s it is proved to be sincere. Leave nothing to other hands that you can
do yourself; the mind has a great deal to do in all the ailments of the
body, and, bear in mind, that, whatever be the event, you have a more
than ample reward. I cannot press this point too strongly upon you; the
bed of sickness presents no charms, no allurements, and women know this
well; they watch, in such a case, your every word and every look: and
now it is that their confidence is secured, or their suspicions excited,
for life.

198. In conclusion of these remarks, as to jealousy in a wife, I cannot
help expressing my abhorrence of those husbands who treat it as a matter
for ridicule. To be sure, infidelity in a man is less heinous than
infidelity in the wife; but still, is the marriage vow nothing? Is a
promise solemnly made before God, and in the face of the world, nothing?
Is a violation of a contract, and that, too, with a feebler party,
nothing of which a man ought to be ashamed? But, besides all these,
there is the _cruelty_. First, you win, by great pains, perhaps, a
woman's affections; then, in order to get possession of her person, you
marry her; then, after enjoyment, you break your vow, you bring upon her
the mixed pity and jeers of the world, and thus you leave her to weep
out her life. Murder is more horrible than this, to be sure, and the
criminal _law_, which punishes divers other crimes, does not reach this;
but, in the eye of reason and of moral justice, it is surpassed by very
few of those crimes. _Passion_ may be pleaded, and so it may, for almost
every other crime of which man can be guilty. It is not a crime _against
nature_; nor are any of these which men commit in consequence of their
necessities. _The temptation is great_; and is not the temptation great
when men thieve or rob? In short, there is no excuse for an act so
unjust and so cruel, and the world is just as to this matter; for, I
have always observed, that, however men are disposed to _laugh_ at these
breaches of vows in men, the act seldom fails to produce injury to the
whole character; it leaves, after all the joking, a stain, and, amongst
those who depend on character for a livelihood, it often produces ruin.
At the very least, it makes an unhappy and wrangling family; it makes
children despise or hate their fathers, and it affords an example at the
thought of the ultimate consequences of which a father ought to shudder.
In such a case, children will take par