a fair fame must be put before her. A virtuous woman, too, is like a mirror, of clear shining crystal, liable to be tarnished and dimmed by every breath that touches it. She must be treated as relics are; adored, not touched. She must be protected and prized as one protects and prizes a fair garden full of roses and flowers, the owner of which allows no one to trespass or pluck a blossom; enough for others that from afar and through the iron grating they may enjoy its fragrance and its beauty. Finally let me repeat to thee some verses that come to my mind; I heard them in a modern comedy, and it seems to me they bear upon the point we are discussing. A prudent old man was giving advice to another, the father of a young girl, to lock her up, watch over her and keep her in seclusion, and among other arguments he used these:
Woman is a thing of glass; But her brittleness ’tis best Not too curiously to test: Who knows what may come to pass?
Breaking is an easy matter, And it’s folly to expose What you cannot mend to blows; What you can’t make whole to shatter.
This, then, all may hold as true, And the reason’s plain to see; For if Danaes there be, There are golden showers too.