ve reflected on all these things, and I know that there is no other
mode of accomplishing them, than that of which I have spoken.' Becoming
heated as he proceeded, the more Filippo sought to make his views clear
to his hearers, that they might comprehend and agree with him, the more
he awakened their doubts, and the less they confided in him, so that,
instead of giving him their faith, they held him to be a fool and a
babbler. Whereupon, being more than once dismissed, and finally refusing
to go, they caused him to be carried forcibly from the audience by the
servants of the place, considering him to be altogether mad. This
contemptuous treatment caused Filippo at a later period to say, that he
dared not at that time pass through any part of the city, lest some one
should say, 'See, where goes that fool!' The syndics and others forming
the assembly remained confounded, first, by the difficult methods
proposed by the other masters, and next by that of Filippo, which
appeared to them stark nonsense. He appeared to them to render the
enterprise impossible by his two propositions--first, by that of making
the cupola double, whereby the great weight to be sustained would be
rendered altogether unmanageable, and next by the proposal of building
without a framework. Filippo, on the other hand, who had spent so many
years in close study to prepare himself for this work, knew not to what
course to betake himself, and was many times on the point of leaving
Florence. Still, if he desired to conquer, it was necessary to arm
himself with patience, and he had seen enough to know that the heads of
the city seldom remained long fixed to one resolution. He might easily
have shown them a small model which he had secretly made, but he would
not do so, knowing the imperfect intelligence of the syndics, the envy
of the artists, and the instability of the citizens, who favored now one
and now another, as each chanced to please them. And I do not wonder at
this, because every one in Florence professes to know as much of these
matters, as do the most experienced masters, although there are very few
who really understand them; a truth which we may be permitted to affirm
without offence to those who are well informed on the subject. What
Filippo therefore could not effect before the tribunal, he began to
attempt with individuals, and talking apart now with a syndic, now with
a warden, and again with different citizens, showing moreover certain
par