But Cellini wrote _per medium_ of a little boy amanuensis while he himself worked, and possibly he may have deliberately omitted some facts too shameful for the ears of that _puer ingenuus_; though I have my doubts about this theory. He frankly depicts himself as a cynical and forth-right fellow always ready to brawl; untroubled by conventional ideas either of art or of morality; ready to call a spade a spade or any number of adjectived shovels that came instantly to his mind. If it be great writing to express one’s meaning tersely, directly, and positively, then Cellini’s is the greatest of writing, though we have to be thankful that it is in a foreign language. The best translation is probably that of John Addington Symonds--a cheaper and excellent edition is published in the _Everyman Library_--and nobody who wishes to write precisely as he thinks can afford to go without studying this remarkable book. And having studied it he will probably come to the conclusion that there are other things in writing than merely to express oneself directly. There is such a thing as beauty of thought as well as beauty of expression; and probably he will end by wondering what is that thing which we call beauty? Is it only Truth, as even such a master of Beauty as Keats seems to have thought? Why is one line of the _Grecian Urn_ more beautiful than all the blood and thunder of Benvenuto? Cellini says that he caught the “French evil”--i.e. syphilis--when he was a young man; he certainly did his best to catch it. His symptoms were abnormal, and the doctors assured him that his disease was not the “French evil.” However, he knew better, and assumed a treatment of his own, consisting of _lignum vitæ_ and a holiday shooting in the marshes. Here he probably caught malaria, of which he cured himself with guaiacum. We know now that, alas, syphilis cannot be cured by such means; and the fact that he lived to old age seems to show that there was something wrong with his diagnosis. I have known plenty of syphilitics who have reached extreme old age, but they had not been cured by _lignum vitæ_ and a holiday; it was mercury that had cured them, taken early and often, over long periods. I very much doubt whether he ever had the “French evil” at all. [Illustration: [_Photo, Brogi._ PERSEUS AND THE GORGON’S HEAD. Statue by Benvenuto Cellini (Florence, Loggia de’ Lanzi).]