Divulsus querimoniis
Suprema citius solvit amor die.
Thrice happy they, and more than that,
Whom bond of love so firmly ties,
That without brawls till death them part,
'Tis undissolv'd and never dies.
As Seneca lived with his Paulina, Abraham and Sarah, Orpheus and Eurydice, Arria and Poetus, Artemisia and Mausolus, Rubenius Celer, that would needs have it engraven on his tomb, he had led his life with Ennea, his dear wife, forty-three years eight months, and never fell out. There is no pleasure in this world comparable to it, 'tis summum mortalitatis bonum— [4721]hominum divumque voluptas, Alma Venus—latet enim in muliere aliquid majus potentiusque, omnibus aliis humanis voluptatibus, as [4722]one holds, there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive. The husband rules her as head, but she again commands his heart, he is her servant, she is only joy and content: no happiness is like unto it, no love so great as this of man and wife, no such comfort as [4723]placens uxor, a sweet wife: [4724]Omnis amor magnus, sed aperto in conjuge major. When they love at last as fresh as they did at first, [4725]Charaque charo consenescit conjugi, as Homer brings Paris kissing Helen, after they had been married ten years, protesting withal that he loved her as dear as he did the first hour that he was betrothed. And in their old age, when they make much of one another, saying, as he did to his wife in the poet,
[4726]Uxor vivamus quod viximus, et moriamur,
Servantes nomen sumpsimus in thalamo;
Nec ferat ulla dies ut commutemur in aevo,