n gold; or
again, when occasion serves, you have it in your power to requite by
kindness the well-behaved whose presence is a blessing to your house; or
maybe to chasten the bad character, should such an one appear. But the
greatest joy of all will be to prove yourself my better; to make me your
faithful follower; knowing no dread lest as the years advance you should
decline in honour in your household, but rather trusting that, though
your hair turn gray, yet, in proportion as you come to be a better
helpmate to myself and to the children, a better guardian of our home,
so will your honour increase throughout the household as mistress,
wife, and mother, daily more dearly prized. Since," I added, "it is not
through excellence of outward form, [37] but by reason of the lustre
of virtues shed forth upon the life of man, that increase is given to
things beautiful and good." [38]

[37] "By reason of the flower on the damask cheek."

[38] Al. "For growth is added to things 'beautiful and good,' not
through the bloom of youth but virtuous perfections, an increase
coextensive with the life of man." See Breit. ad loc.

That, Socrates, or something like that, as far as I may trust my memory,
records the earliest conversation which I held with her.

VIII

And did you happen to observe, Ischomachus (I asked), whether, as
the result of what was said, your wife was stirred at all to greater
carefulness?

Yes, certainly (Ischomachus answered), and I remember how piqued she was
at one time and how deeply she blushed, when I chanced to ask her for
something which had been brought into the house, and she could not give
it me. So I, when I saw her annoyance, fell to consoling her. "Do not be
at all disheartened, my wife, that you cannot give me what I ask for. It
is plain poverty, [1] no doubt, to need a thing and not to have the
use of it. But as wants go, to look for something which I cannot lay my
hands upon is a less painful form of indigence than never to dream of
looking because I know full well that the thing exists not. Anyhow, you
are not to blame for this," I added; "mine the fault was who handed over
to your care the things without assigning them their places. Had I done
so, you would have known not only where to put but where to find them.
[2] After all, my wife, there is nothing in human life so serviceable,
nought so beautiful as order. [3]

[1] "Vetus proverbium," Cic. ap. Columellam, xii. 2, 3; Nobb