If by People are meant those in the _Stews_, I hope it will be thought no Crime to encourage such People, rather to confine themselves to the Practice of one Vice, than live by committing a Thousand; especially when that one Vice is what they would really practise, whether they were encourag’d or not.
But if any imagine that this particular Licence would be a general Encouragement to the whole _Nation_, they are certainly mistaken. For, as to the Men, they are already as bad as they can be; if any Thing cures them, it must be _Satiety_: Let them have full and free Leave to take a Surfeit of unlawful Love, and they will soon learn to prefer the Chaste Embraces of Innocence before the bought Smile of Harlots loveless, joyless, unindear’d casual Fruition.
It is a right Observation, that Restraint does but whet a Man’s Passions instead of curing them.
_Exuperat magis, ægrescitque medendo._ Æn. 12. And a late ingenious _Author_, who study’d Mankind, speaking on this Subject, has these Words: _To put down_ Publick Stews, _is not only to disperse Fornication into all Parts, but, by the Difficulty, to excite wild and wanton People to this Vice._
It was observ’d at _Rome_, that in the full Liberty of Divorces, there was not a single Instance of one in fifty Years: And that _Cato_ long’d for his Wife again as soon as she was in another’s Possession.
_Quod licet ingratum est, quod non licet acrius urit_.
And _Martial_ speaking to a married Rake, _B_. 3. _Ep_. 68. says,
_Cur aliena placet tibi, quæ tua non placet uxor? Nunquid Securus non potes arrigere?_
I pr’ythee tell me why a Wife Thy am’rous Fancy never warms? What! without Danger o’thy Life, Cannot thy Cod-pice stand to Arms?
_Nullus in urbe fuit tota, qui tangere vellet Uxorem gratis, Cæciliane, tuam Dum licuit: sed nunc, positis custodibus, ingens Turba fututorum est. Ingeniosus Homo es._
There’s no Man, _Cæcil_, in the Town, Would, _gratis_, have enjoy’d thy Spouse; But how thou art so jealous grown, Lord! what a Croud about the House! You’ve lock’d her up, t’increase her Value; In short, you are a cunning Fellow.
The _Public Stews_ will not encourage Men to be lewd, but they will encourage them to exercise their Lewdness in a proper Place, without disturbing the Peace of the _Society_, and with as little Detriment to themselves as possible. And, as to the Women, there’s not the least Shadow of Encouragement: For no modest Woman ever lost her Maiden-head with the dismal Prospect of becoming a _Public Courtezan_: And if a Woman is not modest, the licensing of the _Public Stews_ is no more an Encouragement for her to practise, than the allowing a certain Number of Hackney-Coaches every _Sunday_ is an Encouragement for the rest to ply; when the very Licence, to some, expresly implies a Prohibition of the rest.
