seem'd to be in promoting some Religion or other, the Principle of it
was not of their Invention. They found it in Man; and the Fear of an
invisible Cause being universal, if Governours had said nothing of it,
every Man in his own Breast would have found Fault with them, and had
a Superstition of his own to himself. It has often been seen, that the
most subtle Unbelievers among Politicians have been forced, for their
own Quiet, to counterfeit their Attachment to religion, when they
would a Thousand Times rather have done without it.

Hor. It is not in the Power then, you think, of Politicians, to
contradict the Passions, or deny the Existence of them, but that, when
once they have allow'd them to be just and natural, they may guide Men
in the Indulgence of them, as they please.

Cleo. I do so; and the Truth of this is evident likewise in another
Passion, (_viz_) that of Love, which I hinted at before; and Marriage
was not invented to make Men procreate; they had that Desire before;
but it was instituted to regulate a strong Passion, and prevent the
innumerable Mischiefs that would ensue, if Men and Women should
converse together promiscuosly, and love and leave one another as
Caprice and their unruly Fancy led them. Thus we see, that every
Legislator has regulated Matrimony in that Way, which, to the best of
his Skill, he imagin'd would be the most proper to promote the Peace
Felicity in general of Those he govern'd: And how great an Imposter
soever _Mahomet_ was, I can never believe, that he would have allow'd
his _Mussulmen_ Three or Four Wives a piece, if he had thought it
better, than one; Man should be contented with and confin'd to One
Woman; I mean better upon the Whole, more beneficial to the Civil
Society, as well in Consideration of the Climate he lived in--, as the
Nature and the Temperament of those _Arabians_ he gave his Laws to.