ir eyes, ears, and bodies, on the
presence of our senses. From these few observations you may see, that we
know better than the men whether it be well or ill with them; if they
are cold towards their wives, it is ill with them, but if they are warm
towards them, it is well; therefore wives are continually devising means
whereby the men may become warm and not cold towards them; and these
means they devise with a sagacity inscrutable to the men." As they said
this, the dove was heard to make a sort of moaning; and immediately the
wives said, "This is a token to us that we have a wish to communicate
greater arcana, but that it is not allowable: probably you will reveal
to the men what you have heard." I replied, "I intend to do so: what
harm can come from it?" Hereupon the wives talked together on the
subject, and then said, "Reveal it, if you like. We are well aware of
the power of persuasion which wives possess. They will say to their
husbands, 'The man is not in earnest; he tells idle tales: he is but
joking from appearances, and from strange fancies usual with men. Do not
believe him, but believe us: we know that you are loves, and we
obediences.' Therefore you may reveal it if you like; but still the
husbands will place no dependence on what comes from your lips, but on
that which comes from the lips of their wives which they kiss."

* * * * *

UNIVERSALS RESPECTING MARRIAGES.

209. There are so many things relating to marriages that, if
particularly treated of, they would swell this little work into a large
volume: for we might treat particularly of the similitude and
dissimilitude subsisting among married partners; of the elevation of
natural conjugial love into spiritual, and of their conjunction; of the
increase of the one and the decrease of the other; of the varieties and
diversities of each; of the intelligence of wives; of the universal
conjugial sphere proceeding from heaven, and of its opposite from hell,
and of their influx and reception; with many other particulars, which,
if individually enlarged upon, would render this work so bulky as to
tire the reader. For this reason, and to avoid useless prolixity, we
will condense these particulars into UNIVERSAL RESPECTING MARRIAGES. But
these, like the foregoing subjects, must be considered distinctly as
arranged under the following articles: I. _The sense proper to conjugial
love is the sense of touch._ II. _With those who are i