Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 167

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167. IX. THAT FOR CAUSES WHICH ARE NECESSITIES, WIVES STORE UP THIS PERCEPTION WITH THEMSELVES AND CONCEAL IT FROM THEIR HUSBANDS, IN ORDER THAT CONJUGIAL LOVE, FRIENDSHIP, AND CONFIDENCE, AND THUS THE BLESSEDNESS OF COHABITATION AND THE HAPPINESS OF LIFE, MAY BE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED. The storing up and concealing by wives of their perception of their husband's affections, are called necessities because, if revealed, they would alienate their husbands from bed, from chamber, and from home. The reason is because, with most men, deeply seated within is conjugial cold, and this from many causes which will be set forth in the chapter on The Causes of Colds, Separations, and Divorces between Married Partners. [2] If wives were to disclose the affections and inclinations of their husbands, this cold would break forth from its hiding places and would chill, first the interiors of the mind, then the breast, and from this the ultimate organs of love which are dedicated to generation; and with these chilled, conjugial love would be so far exiled that there would no longer remain any hope of friendship, confidence, and blessedness of cohabitation, or of happiness of life therefrom, when yet it is by this hope that wives are continually nourished. The disclosing of the fact that they know the affections and inclinations of love in their husband carries with it a declaration and publication of their own love; and it is well known that, so far as wives open their mouths about that, men grow cold and desire separation. From this, the truth of the present article is clear, that the reasons why wives store up their perception within themselves and conceal it from their husbands are necessities.


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