DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71556#0102
68
LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
came to the same conclusion. You advanced
various arguments to prove that happiness consists
rather in the bent of the will than of the intellect.
It was finally arranged between us that you should
record our argument in poetic numbers, I in free
prose. You have fulfilled your part of this com-
pact in an elegant poem; I, with God's help, will
perform mine as briefly as possible." Such was the
origin of Lorenzo's beautiful poem entitled " The
Altercation," in which, under the form of dialogue,
he clothes some of the most elevated and refined
ideas of Platonism in truly poetic diction and
imagery. Ficino's part of the compact forms the
substance of the epistle of which the above extract
is the introduction. It contains many beautiful
sentiments, and statements, which only want a
Christian foundation to render them practically
efficacious. This epistle, and the poem, pleasingly
illustrate the intellectual cast of the discussions
which occasionally took place between Ficino and
his friends. How much Politian and Pico loved
his society will be seen by the following extract
from a letter addressed to him by the former:—"I
wish, when you find it too hot in your villa at
Careggi, you would condescend to visit my rustic
retreat at Fiesole. We have an abundance of
water, and the sun does not overpower us with his
rays in this deep valley surrounded with hills,—nor
are we ever without fine air. My little villa is very
secluded ; it lies embosomed among woods, but in
LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
came to the same conclusion. You advanced
various arguments to prove that happiness consists
rather in the bent of the will than of the intellect.
It was finally arranged between us that you should
record our argument in poetic numbers, I in free
prose. You have fulfilled your part of this com-
pact in an elegant poem; I, with God's help, will
perform mine as briefly as possible." Such was the
origin of Lorenzo's beautiful poem entitled " The
Altercation," in which, under the form of dialogue,
he clothes some of the most elevated and refined
ideas of Platonism in truly poetic diction and
imagery. Ficino's part of the compact forms the
substance of the epistle of which the above extract
is the introduction. It contains many beautiful
sentiments, and statements, which only want a
Christian foundation to render them practically
efficacious. This epistle, and the poem, pleasingly
illustrate the intellectual cast of the discussions
which occasionally took place between Ficino and
his friends. How much Politian and Pico loved
his society will be seen by the following extract
from a letter addressed to him by the former:—"I
wish, when you find it too hot in your villa at
Careggi, you would condescend to visit my rustic
retreat at Fiesole. We have an abundance of
water, and the sun does not overpower us with his
rays in this deep valley surrounded with hills,—nor
are we ever without fine air. My little villa is very
secluded ; it lies embosomed among woods, but in