"When I see a man," says Addison, "with a sour rivelled
face, I cannot forbear pitying his wife; and when I meet with an
open ingenuous countenance, I think of the happiness of his
friends, his family, and his relations."
We have given the views of the poet Burns as to the qualities
necessary in a good wife. Let us add the advice given by Lord
Burleigh to his son, embodying the experience of a wise statesman
and practised man of the world. "When it shall please God," said
he, "to bring thee to man's estate, use great providence and
circumspection in choosing thy wife; for from thence will spring
all thy future good or evil. And it is an action of thy life,
like unto a stratagem of war, wherein a man can err but once....
Enquire diligently of her disposition, and how her parents have
been inclined in their youth. (9) Let her not be poor, how
generous (well-born) soever; for a man can buy nothing in the
market with gentility. Nor choose a base and uncomely creature
altogether for wealth; for it will cause contempt in others, and
loathing in thee. Neither make choice of a dwarf, or a fool; for
by the one thou shalt beget a race of pigmies, while the other
will be thy continual disgrace, and it will yirke (irk) thee to
hear her talk. For thou shalt find it to thy great grief, that
there is nothing more fulsome (disgusting) than a she-fool."
A man's moral character is, necessarily, powerfully influenced by
his wife.
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