Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/85

Rh her better. Such cases are especially adapted to enlighten us as to the nature and the consequences of common jealousy. But whoever has reached those lofty heights of liberty and humanity where he will grant every individual the right of sovereignty over himself cannot wish to forcibly hold any one in a relation that does not conform to his wishes; and even if it should come hard to him to see a beloved person, or one become indispensable by habit, make use of her right of sovereignty in favor of a third person, he would still silence his jealousy in consequence of his appreciation of the rights of others. It can moreover be considered as having the force of a mathematical certainty that the party who voluntarily turns away from the other is so little suited to the other that the latter can anywhere find a substitute.