Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/66

50 demands on the feminine sex. Even the greatest debauchee, who has spent his vigor in the arms of a hundred courtesans, will cry out fraud and treachery if he does not receive his newly married bride as an untouched virgin. Even the most dissolute husband will look on his wife as deserving of death if his daily infidelity is only once reciprocated. And while he demands that his wife should remain faithful because her nature requires it, he will nevertheless involve himself in the contradiction of always suspecting this nature of a tendency to unfaithfulness because he transfers his own experiences and weaknesses to the woman. Thus he not only deceives his wife, he also even punishes her for deceiving her. But, himself always jealous without cause, he will be indignant at the most justifiable jealousy on the part of his wife. A husband who is annoyed by the jealousy of his wife deserves it — and what husband is not annoyed by it? No husband can bring his concessions into any proportion with his demands, and nowhere does this show itself more plainly than in jealousy. While he asks of his wife to take precautions against even the appearance of misdemeanors of which she has never thought, he on his part claims freedom from reproach for all offences of the past and the future.

We are frequently severe towards others only because we have not yet had an opportunity to commit their offences. We are wont to become