other--no lover of the beautiful can mistake it," he proudly said.

He worked away with untiring industry and the Church paid him well. But
many of his pieces have been carried from Rome, and as they were not
signed and scores of imitations sprang up, it can not always be
determined now what is his work and what not. He toiled alone, and
allowed no 'prentice hand to use the chisel, and unlike the sculptors of
our day, did not work from a clay model, but fell upon the block direct.
"I caught sight of Michelangelo at work, but could not approach for the
shower of chips," writes a visitor at Rome in the year Fifteen Hundred
One.

* * * * *

Perfect peace is what Michelangelo expected to find in the palace of the
Pope. Later he came to know that life is unrest, and its passage at best
a zigzag course, that only straightens to a direct line when viewed
across the years. If a man does better work than his fellows he must pay
the penalty. Personality is an offense.

In Rome there was a small army of painters and sculptors, each eager and
anxious for the sole favor of the powers. They quibbled, quarreled,
bribed, cajoled, and even fair women used their influence with cardinals
and bishops in favor of this artist or that.

Michelangelo was never a favorite in society; simpering beauty peeked at
him from behind feather fans and made jokes concerning his appearance.
Yet Walter Pater thought he found evidence that at this time Michelangelo
was beloved by a woman, and that the artist reproduced her face and form,
and indirectly pictured her in poems. In feature she was as plain as he;