Bad women's visits brought about my fall.This, however, does not come about so simply, but only when marital disagreements and jealousies open not only a wife's doors but also her hearing to such women. So, at such a time especially, a woman who has sense ought to stop her ears, and be on her guard against whispered insinuations, so that fire may not be added to fire,2 and she ought to have [p. 331] ready in mind the saying of Philip.3 For it is told that when he was being incited by his friends against the Greeks on the ground that they were being well treated, but were speaking ill of him, he said, ‘What would happen, then, if we were to treat them ill ? ’ So when these back-biters say, ‘Your husband treats grievously his loving and virtuous wife.’ ‘Yes, what would happen, then, if I were to begin to hate him and wrong him ?’
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Hermione seems to speak the truth when she says,1
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. 2.
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