(33) Al. "will suffer her to be forsaken."
And my wife made answer to me: "It would much astonish me (said she) did not these leader's works, you speak of, point to you rather than myself. Methinks mine would be a pretty (34) guardianship and distribution of things indoors without your provident care to see that the importations from without were duly made."
(34) Or, "ridiculous."
"Just so," I answered, "and mine would be a pretty (35) importation if there were no one to guard what I imported. Do you not see," I added, "how pitiful is the case of those unfortunates who pour water in their sieves for ever, as the story goes, (36) and labour but in vain?"
(35) "As laughable an importation."
(36) Or, "how pitiful their case, condemned, as the saying goes, to
pour water into a sieve." Lit. "filling a bucket bored with
holes." Cf. Aristot. "Oec." i. 6; and for the Danaids, see Ovid.
"Met." iv. 462; Hor. "Carm." iii. 11. 25; Lucr. iii. 937; Plaut.
"Pseud." 369. Cp. Coleridge:
Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And hope without an object cannot live.
"Pitiful enough, poor souls," she answered, "if that is what they do."
"But there are other cares, you know, and occupations," I answered, "which are yours by right, and these you will find agreeable. This, for instance, to take some maiden who knows naught of carding wool and to make her proficient in the art, doubling her usefulness; or to receive another quite ignorant of housekeeping or of service, and to render her skilful, loyal, serviceable, till she is worth her weight in gold; or again, when occasion serves, you have it in your power to requite by kindness the well-behaved whose presence is a blessing to your house; or maybe to chasten the bad character, should such an one appear. But the greatest joy of all will be to prove yourself my better; to make me your faithful follower; knowing no dread lest as the years advance you should decline in honour in your household, but rather trusting that, though your hair turn gray, yet, in proportion as you come to be a better helpmate to myself and to the children, a better guardian of our home, so will your honour increase throughout the household as mistress, wife, and mother, daily more dearly prized. Since," I added, "it is not through excellence of outward form, (37) but by reason of the lustre of virtues shed forth upon the life of man, that increase is given to things beautiful and good." (38)
(37) "By reason of the flower on the damask cheek."
(38) Al. "For growth is added to things 'beautiful and good,' not
through the bloom of youth but virtuous perfections, an increase
coextensive with the life of man." See Breit. ad loc.
That, Socrates, or something like that, as far as I may trust my memory, records the earliest conversation which I held with her.
VIII