It becomes rhetoricians to adorn and disguise and make the best of things; but Metellus, sanctus vir,--a holy and blameless man, grave and sincere to wit, and addressing the Roman people in the solemn capacity of Censor,--was bound to speak the plain truth, especially as he was treating of a subject on which the observation of every day, and the experience of every life, could not leave the least doubt upon the mind of his audience.' Still, Riccabocca, having decided to marry, has no doubt prepared himself to bear all the concomitant evils--as becomes a professed sage; and I own I admire the art with which Pisistratus has drawn the kind of woman most likely to suit a philosopher--" Pisistratus bows, and looks round complacently; but recoils from two very peevish and discontented faces feminine.
MR.

CAXTON (completing his sentence).--"Not only as regards mildness of temper and other household qualifications, but as regards the very person of the object of his choice.

For you evidently remember, Pisistratus, the reply of Bias, when asked his opinion on marriage: [Long sentence in Greek]" Pisistratus tries to look as if he had the opinion of Bias by heart, and nods acquiescingly.
MR.

CAXTON.--"That is, my dears, 'The woman you would marry is either handsome or ugly: if handsome, she is koine,--namely, you don't have her to yourself; if ugly, she is poine,--that is, a fury.' But, as it is observed in Aulus Gellius (whence I borrow this citation), there is a wide interval between handsome and ugly.

And thus Ennius, in his tragedy of 'Menalippus,' uses an admirable expression to designate women of the proper degree of matrimonial comeliness, such as a philosopher would select.