woman old enough to be his grandmother: between whom, for the most part,
strife, jealousies, and dissatisfaction are all the blessings which
crown the genial bed, is being impossible for such to have any children.
The like may be said, though with a little excuse, when an old doting
widower marries a virgin in the prime of her youth and her vigour, who,
while he vainly tries to please her, is thereby wedded to his grave.
For, as in green youth, it is unfit and unseasonable to think of
marriage, so to marry in old age is just the same; for they that enter
upon it too soon are soon exhausted, and fall into consumptions and
divers other diseases; and those who procrastinate and marry
unseemingly, fall into the like troubles; on the other side having only
this honour, if old men, they become young cuckolds, especially if their
wives have not been trained up in the paths of virtue, and lie too much
open to the importunity and temptation of lewd and debauched men. And
thus much for the errors of rash and inconsiderate marriages.

* * * * *




CHAPTER VIII

_The Opinion of the Learned concerning Children conceived and born
within Seven Months; with Arguments upon the Subject to prevent
Suspicion of Incontinency, and bitter Contest on that Account. To
which are added Rules to Know the Disposition of Man's Body by the
Genital Parts._