297. II. THAT IT BEHOOVES THE MAN TO COURT THE WOMAN AND ASK HER RESPECTING MARRIAGE WITH HIM, AND NOT THE REVERSE. This is a consequence following choice. For men, the courting of women and the asking them in marriage is in itself honorable and decorous, but not for women. If women were to ask men, they would not only be censured, but after the asking they would be counted cheap or, after the marriage, as wantons with whom there is no fellowship except what is cold and disdainful. Marriages would thus be turned into tragic scenes. Wives, moreover, account it to their praise that they yielded themselves to the earnest entreaty of the men, as though conquered. Who does not foresee that if women were to court men they would rarely be accepted? rather would they be indignantly spurned or enticed to wantonness; they would also prostitute their modesty. Moreover, as shown above [No. 1612], with men there is no innate love of the sex, and without that love there is no interior pleasantness of life. Therefore, if they are to exalt their life by that love, it is incumbent on men to be pleasant with women, soliciting and entreating them for this sweet addition to their life with courtesy, deference, and humility. Moreover, the beauty of that sex above the male in face, body, and manners, adds itself as a claim on their devotion.