You only seek his company and praise him in order to obtain honour through him for yourselves, nor do you really mind what sort of man he is, so long as kings and emperors converse with him.  I dare affirm that any artist who tries to satisfy the better vulgar rather than men of his own craft, one who has nothing singular, eccentric, or at least reputed to be so, in his person, will never become a superior talent.  For my part, I am bound to confess that even his Holiness sometimes annoys and wearies me by begging for too much of my company.  I am most anxious to serve him, but, when there is nothing important going forward, I think I can do so better by studying at home than by dancing attendance through a whole day on my legs in his reception-rooms.  He allows me to tell him so; and I may add that the serious occupations of my life have won for me such liberty of action that, in talking to the Pope, I often forget where I am, and place my hat upon my head.  He does not eat me up on that account, but treats me with indulgence, knowing that it is precisely at such times that I am working hard to serve him.  As for solitary habits, the world is right in condemning a man who, out of pure affectation or eccentricity, shuts himself up alone, loses his friends, and sets society against him.  Those, however, who act in this way naturally, because their profession obliges them to lead a recluse life, or because their character rebels against feigned politenesses and conventional usage, ought in common justice to be tolerated.  What claim by right have you on him?  Why should you force him to take part in those vain pastimes, which his love for a quiet life induces him to shun?  Do you not know that there are sciences which demand the whole of a man, without leaving the least portion of his spirit free for your distractions?” This apology for his own life, couched in a vindication of the artistic temperament, breathes an accent of sincerity, and paints Michelangelo as he really was, with his somewhat haughty sense of personal dignity.  What he says about his absence of mind in the presence of great princes might be illustrated by a remark attributed to Clement VII.  “When Buonarroti comes to see me, I always take a seat and bid him to be seated, feeling sure that he will do so without leave or license.”

The conversation passed by natural degrees to a consideration of the fine arts in general.  In the course of this discussion, Michelangelo uttered several characteristic opinions, strongly maintaining the superiority of the Italian to the Flemish and German schools, and asserting his belief that, while all objects are worthy of imitation by the artist, the real touch stone of excellence lies in his power to represent the human form.  His theory of the arts in their reciprocal relations and affinities throws interesting light upon the qualities of his own genius and his method in practice.  “The science of design, or of line-drawing, if you like to use this term, is the