Many laws have been made against bachelors by various nations, who all
concurred in considering the bachelor as an enemy to his country and to
mankind. The chief of these laws were those made by the Romans, and
consisted of fining the bachelor, and various other penalties: the most
celebrated one was that of Augustus, which was entitled the "_Lex julia
de maritandis ordinibus_" by which the bachelor was made incapable of
receiving legacies, or of holding inheritances given by a will, unless
they were bequeathed to him by a near relation. Plutarch observes that
this brought many to marry, not for the mere sake of raising heirs to
their estates, but to make themselves capable of receiving legacies, and
for the purpose of inheriting such estates as might be left them by a
friend.
The Jewish nation also had their laws to the disfavour of the bachelor.
The rabbis affirm, that according to the Laws of Moses, every one who
has attained the age of twenty-one years is bound in conscience to
marry; and this makes one of their 613 precepts. We should suppose that
if this law ever had existence, it has been handed down by tradition, as
we cannot find any trace of it in the "Books of Moses." Their "wise men"
have many sayings in favour of marriage and against bachelors, one of
which is "He who does not take necessary means to leave heirs behind
him, _is_ not a man, and ought to be reputed as a homicide." The Law of
Lycurgus was not a shade more favourable to them: by his statutes,
bachelors were branded with infamy and disgrace; they were also excluded
from participating in the cares of government, from all offices either
civil or martial, and were not permitted to view either public shows or
sports. At certain of their feasts, they were forced to appear in the
marketplace, and there were exposed to the cutting sarcasm, jest, and
derision of the populace. At one feast, in particular, they were led to
the altars _by women_, amidst a concord of harmonious sounds, and there
were obliged to submit to blows and lashes with a rod, at the _merciful_
pleasure of a _merciful_ people. And "Oh, most unkindly act of all,"
they had also to sing certain songs composed to their own dishonour,
contempt, and derision.
By many, the Christian dispensation is supposed to be, in a great
degree, favourable to a state of bachelorism, because the Apostle, Paul,
has recommended it as preferable; but we think the recommendation was
given for the following reason: (i.e.) every one in the early ages of
Christianity was exposed to liability of testing his religious
principles, by the loss of both his property and life; and consequently,
the loss must have been felt in a greater degree, if the sufferer was
married. Thus persecution must have been more dreadful to the married
than to the unmarried. The ancient church, misconstruing the Apostle's
words, and also overlooking his meaning, recommended the state of
bachelorism in the male, and perpetual virginity in the female sex, not
only as a state more perfect than marriage, but even as highly
meritorious. Thus, by degrees, came into being the absurd and fast
decaying system of monastic establishments, which, for many centuries
burdened Europe with drones innumerable.
In England, bachelors are not left to go forgotten to their solitary
graves. There was a tax laid on them by the 7th William III., after the
twenty-fifth year of their age, which was £12. 10_s_. for a duke, and
1_s_. for a commoner. At present they are taxed by an extra duty upon
their servants: for a male, £1. 5_s_.; for a female, 2_s_. 6_d_., above
the usual duties leviable upon servants. E.J.H.
*** So, Touchstone's philosophy hath legal warrant: "Is the single man
blessed? No: as a walled town is more worthier than a village, so is the
forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a
bachelor."--_As you like it._ (Ed. M.)
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