317. SECOND MARRIAGES
It may possibly come into consideration whether conjugial love, which is a love between one man and one wife, can, after the death of a partner, be severed, or transferred, or overlaid with another. Also, whether second marriages share any common characteristic with polygamy, and thus whether they may be termed a serial form of polygamy. And many other questions besides, which in the minds of reasoners tend regularly to intervene with one moral scruple after another. Therefore, to inform masters of casuistry who reason in darkness about such marriages and to enable them to see some light, I thought it would be useful to present to their judgment the following points on the subject, which are:
(1) Whether to marry again after the death of a partner depends on the conjugial love had previously. (2) It depends also on the status of the marriage in which they had been living. (3) In the case of people who did not have truly conjugial love, nothing hinders or prevents them from marrying again. (4) People who before had lived with their partners in a state of truly conjugial love do not wish to marry again, except for reasons dissociated from conjugial love. (5) The marriage of an inexperienced man with a virgin differs in state from the marriage of an inexperienced man with a widow. (6) The marriage of a widower with a virgin likewise differs in state from the marriage of a widower with a widow. (7) The various and diverse natures of these marriages in respect to the love in them and its character are altogether beyond number. (8) The state of a widow is harder than the state of a widower.
Explanation of these statements now follows.