7. I have heard the Scripture say: Who
can find a valiant woman? Prov. xxxi. 10, 7. and declare that
she is a divine gift, and that a good marriage is brought about by the
Lord. Even those without are of the same mind; if they say that a
man can win no fairer prize than a good wife, nor a worse one than her
opposite. Hesiod: Works
and Days, 700. But we can
mention none who has been in this respect more fortunate than he.
For I think that, had anyone from the ends of the earth and from every
race of men attempted to bring about the best of marriages, he could
not have found a better or more harmonious one than this. For the
most excellent of men and of women were so united that their marriage
was a union of virtue rather than of bodies: since, while they
excelled all others, they could not excel each other, because in virtue
they were quite equally matched.