The reason, we think, would not appear to be conclusive. Yet why should it not; if we hate and detest them because they are the natural and proper objects of ha|tred and detestation? But when we are asked why we should not act in such or such a manner, the very question seems to sup|pose that, to those who ask it, this manner of acting does not appear to be for its own sake the natural and proper object of those sentiments. We must show them, there|fore, that it ought to be so for the sake of something else. Upon this account we ge|nerally cast about for other arguments, and the consideration which first occurs to us is the disorder and confusion of society which would result from the universal prevalence of such practices. We seldom fail, there|fore, to insist upon this topic.
But tho' it commonly requires no great discernment to see the destructive tendency of all licentious practices to the welfare of society, it is seldom this consideration which first animates us against them. All men, even the most stupid and unthink|ing, abhor fraud, perfidy, and injustice, and delight to see them punished. But few men have reflected upon the necessity
