the exchange; she does
not even know what he is doing; but she keeps his house in order; she
rears up his children; she provides a scene of suitable resort for his
friends; she insures him a constant retreat from the fatigues of his
affairs; she makes his home pleasant, and she is the guardian of his
income.

220. In both these cases, the wife _helps to gain the money_; and in
cases where there is no gain, where the income is by descent, or is
fixed, she helps to prevent it from being squandered away. It is,
therefore, as much _hers_ as it is the husband's; and though _the law_
gives him, in many cases, the power of keeping her share from her, no
just man will ever avail himself of that power. With regard to the
_tying up_ of widows from marrying again, I will relate what took place
in a case of this kind, in America. A merchant, who had, during his
married state, risen from poverty to very great riches, and who had,
nevertheless, died at about forty years of age, left the whole of his
property to his wife for her life, and at her disposal at her death,
_provided that she did not marry_. The consequence was, that she took a
husband _without marrying_, and, at her death (she having no children),
gave the whole of the property to the second husband! So much for
_posthumous jealousy_!

221. Where there are _children_, indeed, it is the duty of the husband
to provide, in certain cases, against _step-fathers_, who are very prone
not to be the most just and affectionate parents. It is an unhappy
circumstance, when a dying father is compelled to have fears of this
sort. There is seldom _an apology_ to be offered for a mother that will
hazard the happiness of her children by a second marriage. The _law_
allows it, to be sure; but there is, as Prior says, 'something beyond
the letter of the law.' I know what ticklish ground I am treading on
here; but, though it is _as lawful_ for a woman to take a second husband
as for a man to take a second wife, the cases are different, and widely
different, in the eye of morality and of reason; for, as adultery in the
wife is a greater offence than adultery in the husband; as it is more
gross, as it includes _prostitution_; so a second marriage in the woman
is more gross than in the man, argues great deficiency in that
_delicacy_, that _innate_ modesty, which, after all, is the _great
charm_, the charm of charms, in the female sex. I do not _like_ to hear
a man _talk_ of his _first wife_, e