dishonest, he troubles and macerates himself without a cause; or put case
which is the worst, he be a cuckold, it cannot be helped, the more he stirs
in it, the more he aggravates his own misery. How much better were it in
such a case to dissemble or contemn it? why should that be feared which
cannot be redressed? _multae tandem deposuerunt_ (saith [6175]Vives) _quum
flecti maritos non posse vident_, many women, when they see there is no
remedy, have been pacified; and shall men be more jealous than women? 'Tis
some comfort in such a case to have companions, _Solamen miseris socios
habuisse doloris_; Who can say he is free? Who can assure himself he is not
one _de praeterito_, or secure himself _de futuro_? If it were his case
alone, it were hard; but being as it is almost a common calamity, 'tis not
so grievously to be taken. If a man have a lock, which every man's key will
open, as well as his own, why should he think to keep it private to
himself? In some countries they make nothing of it, _ne nobiles quidem_,
saith [6176]Leo Afer, in many parts of Africa (if she be past fourteen)
there's not a nobleman that marries a maid, or that hath a chaste wife;
'tis so common; as the moon gives horns once a month to the world, do they
to their husbands at least. And 'tis most part true which that Caledonian
lady, [6177]Argetocovus, a British prince's wife, told Julia Augusta, when
she took her up for dishonesty, "We Britons are naught at least with some
few choice men of the better sort, but you Romans lie with every base
knave, you are a company of common whores." Severus the emperor in his time
made laws for the restraint of this vice; and as [6178]Dion Nicaeus relates
in his life, _tria millia maechorum_, three thousand cuckold-makers, or
_naturae monetam adulterantes_, as Philo calls them, false coiners, and
clippers of nature's money, were summoned into the court at once. And yet,
_Non omnem molitor quae fluit undam videt_, "the miller sees not all the
water that goes by his mill:" no doubt, but, as in our days, these were of
the commonalty, all the great ones were not so much as called in question
for it. [6179]Martial's Epigram I suppose might have been generally applied
in those licentious times, _Omnia solus habes_, &c., thy goods, lands,
money, wits are thine own, _Uxorem sed habes Candide cum populo_; but
neighbour Candidus your wife is common: husband and cuckold in that age it
seems were reciprocal terms; the emperors