" To
this they replied with a smile, "Be prudent, and declare nothing of this
sort except ambiguously; because it is a wisdom deeply seated in the
hearts of our sex, and is not discovered to any husband, unless he be
principled in love truly conjugial. There are several reasons for this,
which we keep entirely to ourselves." Then the husbands said, "Our wives
know all the states of our minds, none of which are hid from them: they
see, perceive, and are sensible of whatever proceeds from our will. We,
on the other hand, know nothing of what passes with our wives. This
faculty is given to wives, because they are most tender loves, and as it
were burning zeals for the preservation of friendship and conjugial
confidence, and thereby of all the happiness of life, which they
carefully attend to, both in regard to their husbands and themselves, by
virtue of a wisdom implanted in their love, which is so full of
prudence, that they are unwilling to say, and consequently cannot say,
that they love, but that they are loved." I asked the wives, "Why are
you unwilling, and consequently cannot say so?" They replied, "If the
least hint of the kind were to escape from the mouth of a wife, the
husband would be seized with coolness, which would entirely separate him
from all communication with his wife, so that he could not even bear to
look upon her; but this is the case only with those husbands who do not
hold marriages to be holy, and therefore do not love their wives from
spiritual love: it is otherwise with those who do.
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