happen, the pains of hell, joys of Paradise, and the like, which by
their preposterous courses they shall forfeit or incur; and 'tis a fit
method, a very good means; for what [5699]Seneca said of vice, I say of
love, _Sine magistro discitur, vix sine magistro deseritur_, 'tis learned
of itself, but [5700]hardly left without a tutor. 'Tis not amiss therefore
to have some such overseer, to expostulate and show them such absurdities,
inconveniences, imperfections, discontents, as usually follow; which their
blindness, fury, madness, cannot apply unto themselves, or will not
apprehend through weakness; and good for them to disclose themselves, to
give ear to friendly admonitions. "Tell me, sweetheart (saith Tryphena to a
lovesick Charmides in [5701]Lucian), what is it that troubles thee?
peradventure I can ease thy mind, and further thee in thy suit;" and so,
without question, she might, and so mayst thou, if the patient be capable
of good counsel, and will hear at least what may be said.

If he love at all, she is either an honest woman or a whore. If dishonest,
let him read or inculcate to him that 5. of Solomon's Proverbs, Ecclus. 26.
Ambros. _lib. 1. cap. 4._ in his book of Abel and Cain, Philo Judeus _de
mercede mer_. Platina's _dial. in Amores_, Espencaeus, and those three
books of Pet. Haedus _de contem. amoribus_, Aeneas Sylvius' tart Epistle,
which he wrote to his friend Nicholas of Warthurge, which he calls _medelam
illiciti amoris_ &c. [5702]"For what's a whore," as he saith, "but a poller
of youth, a [5703]ruin of men, a destruction, a devourer of patrimonies, a
downfall of honour, fodder for the devil, the gate of death, and supplement
of hell?" [5704]_Talis amor est laqueus animae_, &c., a bitter honey, sweet
poison, delicate destruction, a voluntary mischief, _commixtum coenum,
sterquilinium_. And as [5705]Pet. Aretine's Lucretia, a notable quean,
confesseth: "Gluttony, anger, envy, pride, sacrilege, theft, slaughter,
were all born that day that a whore began her profession; for," as she
follows it, "her pride is greater than a rich churl's, she is more envious
than the pox, as malicious as melancholy, as covetous as hell. If from the
beginning of the world any were _mala, pejor, pessima_, bad in the
superlative degree, 'tis a whore; how many have I undone, caused to be
wounded, slain! O Antonia, thou seest [5706]what I am without, but within,
God knows, a puddle of iniquity, a sink of sin, a pocky quean." Let h