Olim petitum cecidit, et partu labat,
Maturque multum rapuit ex illa mihi,
Aetas citato senior eripuit gradu."

"And as a tree that in the green wood grows,
With fruit and leaves, and in the summer blows,
In winter like a stock deformed shows:
Our beauty takes his race and journey goes,
And doth decrease, and lose, and come to nought,
Admir'd of old, to this by child-birth brought:
And mother hath bereft me of my grace,
And crooked old age coining on apace."

To conclude with Chrysostom, [5743]"When thou seest a fair and beautiful
person, a brave Bonaroba, _a bella donna, quae salivam moveat, lepidam
puellam et quam tu facile ames_, a comely woman, having bright eyes, a
merry countenance, a shining lustre in her look, a pleasant grace, wringing
thy soul, and increasing thy concupiscence; bethink with thyself that it is
but earth thou lovest, a mere excrement, which so vexeth thee, which thou
so admirest, and thy raging soul will be at rest. Take her skin from her
face, and thou shalt see all loathsomeness under it, that beauty is a
superficial skin and bones, nerves, sinews: suppose her sick, now rivelled,
hoary-headed, hollow-cheeked, old; within she is full of filthy phlegm,
stinking, putrid, excremental stuff: snot and snivel in her nostrils,
spittle in her mouth, water in her eyes, what filth in her brains," &c. Or
take her at best, and look narrowly upon her in the light, stand near her,
nearer yet, thou shalt perceive almost as much, and love less, as [5744]
Cardan well writes, _minus amant qui acute vident_, though Scaliger deride
him for it: if he see her near, or look exactly at such a posture,
whosoever he is, according to the true rules of symmetry and proportion,
those I mean of Albertus Durer, Lomatius and Tasnier, examine him of her.
If he be _elegans formarum spectator_ he shall find many faults in
physiognomy, and ill colour: if form, one side of the face likely bigger
than the other, or crooked nose, bad eyes, prominent veins, concavities
about the eyes, wrinkles, pimples, red streaks, freckles, hairs, warts,
neves, inequalities, roughness, scabredity, paleness, yellowness, and as
many colours as are in a turkeycock's neck, many indecorums in their other
parts; _est quod desideres, est quod amputes_, one leers, another frowns, a
third gapes, squints, &c. And 'tis true that he saith, [5745]_Diligenter
consideranti raro