§. 83. For all the ends of marriage being to be obtained under politic
government, as well as in the state of Nature, the civil magistrate doth not
abridge the right or power of either, naturally necessary to those ends —
viz., procreation and mutual support and assistance whilst they are together,
but only decides any controversy that may arise between man and wife about
them. If it were otherwise, and that absolute sovereignty and power of life and
death naturally belonged to the husband, and were necessary to the society
between man and wife, there could be no matrimony in any of these countries
where the husband is allowed no such absolute authority. But the ends of
matrimony requiring no such power in the husband, it was not at all necessary
to it. The condition of conjugal society put it not in him; but whatsoever
might consist with procreation and support of the children till they could
shift for themselves — mutual assistance, comfort, and maintenance —
might be varied and regulated by that contract which first united them in that
society, nothing being necessary to any society that is not necessary to the
ends for which it is made.
