That can be, for it doth embrace all wrongs,
And so chains up lawyers and women’s tongues;
...
And last of all, to end a household strife,
It is the honey ’gainst a waspish wife.”
This reminds us of a passage in “The Gordian Knot,” where the gentle laying of a husband’s hand in an irritated wife’s, or vice versâ, is recommended (by example) as a good plan to adopt in conjugal discussions when differences arise. The tongue, says our author, is very proud, abominably proud and sulky, and often refuses to say what the heart desires should be said; but the fingers know their duty, and are ready to convey an apologetic or forgiving pressure, which, he makes bold to assert, “will stop ninety-nine quarrels out of a hundred, if the parties love one another.”
The greatest, widest, deepest of all observers of human nature puts into the mouth of one of the sagest of kings this counsel to a younger son, in respect to his bearing towards the elder:—
... “Blunt not his love; ...
For he is gracious, if he be observed;[39]