ords, asks: "How can I help
you in this, or wherein can the little power I have do you any good? For
my mother told me that both my fortune as well as yours was wholly at
your command, and that it must be my chief care to live virtuously and
soberly."

ISCHOMACHUS.--This is true, good wife; but it is the part of a sober
husband and virtuous wife not only to preserve the fortune they are
possessed of, but to contribute equally to improve it.

WIFE.--And what do you see in me that you believe me capable of
assisting in the improvement of your fortune? ISCHOMACHUS.--Use your
endeavor, good wife, to do those things which are acceptable to the gods
and are appointed by the law for you to do.

WIFE.--And what are those things, dear husband?

Ischomachus then enumerates the things which are acceptable to the gods
and appointed by the law, and determines the limits which separate the
duties of man from those of woman. He says: "The wisdom of the divinity
has prepared the union of the two sexes, and has made of marriage an
association useful to each one,--a union which will secure for them, in
their children, support in their old age.

"It is man's duty to acquire food, to be busied with field work, to care
for flocks, and to defend himself against enemies. Therefore the god has
given him strength and courage. The woman must care for and prepare the
food, weave garments, and rear the children. Therefore the god has given
her a delicate physique which will keep her in the home, an exquisite
tenderness of heart which brings about her maternal care and love and a
watchful vigilance for the safety of her little ones.

"Since they are united for their common advantage, they are endowed with
the same faculties of memory and diligence. Both are endowed with the
same force of soul to refrain from things harmful, and the one who
practises this virtue the more has, by the grace of the divinity, the
better recompense. However," he adds, "as they are not equally perfect,
they have the more occasion for each other's assistance; for when man
and woman are thus united, what the one has occasion for is supplied by
the other."

Ischomachus then shows that in well performing their respective
functions husband and wife conform themselves to the rules of the good
and the beautiful. If the wife leave the home, or the husband remain
there, he or she is violating the laws of nature. He compares the duties
of the wife to those of the queen bee,