‘Tis not enough that a man’s will be good; weakness and insufficiency lawfully break a marriage,
“Et quaerendum aliunde foret nervosius illud,
Quod posset zonam solvere virgineam:”
[“And seeks a more vigorous lover to undo her virgin zone.”
—Catullus, lxvii. 27.]
why not? and according to her own standard, an amorous intelligence, more licentious and active,
“Si blando nequeat superesse labori.”
[“If his strength be unequal to the pleasant task.”
—Virgil, Georg., iii. 127.]
But is it not great impudence to offer our imperfections and imbecilities, where we desire to please and leave a good opinion and esteem of ourselves? For the little that I am able to do now:
“Ad unum
Mollis opus.”
[“Fit but for once.”—Horace, Epod., xii. 15.]
I would not trouble a woman, that I am to reverence and fear:
“Fuge suspicari,
Cujus undenum trepidavit aetas
Claudere lustrum.”
[“Fear not him whose eleventh lustrum is closed.”
—Horace, Od., ii. 4, 12, limits it to the eighth.]
Nature should satisfy herself in having rendered this age miserable, without rendering it ridiculous too. I hate to see it, for one poor inch of pitiful vigour which comes upon it but thrice a week, to strut and set itself out with as much eagerness as if it could do mighty feats; a true flame of flax; and laugh to see it so boil and bubble and then in a moment so congealed and extinguished. This appetite ought to appertain only to the flower of beautiful youth: trust not to its seconding that indefatigable, full, constant, magnanimous ardour you think in you, for it will certainly leave you in a pretty corner; but rather transfer it to some tender, bashful, and ignorant boy, who yet trembles at the rod, and blushes:
“Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro
Si quis ebur, vel mista rubent ubi lilia multa
Alba rosa.”
[“As Indian ivory streaked with crimson, or white lilies mixed
with the damask rose.”—AEneid, xii. 67.]