: "Pass on, my lord," said the noble master; "pass, he is
only a poet." PIRON replied, "Since our qualities are declared, I shall
take my rank," and placed himself before the lord. Nor is this pride, the
true source of elevated character, refused to the great artist as well as
the great author. MICHAEL ANGELO, invited by Julius II. to the court of
Rome, found that intrigue had indisposed his holiness towards him, and
more than once the great artist was suffered to linger in attendance in
the antechamber. One day the indignant man of genius exclaimed, "Tell his
holiness, if he wants me, he must look for me elsewhere." He flew back to
his beloved Florence, to proceed with that celebrated cartoon which
afterwards became a favourite study with all artists. Thrice the Pope
wrote for his return, and at length menaced the little State of Tuscany
with war, if Michael Angelo prolonged his absence. He returned. The
sublime artist knelt at the foot of the Father of the Church, turning
aside his troubled countenance in silence. An intermeddling bishop offered
himself as a mediator, apologising for our artist by observing, "Of this
proud humour are these painters made!" Julius turned to this pitiable
mediator, and, as Vasari tells, used a switch on this occasion, observing,
"You speak injuriously of him, while I am silent. It is you who are
ignorant." Raising Michael Angelo, Julius II. embraced the man of genius.

[Footnote A: Johnson had originally submitted the plan of his
"Dictionary" to Lord Chesterfield, but received no mark of interest or
sympathy during its weary progress; when the moment of publication
approached, his lordship, perhaps in the hope of earning a dedication,
published in _The World_ two letters commending Johnson and his labours.
It was this notice that produced Johnson's celebrated letter, in which he
asks,--"Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man
struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers
him with help? The notice you have been pleased to take of my labours, had
it been early had been kind, but it has been delayed till I am indifferent
and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am
known, and do not want it."--ED.]

"I can make lords of you every day, but I cannot create a Titian," said
the Emperor Charles V. to his courtiers, who had become jealous of the
hours and the half-hours which the monarch stole from them that he might