Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 221

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221. XII. THAT DETERMINATIONS ARE AT THE GOOD PLEASURE OF THE HUSBAND. The reason is because men have the aforesaid abundance, and this varies with them according to the state of their mind and also according to the state of their body. The understanding is not so constant in its thoughts as the will is in its affections; for it is carried now up, now down; is now in a state serene and clear, now in a state disturbed and obscure; now engaged in agreeable subjects, now in disagreeable. And because when the mind acts it is also in the body, it follows that the body has similar states. Hence it is that the husband now recedes from conjugial love, now approaches it; and that in the one state abundance is withdrawn, and in the other it is restored. These are the reasons why determinations are to be left to the good pleasure of the husband. Hence it is that, from the wisdom implanted in them, wives never suggest anything with respect to such matters.


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