Hence
it is evident, that an assumed semblance of love, as if it was truly
conjugial, for the sake of peace and tranquillity at home, is both
necessary and useful. It is further to be observed, that with the wives
such semblances are not assumed as with the men; but if they appear to
resemble them, they are the effect of real love, because wives are born
loves of the understanding of the men; wherefore they accept kindly the
favors of their husbands, and if they do not confess it with their lips,
still they acknowledge it in heart.
286. XV. THEY ARE FOR THE SAKE OF REPUTATION OUT OF THE HOUSE. The
fortunes of men in general depend on their reputation for justice,
sincerity, and uprightness; and this reputation also depends on the
wife, who is acquainted with the most familiar circumstances of her
husband's life; therefore if the disagreements of their minds should
break out into open enmity, quarrels, and threats of hatred, and these
should be noised abroad by the wife and her friends, and by the
domestics, they would easily be turned into tales of scandal, which
would bring disgrace and infamy upon the husband's name.
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