mes yielded to the attractions of delightful people.

We possess a series of Michelangelo's letters addressed to or
concerned with Tommaso Cavalieri, the tone of which is certainly
extravagant. His biographer, Aurelio Gotti, moved by the same anxiety
as Michelangelo the younger and Guasti, adopted the extraordinary
theory that they were really directed to Vittoria Colonna, and were
meant to be shown to her by the common friend of both, Cavalieri.
"There is an epistle to this young man," he says, "so studied in its
phrases, so devoid of all naturalness, that we cannot extract any
rational sense from it without supposing that Cavalieri was himself a
friend of the Marchioness, and that Michelangelo, while writing to
him, intended rather to address his words to the Colonna." Of this
letter, which bears the date of January 1, 1533, three drafts exist,
proving the great pains taken by Michelangelo in its composition.

"Without due consideration, Messer Tomao, my very dear lord, I was
moved to write to your lordship, not by way of answer to any letter
received from you, but being myself the first to make advances, as
though I felt bound to cross a little stream with dry feet, or a ford
made manifest by paucity of water. But now that I have left the shore,
instead of the trifling river I expected, the ocean with its towering
waves appears before me, so that, if it were possible, in order to
avoid drowning, I would gladly retrace my steps to the dry land whence
I started. Still, as I am here, I will e'en make of my heart a rock,
and proceed farther; and if I shall not display the art of sailing on
the sea of your powerful genius, that genius itself will excuse me,
nor will be disdainful of my inferiority in parts, nor desire from me
that which I do not possess, inasmuch as he who is unique in all
things can have peers in none. Therefore your lordship, the light of
our century without paragon upon this world, is unable to be satisfied
with the productions of other men, having no match or equal to
yourself. And if, peradventure, something of mine, such as I hope and
promise to perform, give pleasure to your mind, I shall esteem it more
fortunate than excellent; and should I be ever sure of pleasing your
lordship, as is said, in any particular, I will devote the present
time and all my future to your service; indeed, it will grieve me much
that I cannot regain the past, in order to devote a longer space to
you than the future only