and "can't a man do as he likes with his own?" requires a universal No, even if ownership of the wife is conceded, which it isn't.
LXVIII. When a husband's private conduct, unreasonable demands, etc., has estranged the dear love, so precious to every genuine man, there is but one way to change it back, and that is forebearance, self-restraint, care, gentleness, reciprocity, Love. It is best to eat only when one is hungry. But why force an unwelcome feast to you, horror to her, except she be ahungered as well? If she be not in sympathy with her husband in all respects, it means death to her affection for him, in time, if not at once; and he is a poor bird who foolishly ruins his own nest, and how many human birds do it!
We are triplicate beings—soul, spirit, body. Our loves and passions may be of either one, two or all three of these. If our love be only of soul it is too fine and ethereal for this lower world, and for all practical purposes is useless. If it be of spirit only, it is too vague, unsubstantial, unthoughtful, and physically unsatisfactory. If it be of body only, then lust is regnant, with hell all around, and crime swelters in the air. If our loves be of soul and spirit only, then we are bereft of the power to become Energies in the world, because we lack the material force to either make our mark on each other, the world, or to give good physico-vital constitutions to our offspring. If our loves be of soul and body, we are isolated from the rest of mankind, and are lone pilgrims all the way along. If they be spirit and body only, we are extreme—either all transcendental affection, or downright animal passionists. It is only when our loves are triplicate that we fulfil our true mission, and realize the supreme joys of existence.
The marital office and function is therefore material, spiritual and mystic. The Christian world knows much about the two first, but nothing whatever of the last. This book of my doctrine only contains it, for it alone declares and establishes the fact that the marital function is unquestionably the highest, holiest, most important, and most wretchedly abused of all that pertains to the human being. Its offices are so vital that I hold as cardinal, indisputable axioms, that
