§. 82. But the husband and wife, though they have but one common concern, yet
having different understandings, will unavoidably sometimes have different
wills too. It therefore being necessary that the last determination (i.e., the
rule) should be placed somewhere, it naturally falls to the man's share as the
abler and the stronger. But this, reaching but to the things of their common
interest and property, leaves the wife in the full and true possession of what
by contract is her peculiar right, and at least gives the husband no more power
over her than she has over his life; the power of the husband being so far from
that of an absolute monarch that the wife has, in many cases, a liberty to
separate from him where natural right or their contract allows it, whether that
contract be made by themselves in the state of Nature or by the customs or laws
of the country they live in, and the children, upon such separation, fall to
the father or mother's lot as such contract does determine.
