A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed

Defoe has written an insightful and perhaps controversial piece regarding marriage and reproduction. He points out that children born out of wedlock suffer unfairly for the sins of their parents, and that marriage is the only way to honorably continue the human race. He also argues that producing children is a sacred act of marriage as well as a natural biological process. Therefore, parents who attempt to prevent conception do society a disservice.