A profound self-analysis is not to be looked for in the 'Commentaries'
of Pius II.What we here learn of him as a man seems at first sight to be chiefly confined to the account which he gives of the various steps in his career.But further reflection will lead us to a different conclusion with regard to this remarkable book.There are men who are by nature mirrors of what surrounds them.It would be irrelevant to ask incessantly after their convictions, their spiritual struggles, their inmost victories and achievements.Aeneas Sylvius lived wholly in the interest which lay near, without troubling himself about the problems and contradictions of life.His Catholic orthodoxy gave him all the help of this kind which he needed.And at all events, after taking part in every intellectual movement which interested his age, and notably furthering some of them, he still at the close of his earthly course retained character enough to preach a crusade against the Turks, and to die of grief when it came to nothing.
Nor is the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, any more than that of Pius II, founded on introspection.And yet it describes the whole man--not always willingly--with marvelous truth and completeness.It is no small matter that Benvenuto, whose most important works have perished half finished, and who, as an artist, is perfect only in his little decorative speciality, but in other respects, if judged by the works of him which remain, is surpassed by so many of his greater contemporaries--that Benvenuto as a man will interest mankind to the end of time.It does not spoil the impression when the reader often detects him bragging or lying; the stamp of a mighty, energetic, and thoroughly developed nature remains.By his side our modern autobiographers, though their tendency and moral character may stand much higher, appear incomplete beings.He is a man who can do all and dares do all, and who carries his measure in himself.Whether we like him or not, he lives, such as he was, as a significant type of the modern spirit.