We may learn from This Fable, that it is Common Duty and Discretion, for
Men and their Wives, when they are once Hamper’d, to make the Best of
a Doubtful Game; for they are One to All Manner of Purposes, by which
it is Possible for Two Persons to be United. Their Interest is One and
the same, and there’s No Touching the Peace, or the Honour of the One,
without Wounding That of the Other; but if there happens to be Any
Absolute Necessity of Jangling, One of the Civilest ways of Reproche
is That here before us; and it is but according to the Ordinary Guise
and Freak of the World, when any thing comes Cross betwixt the Second
Husband and Wife, to be still Celebrating the Memory of the Former. _My
First Husband_ (Heaven Rest his Soul) and _My First Wife_, they Cry,
was So and So, and would have done This and That. The Two Main Topiques
to Chop Logick upon in These Domestique Disagreements, are commonly the
Upbraiding One Another with what _I Was_, and what _I Might have been_;
and what a Match I might have had (with a Pox) never considering what
they _Are_, and that what they _Are_ they _Must_ be, which is the Only
Point. ’Tis Forty to One that Controversies will Arise one time or Other
in That State of Life, when it will be the Husbands Part, upon the Matter
of Dignity, Preference, and Commission, to Moderate Matters, both by his
Authority, and his Prudence; Which is but Consonant to Equity and Right
Nature. Wherefore the Woman is Worse then Frantick, that, upon These
Disputes, will be trying Conclusions with her Husband, for a Better, or a
Worse. If he Truckles, she makes him a Coxcomb: If he keeps his Ground,
she shews her self to be One, so that she lays all at stake upon the
Contest, that a Sober Woman has to Lose. It is much better to give Way
betimes to the Stronger, even upon the Matter of Prudence, as well as
of Respect, then it would be to Contend at first, and then, either to
Cross the Cudgels, or to be Baffled in the Conclusion. The Man and the
Woman here never Consider’d that they gave away their Own Meat, and both
Robb’d, and Discredited One Another in the Contest.