"You will find clear gems of thought, passion, and feeling in this
book," said Cellini; "and being a musician yourself, you will know
how to appreciate them. The writer was one of those geniuses whose
work the world repays with ridicule and contempt. There is no fate
more enviable!"

I looked at the artist with some surprise as I took the volume he
recommended, and seated myself in the position he indicated; and
while he busied himself in arranging the velvet curtains behind me
as a background, I said:

"Do you really consider it enviable, Signor Cellini, to receive the
world's ridicule and contempt?"

"I do indeed," he replied, "since it is a certain proof that the
world does not understand you. To achieve something that is above
human comprehension, THAT is greatness. To have the serene sublimity
of the God-man Christ, and consent to be crucified by a gibing world
that was fated to be afterwards civilized and dominated by His
teachings, what can be more glorious? To have the magnificent
versatility of a Shakespeare, who was scarcely recognized in his own
day, but whose gifts were so vast and various that the silly
multitudes wrangle over his very identity and the authenticity of
his plays to this hour--what can be more triumphant? To know that
one's own soul can, if strengthened and encouraged by the force of
will, rise to a supreme altitude of power--is not that sufficient to
compensate for the little whining cries of the common herd of men
and women who have forgotten whether they ever had a spiritual spark
in them, and who, straining up to see the light of genius that burns