am advised not to go to law about it here.
I am told that I shall spend here three times as much as there;
and this is certain, for a grosso goes further there than two
carlini here. Besides, I have no friend here to trust to, and I
could not attend to such things. It seems to me, when you desire
to attend to it, that you should go by the usual way, as reason
demands, and you must defend yourself as well as you are able and
know how; and for the money that is necessary to spend I will not
fail as long as I have any. Have as little fear as you can, for it
is not a case of life and death. No more. Let me know, as I told
you above.

"From MICHAEL ANGELO, in Rome."(107)

[Image #18]

THE DELUGE

A DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig. D. Anderson, Rome_)

Truly his family did all they could to disturb his mind during this
important period of the development of his greatest work. The mind that
wrote the following letter to Giovan Simone cannot have been in a good
state for work; but as he never lets a thought about his art appear in his
letters, so, no doubt, when once the mood of work was upon him, all other
thoughts were left without the workshop door:

"ROME, _July_ 1508.

"GIOVAN SIMONE,--It is said that when one does good to a good man
it makes him become better, but a bad man becomes worse. I have
tried now many years with words and deeds of kindness to bring you
to live honestly and in peace with your father and the rest of us.
You grow continually worse. I do not say that you are a bad man,
but you are of such sort that you have ceased to please me or
anybody. I could read you a long lesson on your ways of living,
but they would be idle words, like all the rest that I have wasted
on you. To cut the matter short, I will tell you for a certain
truth that you have nothing in the world. What you spend and your
house-room I give you, and have given you these many years, for
the love of God, believing you to be my brother like the rest.
Now, I am sure that you are not my brother, else you would not
threaten my father. Nay, you are a beast; and as a beast I mean to
treat you. Know that he who sees his father threatened or roughly
handled is bo