SECOND MARRIAGES

The question may be debated whether conjugial love, that of one man with one wife, can after the death of a partner be divided, or copied or overlaid; as well as whether second marriages have anything in common with polygamy and so might be called polygamous by succession. Not to mention many other points which those who rely on reason may pile up like scruples added to scruples. To shed some light therefore for experts in investigation, who reason about these marriages in darkness, I decided it would be worth while presenting them with the following propositions to judge:

(i) Contracting a second marriage after the death of a partner depends upon the previous conjugial love. (ii) It also depends upon the state of the marriage in which they had lived. (iii) Those who had lacked truly conjugial love encounter no obstacle or hindrance to contracting another marriage. (iv) Those who had lived mutually in truly conjugial love do not wish to marry again, except for reasons which have nothing to do with conjugial love. (v) The state of a marriage between a young man and a young woman is different from that between a young man and a widow. (vi) The state of a marriage between a widower and a young woman is different from that between a widower and a widow. (vii) The variations and diversities of these marriages as regards love and its attributes are beyond all counting. (viii) The state of a widow is more distressing than that of a widower.

There now follows an explanation of these points.