Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (2).pdf/21

 for grace in the heart, than for beauty in the face: take care of inning at the faireſt ſigns; the ſwan hath black fleſh under her white feathers.

2. Chuſe not by your hands, for the bounty of the portion. When Cato's daughter was aſked, Why ſhe did not marry? She thus replied, She could not find the man that loved her perſon above her portion. Men love curious pictures, but they would have them ſet in golden frames. Some are ſo degenerate, as to think any good enough, who have but goods enough. Take heed, for ſometimes the bag and baggage go together. The perſon ſhould be a figure and the portion a cypher, which added to her, advances the ſum, but alone, ſignifies nothing. When Themiſtocles was to marry his daughter, two ſuitors courted her together, the one rich and a fool; the other wiſe, but poor: and being demanded which of the two he would rather his daughter ſhould have? He anſwered, "Mallem virum ſine pecuni, &c." I had rather ſhe ſhould have a man without money, than money without a man.

3. Chuſe not by your ears, for the dignity of her parentage. A good old ſtock may nouriſh a fruitleſs branch. There are many children who are not the bleſſings, but the blemiſhes of their parents; they are nobly deſcended, but ignobly minded: Such was Aureliuſ Antonious, of whom it was ſaid, that he injured his country in nothing, but being the father of ſuch a child. There are many low in their deſcents, that are high in their deſerts; ſuch as the cobler's ſon, who grew to