The marriage compact needs to be concluded before the wedding is held, so that the statutes and laws of truly conjugial love may be made known, and remembered after the wedding. It is also intended as a bond compelling the mind to a proper marriage. For after some of the initial stages of a marriage, the state preceding the engagement at times recurs; this causes the memory of the marriage to be lost and the compact concluded to be forgotten. In fact, it may be totally wiped out by the enticements of unchaste people to unchaste behaviour; and if it is then recalled to memory, it is scorned. But to avoid these transgressions society has taken on itself the duty of protecting that compact, laying down penalties for those who break it. In short, the prenuptial compact makes clear the precepts of truly conjugial love, establishes them, and constrains libertines to obey them. In addition this compact makes lawful the right to procreate children, and the right of children to inherit their parents' property.