The authority of the sacred writings also upon this point is express and decisive. The most distinguished of the human race were, in patriarchal times, devoted to rural occupations and to plain habits; and it is not easy, nor is it altogether desirable, to divest oneself of those feelings of enchantment which the view of such scenes and manners naturally inspires. Who can remain unaffected at the recital of the story of an Abraham, running to the herd and fetching a young and tender calf to refresh his angelic visiters; or at the various memorable instances of simplicity that occur in the stories of Isaac, Jacob, and their contemporaries? But the question is, whether the actual condition of women did or did not indicate the lordly views of their husbands, and a general state of slavish subordination? What can be said to the practices of polygamy and concubinage, which prevailed even in these golden times and in pious families? Do they evince any proper estimate of the character of women? or have they not an evident tendency to degrade them? Does not their very institution assert the subserviency of the one sex to the will and pleasure of the other? [113] The state of women may not only be inferred under such circumstances, but is clearly seen. Wives possessed no other advantages over concubines than the right of inheriting; and domestic unions were formed without any reference to the nobler felicities of social intercourse. Hence infertility not only excited dislike, but was held to justify repudiation. In the earliest ages, marriage was not only very unceremonious with regaird to the mode in which it was conducted, but this important union was arranged without any previous agreement between the parties, and wives were often purchased. Men had the right of annulling all the oaths and engagements of their daughters and wives, if they had, not been present when they were contracted. "We can discover," says Segur, "in these first ages, nothing worthy of the title of 'golden,' which has been applied to them. Abraham and Isaac were continually afraid of being assassinated for their wives; and the oath which they enacted from their neighbours not to attempt their lives, savoured little of a _golden_ age."