But, above all other cases, those who when advanced in years marry young wives, do not perceive that they are running voluntarily into danger, which every one else foresees plainly; and that, too, though the Megarian poet1 has given them this warning:—
A young wife suits not with an aged husband;And Theophilus, in his Neoptolemus, says—
For she will not obey the pilot's helm
Like a well-managed boat; nor can the anchor
Hold her securely in her port, but oft
[p. 896] She breaks her chains and cables in the night,
And headlong drives into another harbour.
A young wife does not suit an old man well;
For, like a crazy boat, she not at all
Answers the helm, but slips her cable off
By night, and in some other port is found.