llity at home, it would come to pass that the
vital spirits of the parties would grow faint, and their interior life
would as it were expire, and thereby the health of both mind and body
would be destroyed. The dreadful apprehension of these and several other
dangers would possess the minds of the men, unless they had an asylum
with their wives at home for appeasing the disturbances arising in their
understandings. Moreover peace and tranquillity give serenity to their
minds, and dispose them to receive agreeably the kind attentions of
their wives, who spare no pains to disperse the mental clouds which they
are very quick-sighted to observe in their husbands: moreover, the same
peace and tranquillity make the presence of their wives agreeable. 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. To avoid such
mischiefs, he has no other alternative than either to counterfeit
affection for his wife, or that they be separated as to house.

287. XVI. THEY ARE FOR THE SAKE OF VARIOUS FAVORS EXPECTED FROM THE
MARRIED PARTNER, OR FROM HIS OR HER RELATIONS, AND THUS FROM THE FEAR OF
LOSING SUCH FAVORS. This is the case more especially in marriages where
the rank and condition of the parties are dissimilar, concerning which,
see above, n. 250; as when a man marries a wealthy wife who stores up
her money in purses, or her treasures in coffers; and the more so if she