ABSTRACT
Prone as we are to be sentimental about our ancestors, we seem quite prepared to believe that they were often wicked people, at least on the standards which they set for themselves. When bastardy comes into the conversation it is sometimes said that country people, and our forefathers in general, were more likely than we are to bring illegitimate children into the world, and more tolerant of bastardy as a condition. It is widely supposed too that no shrewd, hard-working peasant or craftsman, to whom strong, hard-working sons and daughters were a tangible asset, would ever undertake to marry a girl unless he knew from his own sexual experience that she was capable of bearing children. If she did prove barren (this implies) no marriage would take place, and the poor girl would live out her life as a reject.
