Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 256

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256. XX. THAT THERE ARE ALSO MANY ACCIDENTAL CAUSES OF COLD; AND OF THESE THE FIRST IS COMMONNESS FROM BEING CONTINUALLY ALLOWED. That commonness from being continually allowed is an accidental cause of cold is because this is the case with those who think of marriage and of the wife lasciviously, but not with those who think of marriage in a holy way and of the wife with confidence. That from commonness arising from a thing being continually allowed, joys become indifferent and also wearisome, is manifest from games and theatrical representations, from concerts, dances, banquets, and other like enjoyments, which in themselves are sweet pleasures because enlivening. The same is the case with the cohabitations and consociations between married partners, especially between those who have not removed the unchaste love of the sex from their love for each other, and, in the absence of ability, think vain things concerning its being common because continually allowed. That with such men this commonness is a cause of cold, is self-evident. It is called an accidental cause because it is a cause in addition to the intrinsic cold, and supports it as a reason. Moreover, it is for the removing of the cold arising from this cause that wives, from the prudence implanted in them, make that which is allowed not allowed, and this by oppositions. It is wholly different, however, in the case of those who judge chastely of their wives. Therefore, with angels, commonness from being continually allowed is the very delight of their soul and the containant of their conjugial love; for they are in the delight of that love continually, and are in its ultimates according to the presence of the minds of husbands uninterrupted by cares, thus at the good pleasure of their judgment.


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