just as though Alcibiades, that comeliest young man, had
not been loved in all purity by Socrates, from whose side, when they
reposed together, he was wont to say that he arose not otherwise than
from the side of his own father. Oftentimes have I heard Michelangelo
discoursing and expounding on the theme of love, and have afterwards
gathered from those who were present upon these occasions that he
spoke precisely as Plato wrote, and as we may read in Plato's works
upon this subject. I, for myself, do not know what Plato says; but I
know full well that, having so long and so intimately conversed with
Michelangelo, I never once heard issue from that mouth words that were
not of the truest honesty, and such as had virtue to extinguish in the
heart of youth any disordered and uncurbed desire which might assail
it. I am sure, too, that no vile thoughts were born in him, by this
token, that he loved not only the beauty of human beings, but in
general all fair things, as a beautiful horse, a beautiful dog, a
beautiful piece of country, a beautiful plant, a beautiful mountain, a
beautiful wood, and every site or thing in its kind fair and rare,
admiring them with marvellous affection. This was his way; to choose
what is beautiful from nature, as bees collect the honey from flowers,
and use it for their purpose in their workings: which indeed was
always the method of those masters who have acquired any fame in
painting. That old Greek artist, when he wanted to depict a Venus, was
not satisfied with the sight of one maiden only. On the contrary, he
sought to study many; and culling from each the particular in which
she was most perfect, to make use of these details in his Venus. Of a
truth, he who imagines to arrive at any excellence without following
this system (which is the source of a true theory in the arts), shoots
very wide indeed of his mark."

Condivi perhaps exaggerated the influence of lovely nature, horses,
dogs, flowers, hills, woods, &c., on Michelangelo's genius. His work,
as we know, is singularly deficient in motives drawn from any province
but human beauty; and his poems and letters contain hardly a trace of
sympathy with the external world. Yet, in the main contention, Condivi
told the truth. Michelangelo's poems and letters, and the whole series
of his works in fresco and marble, suggest no single detail which is
sensuous, seductive, enfeebling to the moral principles. Their tone
may be passionate; it is indee