"In the church of the Annunziata in Florence, he executed an historical piece in fresco, but finished `a secco', wherein he represented the Nativity of Christ, painted with such minuteness of care, that each separate straw in the roof of a cabin, figured therein, may be counted, and every knot in these straws distinguished." -- Vasari. His remaining works are much injured by scaling or the abrasion of the colors.英文原著 · 《Introduction to Robert Browning》
Many thanks for your offer to look after horses' stripes; If there are any donkeys, pray add them. I am delighted to hear that you have collected bees' combs...This is an especial hobby of mine, and I think I can throw a light on the subject. If you can collect duplicates, at no very great expense, I should be glad of some specimens for myself with some bees of each kind. Young, growing, and irregular combs, and those which have not had pupae, are most valuable for measurements and examination. Their edges should be well protected against abrasion.英文原著 · 《The Life and Letters-1》
But to tell the truth, neither is thinking of the mechanical duties in hand. The assistant is dreaming of the delicious time--only four hours off now--when he will resume the tale of his bruises and abrasions. The apprentice is nearer the long long thoughts of boyhood, and his imagination rides cap-a-pie through the chambers of his brain, seeking some knightly quest in honour of that Fair Lady, the last but one of the girl apprentices to the dress-making upstairs. He inclines rather to street fighting against revolutionaries--because then she could see him from the window.英文原著 · 《The Wheels of Chance》