their achievements; you travel with them, discover with them, hear their immortal sayings, listen to their profound logic, thrill to their beautiful poems and stories. The world’s immortals stand ready to take you into their confidence. You can live with them day by day. You can watch Cellini— wonderful combination of artist and knave—in his dealings with princes and pontiffs, his love affairs and his duels. You can read the letters of Pliny the Younger, in which he asks whether he shall destroy the “sect called Christians,” and those describing the destruction of Pompeii.
