Conjugial Love (Chadwick) n. 379

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379. (xiv) The jealousy felt by men and husbands is different from that felt by women and wives.

But these distinctions cannot be clearly made, since jealousy is different in the case of married couples who love each other spiritually and with those who love only naturally; different in the case of those whose dispositions differ and with those who have subjected their partner to the yoke of obedience. The jealousy of men is, regarded in itself, different from that of women. Men's jealousy has its origins in the intellect, women's in the will attached to the husband's intellect. Men's jealousy therefore is like a flash of exasperation and anger; that of women is like a fire, restrained by varying fears, by varying views taken of the husband, by varying relations to their own love, and varying prudence which prevents them through jealousy from revealing that love to their husband. These distinctions exist because wives are loves and men are receivers of love. It is injurious for wives to waste their love on husbands, but not so much for those who receive love to waste it on wives.

[2] It is different in the case of spiritual people. In their case the husband's jealousy is passed to the wife, just as her love is passed to the husband. It therefore looks as if it is similarly on either side designed to confront one who violates it. But a wife's jealousy is breathed into her husband to resist the efforts of a whore to violate it; this jealousy is like a pain which brings tears to the eyes and stings the conscience.

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