165. The reason why the wife's linking with her husband's rational wisdom is from within is that this wisdom belongs properly to men's intellect, and it climbs up into a light not enjoyed by women. This is why women do not use it to speak, but in company with men, when such matters are discussed, they keep quiet and only listen. Still the way they listen makes it plain that these matters are present in the wives from within; they recognise inwardly and support the views they hear or have heard from their husbands.
The reason why a wife's linking with men's moral wisdom is from outside is that the virtues of that wisdom are for the most part akin to similar ones among women, and derive from the man's intellectual will, with which the wife's will unites and makes a marriage. Since the wife knows these virtues in her husband, even better than he does in himself, we say that the wife's link with them is from outside.
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