also you would
not have come here to push your affairs with me, seeing how I have
always acted toward you in the past, but would have rather said:
'Michelangelo remembers what he wrote to us, and if he does not now do
what he promised, he must be prevented by something of which we are
ignorant,' and then have kept your peace; because it is not well to
spur the horse that runs as fast as he is able, and more than he is
able. But you have never known me, and do not know me. God pardon you;
for it is He who granted me the grace to bear what I do bear and have
borne, in order that you might be helped. Well, you will know me when
you have lost me."

Michelangelo's angry moods rapidly cooled down. At the bottom of his
heart lay a deep and abiding love for his family. There is something
caressing in the tone with which he replies to grumbling letters from
his father. "Do not vex yourself. God did not make us to abandon us."
"If you want me, I will take the post, and be with you in two days.
Men are worth more than money." His warm affection transpires even
more clearly in the two following documents:

"I should like you to be thoroughly convinced that all the labours I
have ever undergone have not been more for myself than for your sake.
What I have bought, I bought to be yours so long as you live. If you
had not been here, I should have bought nothing. Therefore, if you
wish to let the house and farm, do so at your pleasure. This income,
together with what I shall give you, will enable you to live like a
lord." At a time when Lodovico was much exercised in his mind and
spirits by a lawsuit, his son writes to comfort the old man. "Do not
be discomfited, nor give yourself an ounce of sadness. Remember that
losing money is not losing one's life. I will more than make up to you
what you must lose. Yet do not attach too much value to worldly goods,
for they are by nature untrustworthy. Thank God that this trial, if it
was bound to come, came at a time when you have more resources than
you had in years past. Look to preserving your life and health, but
let your fortunes go to ruin rather than suffer hardships; for I would
sooner have you alive and poor; if you were dead, I should not care
for all the gold in the world. If those chatterboxes or any one else
reprove you, let them talk, for they are men without intelligence and
without affection."

References to public events are singularly scanty in this
correspondence. Much as