individual choice. You have heard it said that "_where two are agreed_
as touching anything it shall be done unto them." It takes two to make,
or to keep made, a bargain. No matter what hallucinations in regard to
ownership any man may labor under, _he does not_ own a wife. He has no
more "rights" over one woman than over another, or over another man,
except as the _woman herself gives_ him the right and _keeps on_ giving
it to him.

The Law of Individuality is absolute, and in due time husbands will know
better than to imagine they own wives; wives will know better than to be
owned; and the other man will not imagine he can gain great pleasure
from "running away" with anything. Each will be free and leave the
others so.

But "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Until a man _recognizes_
the Law of Individuality his actions are governed by the Law he _does_
recognize, and his desires act accordingly. When he desires to "run
away" with anything his _conscience_ tells him he is stealing. If desire
is strong enough he steals a wife, and eventually suffers for it. For,
though he may not have broken a real law, he _has_ broken an imagined
one and in his _own mind_ he deserves punishment and in his own mind he
gets it. "As a man thinketh so _is_ he," and what he is _determines what
he attracts_.

Never was a deeper, truer saying than Paul's "BLESSED is the man that
_doubteth not_ in that thing which he alloweth." The man who _waits_,
until he is "_fully persuaded_ in his own mind" will be blessed in
following desire, and he will grow in wisdom thereby.

The man who _thinks_ his desire is "bad" and yet follows it, will grow