From these few considerations it is manifest, that matrimony is
generally contracted in the world according to external affections.
275. IV. BUT IN CASE THEY ARE NOT INFLUENCED BY INTERNAL AFFECTIONS,
WHICH CONJOIN MINDS, THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY ARE LOOSED IN THE HOUSE. It
is said _in the house_, because it is done privately between the
parties; as is the case when the first warmth, excited during courtship
and breaking out into a flame as the nuptials approach, successively
abates from the discordance of the internal affections, and at length
passes off into cold. It is well known that in this case the external
affections, which had induced and allured the parties to matrimony,
disappear, so that they no longer effect conjunction. That cold arises
from various causes, internal, external, and accidental, all which
originate in a dissimilitude of internal inclinations, was proved in the
foregoing chapter. From these considerations the truth of what was
asserted is manifest, that unless the external affections are influenced
by internal, which conjoin minds, the bonds of matrimony are loosed in
the house.
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