Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 469

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469. There are reasons why many men yet retain an unfaithful wife in the home. 1. The husband is afraid to go to court with his wife, to accuse her of adultery and thus to make the accusation public; for if eyewitness accounts or their equivalent failed to convict her, he would be enveloped in reproaches - covertly in gatherings of men, and openly in gatherings of women. 2. He fears as well skillful exonerations of herself on the part of his unfaithful wife, and also indulgences of her on the part of judges, and thus the disgracing of his name. 3. Besides these considerations, there are advantages in the domestic services she provides which persuade against separating her from the home. As for example: If they have little children, for whom even an unfaithful wife has a mother's love. If they share and are bound together by joint duties which cannot be severed. If the wife enjoys the favor and protection of family and relatives, and there is hope of fortune from them. If he cherished the loving familiarities he had with her in the beginning. And if after becoming unfaithful she knows how to skillfully soothe her husband with amiable pleasantries and pretended civilities so as not to be charged. There are other considerations, too, which, because they involve legitimate grounds for divorce, involve also legitimate grounds for taking a mistress. For a man's reasons for retaining the wife in the home do not remove the ground for divorce when she has behaved licentiously. Who but a vile wretch can preserve the rights of the marriage bed and share his bed with a trollop? If it happens here and there, it is not a conclusive occurrence.


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