7.  I have heard the Scripture say:  Who can find a valiant woman?18    Prov. xxxi. 10, 7. and declare that she is a divine gift, and that a good marriage is brought about by the Lord.  Even those without are of the same mind; if they say that a man can win no fairer prize than a good wife, nor a worse one than her opposite.19    Hesiod:  Works and Days, 700.  But we can mention none who has been in this respect more fortunate than he.  For I think that, had anyone from the ends of the earth and from every race of men attempted to bring about the best of marriages, he could not have found a better or more harmonious one than this.  For the most excellent of men and of women were so united that their marriage was a union of virtue rather than of bodies:  since, while they excelled all others, they could not excel each other, because in virtue they were quite equally matched.

Ζʹ. Γυναῖκα μὲν ἀνδρείαν τίς εὑρήσει; τῆς θείας ἤκουσα λεγούσης Γραφῆς: καὶ τὸ δῶρον θεόθεν εἶναι, τὴν ἀγαθὴν παρὰ τοῦ Κυρίου συζυγίαν ἁρμόζεσθαι. Τὸ δ' αὐτὸ δοκεῖ καὶ τοῖς ἔξωθεν: εἴπερ ἐκείνων τὸ, Γυναικὸς ἀνὴρ χρῆμ' οὐδὲν ληίζεται κάλλιον ἐσθλῆς, οὐδὲ χεῖρον τῆς ἐναντίας. Τοῦ δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅστις κατὰ τοῦτο εὐδαιμονέστερος. Οἶμαι γὰρ, εἴ τις ἐκ περάτων γῆς, καὶ παντὸς γένους ἀνθρώπων, τὴν ἀρίστην ἁρμόσασθαι συζυγίαν ἐσπούδασεν, οὐκ εἶναι ταύτης εὑρεῖν ἀμείνω καὶ ἁρμοδιωτέραν. Οὕτω γὰρ ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν εἰς ἓν συνῆλθε τὰ κράτιστα, ὥστε οὐχ ἧττον ἀρετῆς ἢ σωμάτων γενέσθαι συζυγίαν τὸν γάμον: ἐπεὶ τῶν ἄλλων κρατοῦντες, ἀλλήλων κρατεῖν οὐκ εἶχον, διὰ τὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἰσόῤῥοπον καὶ ὁμότιμον.