Chapter I.—Design of the Treatise.  Disavowal of Personal Motives in Writing It.

I have thought it meet, my best beloved fellow-servant in the Lord, even from this early period,1    Jam hinc. to provide for the course which you must pursue after my departure from the world,2    Sæculo. if I shall be called before you; (and) to entrust to your honour3    Fidei. the observance of the provision.  For in things worldly4    Sæcularibus. we are active enough, and we wish the good of each of us to be consulted.  If we draw up wills for such matters, why ought we not much more to take forethought for our posterity5    Posteritati; or, with Mr. Dodgson, “our future.” in things divine and heavenly, and in a sense to bequeath a legacy to be received before the inheritance be divided,—(the legacy, I mean, of) admonition and demonstration touching those (bequests) which are allotted6    Deputantur. out of (our) immortal goods, and from the heritage of the heavens?  Only, that you may be able to receive in its entirety7    Solidum; alluding to certain laws respecting a widow’s power of receiving “in its entirety” her deceased husband’s property. this feoffment in trust8    Fidei commissum. of my admonition, may God grant; to whom be honour, glory, renown, dignity, and power, now and to the ages of the ages!

The precept, therefore, which I give you is, that, with all the constancy you may, you do, after our departure, renounce nuptials; not that you will on that score confer any benefit on me, except in that you will profit yourself.  But to Christians, after their departure from the world,9    Sæculo. no restoration of marriage is promised in the day of the resurrection, translated as they will be into the condition and sanctity of angels.10    Luke xx. 36.  Therefore no solicitude arising from carnal jealousy will, in the day of the resurrection, even in the case of her whom they chose to represent as having been married to seven brothers successively, wound any one11    Nulla…neminem—two negatives. of her so many husbands; nor is any (husband) awaiting her to put her to confusion.12    See Matt. xxii. 23–33; Mark xii. 18–27; Luke xx. 27–40.  The question raised by the Sadducees has yielded to the Lord’s sentence.  Think not that it is for the sake of preserving to the end for myself the entire devotion of your flesh, that I, suspicious of the pain of (anticipated) slight, am even at this early period13    Jam hinc.  See beginning of chapter. instilling into you the counsel of (perpetual) widowhood.  There will at that day be no resumption of voluptuous disgrace between us.  No such frivolities, no such impurities, does God promise to His (servants).  But whether to you, or to any other woman whatever who pertains to God, the advice which we are giving shall be profitable, we take leave to treat of at large.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

Dignum duxi , dilectissima mihi in Domino conserva, quid tibi sectandum sit post discessum de saeculo meum, si prior te fuero vocatus, jam hinc providere; 1275A ut provisum observes, mandare fidei tuae. Nam saecularibus satis agentes sumus et utrique nostrum consultum volumus . Si talibus tabulas ordinamus, cur non magis de divinis atque coelestibus posteritati nostrae prospicere debeamus, et legatum quodammodo praelegare, admonitionem et demonstrationem eorum, quae ex bonis immortalibus, et [de] haereditate coelorum deputantur? Tu modo ut solidum capere possis , hoc meae admonitionis fidei commissum, Deus faciat: cui sit honor, gloria, claritas, dignitas , potestas , nunc et in saecula saeculorum, amen. Praecipio igitur tibi, quanta continentia potes, post excessum nostrum renunties nuptiis: nihil mihi isto nomine collatura, nisi quod tibi 1276A proderis. Caeterum christianis saeculo digressis nulla restitutio nuptiarum in diem resurrectionis repromittitur, translatis scilicet in angelicam qualitatem et sanctitatem: proinde sollicitudo nulla quae de carnis zelo vel in Domini sententiam illam , quam septem fratribus per successionem nuptiis voluerunt, neminem tot maritorum resurrectionis die offendet, nec quisquam illam confusurus exspectat. Quaestio Sadducaeorum cessit sententiae Domini. Nec me putes propter carnis tuae integritatem mihi reservandam, de contumeliae dolore suspectum, insinuare jam hinc tibi consilium viduitatis: nihil tunc inter nos dedecoris voluptuosi resumetur. Nec enim tam frivola, tam spurca Deus suis pollicetur. Sed an tibi vel cuicumque 1277A alii foeminae ad Deum pertinenti proficiat, quod suademus, licet retractare .