Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/262

 Tom. How d'ye mean? You would not give the Authority over your Children to a Wife; and you must do that, or turn them out of Doors, or, as I said above, you must give the Children Authority over your Wife, and that will never do; so, in short, your House will be a Bedlam, and you will be undone: For if once the Family-Peace is gone, the Man's undone; that I take for granted.

Jack. Well, I must venture it, I think, for I must have a Wife to direct Things; there must be Conversation and Confidence, and abundance of Things which a Family requires, that make a Wife absolutely necessary.

Tom. Come, Cousin, Jack, don't mince the Matter. You don't want a Wife, but you want a Woman.

Jack. You are quite out, Tom; you mistake the Matter.

Tom. Well, well, you may call it what you will, but you'll never make the World understand you any otherwise.

Jack. I can't help that; I am to understand for my self. I don't value the World. I tell you, that Part is not so much as in my Head.

Tom. Well, if it is not in your Head, 'tis somewhere else then, I tell you; no Body can, nor ought to take it any otherwise; 'tis a preposterous Thing, 'tis against the Laws of and Nature.

Jack. What do you mean by that? What Law is it against? pray.

Tom. Why, you force me to be serious with you, whether I will or no. I tell you, the Marriage you propose, though it is not against the express Letter of the Law, 'tis against the in-