Context: In the Preface, the author says that proverbs are useful to "both old and young." He is including as many in his work as he can remember, not to teach anybody but merely to remind people of these "plain pithy proverbs old." In Chapter 2 he is talking with a friend, a "certain young man," who asks whom he should marry, a "maid of flowering age, a goodly one," or a "widow, who so many years bears,/ That all her whiteness lieth in her white hairs." The author tells his friend that he does indeed do well to seek advice before marrying, for this particular act demands caution. In a bit of proverbial wisdom common in England and America. the author rounds off his advice to his young friend: