372. I said that conjugial love has within it a fear of being separated, and grief at being destroyed, so that its zeal is like a fire aimed at a violator. I was once pondering this subject, and I asked some jealous angels where jealousy resided. They said that it was in the man's intellect, which receives the wife's love and loves her in return, and the kind of zeal there depended on his wisdom. They also remarked that jealousy has something in common with respect, which is also present in conjugial love, for one who loves his wife also respects her.
[2] They said that the reason why a man's zeal resides in his intellect is that conjugial love protects itself by means of the intellect, as good does by means of truth. In the same way a wife protects what she shares with her husband by means of him. Thus it is that zeal is within men, and by their means and for their sake in women. When I asked in what part of the men's mind it resided, they replied that it was in their soul, because it is also a defence against adultery, and this is what principally destroys conjugial love. They added that a man's intellect becomes hardened when in danger of violation, and comes to resemble a horn with which to strike the adulterer.
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