300. IV. THAT AFTER THE DECLARATION OF CONSENT,PLEDGES ARE TO BE GIVEN. By pledges are meant gifts. After the consent, these are confirmations, testifications, first favors, and gratifications. That the gifts are confirmations is because they are the tokens of mutual consent. Therefore, when two persons consent to anything, it is said, "Give me a token," and of two who are solemnly betrothed and have confirmed their betrothal by gifts, it is said that they are pledged and so confirmed. [2] That they are testifications is because these pledges are like continual eye-witnesses of their mutual love and hence are also memorials thereof, especially if they are rings, scent-bottles and pendants which are suspended in sight, there being in these an image representative of the minds of the bridegroom and bride. That these pledges are first favors is because conjugial love promises itself everlasting favor, and of this, these gifts are the first fruits. That they are the gratifications of love is known, for the mind is exhilarated at the sight of them; and because love is in them, these favors are dearer and more precious than all other gifts. [3] It is as though their hearts were in them. Moreover, because these pledges are stabilizers of conjugial love, the giving of gifts after consent was an established custom among the ancients, and after acceptance of them, the two were declared to be bride-groom and bride. But it should be known that the giving of gifts, whether before the act of betrothal or after, is a matter of choice. They are confirmations and testifications of consent to the betrothal if given before it, and to the nuptials if given after it.