Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 290

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290. (19) If favor does not cease on the wife's part when ability ceases in the man, a friendship resembling a conjugial one may develop as they grow older. Of the reasons between married partners for a separation of their spirits, a primary one is a dwindling of favor on the part of the wife as ability ceases in the man, so that they no longer make love. For just as states of warmth communicate with each other, so do states of coldness. It then comes to pass that, with the waning of lovemaking on the part of each, their friendship ceases, and if they do not fear the ruination of their private life in the home, also any feeling of favor. That this happens is plain from both reason and experience. If therefore to avoid this the man quietly attributes the cause to himself, and the wife still perseveres in a chaste attitude of favor toward him, a new friendship may develop on that account, which, being between married partners, appears as something resembling conjugial love. That a friendship resembling one of conjugial love is possible between older married partners is attested by experience, from their tranquil, secure, and amiable associations, interactions and relations with each other, full of mutual courtesy.


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