknowledge that he has now the due reward of his own wanton cruelty to
one whom he had solemnly sworn to love and to cherish to the last hour
of his or her life.

199. But, bad as is conjugal infidelity in the _husband_, it is much
worse in the _wife_: a proposition that it is necessary to maintain by
the force of reason, because _the women_, as a sisterhood, are prone to
deny the truth of it. They say that _adultery_ is _adultery_, in men as
well as in them; and that, therefore, the offence is _as great_ in the
one case as in the other. As a crime, abstractedly considered, it
certainly is; but, as to the _consequences_, there is a wide difference.
In both cases, there is the breach of a solemn vow, but, there is this
great distinction, that the husband, by his breach of that vow, only
brings _shame_ upon his wife and family; whereas the wife, by a breach
of her vow, may bring the husband a spurious offspring to maintain, and
may bring that spurious offspring to rob of their fortunes, and in some
cases of their bread, her legitimate children. So that here is a great
and evident wrong done to numerous parties, besides the deeper disgrace
inflicted in this case than in the other.

200. And why is the disgrace _deeper_? Because here is a total want of
_delicacy_; here is, in fact, _prostitution_; here is grossness and
filthiness of mind; here is every thing that argues baseness of
character. Women should be, and they are, except in few instances, far
more reserved and more delicate than men; nature bids them be such; the
habits and manners of the world confirm this precept of nature; and
therefore, when they commit this offence, they excite loathing, as well
as call for reprobation. In the countries where a _plurality of wives_
is permitted, there is no _plurality of husbands_. It is there thought
not at all indelicate for a man to have several wives; but the bare
thought of a woman having _two husbands_ would excite horror. The
_widows_ of the Hindoos burn themselves in the pile that consumes their
husbands; but the Hindoo _widowers_ do not dispose of themselves in this
way. The widows devote their bodies to c