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tioned this; I should do Justice to the Practice of our own Country in those Cases, namely, that in such Compacts of Parents they are generally made thus, upon Condition that the young People like one another when they are grown up, and fit to come together.
This has both Reason and Religion in it, and seems to be founded upon the great Principle of Liberty, both Civil and Ecclesiastick, which this Nation are happy in the Enjoyment of.
Indeed, it seems a kind of Tyranny over our Children, which we have no Power to exercise, to anticipate their Affections, and oblige them in their Infancy to take up with an Object they have no liking to, and bind them down here or there before-hand. I will not say, but it may indeed be a kind of bespeaking their Dislike from the natural Aversion which Men commonly have to every Thing which is imposed upon them, and to that irksome Thing call'd, Being Imposed upon.
CHAP.
