Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/235

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again immediately, and then she's all Goodness and Sweetness in a Moment.

Ay, so a Word or two will cool me, says the Gentleman. But who will yield to give the cooling Word first, there's the Difficulty.

Why you must, says his Friend, 'tis your Place; 'tis the Man's Place you know, always to submit to his Wife.

I can't answer for my self, says he, I know I am apt to be very hot.

And what will you do then? says his Friend; you should have considered this before.

Nay, says he, I must venture now, 'tis too late to go back.

So, upon the whole, they did venture, and two Pieces of Wild-fire they were; and, in a very few Months after their Marriage, the Effects of it appeared in a manner hardly fit to be repeated; and all this only, because when it was consulted and discoursed about, it was too late to go back, so that, in a word, the Gentleman had as good not have considered it at all; for considering after 'tis done, is no considering.

It is remarkable, however, in the Discourse above, that the Gentleman's Concern about the Temper of the Lady he was going to marry, was occasioned chiefly from a conscious Knowledge of his own; and this was the Reason of my telling his Story. For if we would make a right Judgment of our own Disposition first, we should the sooner see whether we should be suitably match'd to the Person propos'd; it is not indeed the easiest thing in the World to know the Humour and Disposition of one another, especially not in a Month or two, of a courting Conversation; yet as all Judgment ofthat