scoff at women, and say what they can to the contrary, vir sine uxore malorum expers est, &c., a single man is a happy man, &c., but this is a toy. [5936]_Nec dulces amores sperne puer, neque tu choreas_; these men are too distrustful and much to blame, to use such speeches, [5937]_Parcite paucorum diffundere, crimen in omnes_.  “They must not condemn all for some.”  As there be many bad, there be some good wives; as some be vicious, some be virtuous.  Read what Solomon hath said in their praises, Prov. xiii. and Siracides, cap. 26 et 30, “Blessed is the man that hath a virtuous wife, for the number of his days shall be double.  A virtuous woman rejoiceth her husband, and she shall fulfil the years of his life in peace.  A good wife is a good portion” (and xxxvi. 24), “an help, a pillar of rest,” columina quietis, [5938] Qui capit uxorem, fratrem capit atque sororem.  And 30, “He that hath no wife wandereth to and fro mourning.” Minuuntur atrae conjuge curae, women are the sole, only joy, and comfort of a man’s life, born ad usum et lusum hominum, firmamenta familiae,

[5939] “Delitiae humani generis, solatia vitae. 
        Blanditiae noctis, placidissima cura diei,
        Vota virum, juvenum spes,” &c.

[5940]"A wife is a young man’s mistress, a middle age’s companion, an old man’s nurse:”  Particeps laetorum et tristium, a prop, a help, &c.

[5941] “Optima viri possessio est uxor benevola,
        Mitigans iram et avertens animam ejus a tristitia.”

       “Man’s best possession is a loving wife,
        She tempers anger and diverts all strife.”

There is no joy, no comfort, no sweetness, no pleasure in the world like to that of a good wife,

[5942] “Quam cum chara domi conjux, fidusque maritus
Unanimes degunt”------

saith our Latin Homer, she is still the same in sickness and in health, his eye, his hand, his bosom friend, his partner at all times, his other self, not to be separated by any calamity, but ready to share all sorrow, discontent, and as the Indian women do, live and die with him, nay more, to die presently for him.  Admetus, king of Thessaly, when he lay upon his death-bed, was told by Apollo’s Oracle, that if he could get anybody to die for him, he should live longer yet, but when all refused, his parents, etsi decrepiti, friends and followers forsook him, Alcestus, his wife, though young, most willingly undertook it; what more can be desired or expected?  And although on the other side there be an infinite number of bad husbands (I should rail downright against some of them), able to discourage any women; yet there be some good ones again, and those most observant of marriage rites.  An honest country fellow (as Fulgosus relates it) in the kingdom of Naples, [5943]at plough by the seaside, saw his wife carried away by Mauritanian pirates, he ran after in all haste, up to the chin first, and