Only to friends do I recite, and on request,
Not to all men, or everywhere Horace
I am not building here a statue to erect at the town crossroads, or in a church or a public square. This is for a nook in the library, and to amuse a neighbor, a relative, a friend, who may take pleasure in associating and conversing with me again in this image. Others have taken courage to speak of themselves because they found the subject worthy and rich; I, on the contrary, because I found mine so barren and so meager that no suspicion of ostentation can fall upon my plan. Michel de Montaigne