Perhaps it would be wise to let another person, who was kindly disposed, consider what his own heart so eagerly demanded and prudence forbade.
Hastily forming his resolution, he again turned to his friend, saying: "You have shown yourself a father to me.

Imagine that I am indeed your son, and, as such wished to confess that a woman had become dear to my heart, and to ask whether you would be glad to greet her as a daughter." Here Archibius interrupted him with the exclamation: "A ray of light amid all this gloom?
Grasp what you have too long neglected as soon as possible! It befits a good citizen to marry.

The Greek does not attain full manhood till he becomes husband and father.

If I have remained unwedded, there was a special reason for it, and how often I have envied the cobbler whom I saw standing before his shop in the evening, holding his child in his arms, or the pilot, to whom large and small hands were stretched in greeting when he returned home! When I enter my dwelling only my dogs rejoice.

But you, whose beautiful palace stands empty, to whose proud family it is due that you should provide for its continuance--" "That is just what brings me into a state of indecision, which is usually foreign to my nature," interrupted Dion.