Rome is everywhere a great manifestation of humanity's pure strength and steadfast will.
—Paul Heyse, German writer
With their "ammunition" replenished, Joseph and the principal returned the way they had come, leaving the overly quiet underground and returning to the noisy surface.
Rome's underground was like layers of cultural sediment. Beneath the elementary school at the very top lay churches, ancient alleys, Mithras altars, and the water supply systems of ancient Rome. It was as astonishing as Leonardo da Vinci's claim that those towering mountains had once lain beneath the sea.
Those fossils had not been swept there by some great flood, and they had appeared before humanity. The story of Noah's Ark was false.
Leonardo da Vinci was not afraid of death at all, but he had only dared say such things because of his tact. He possessed keen insight and could see the ever-shifting struggles among the powerful, so he always found strong patrons.
He had been fine while alive, and even after his death, his tomb had remained undisturbed to this day. At least he did not have to be like those saints, worrying even in death that his bones would be dug up and sold by grave robbers.
If someone was too kind, they would still be exploited after death. Sinners could not be redeemed with mercy.
Would that younger son in the story, the one who returned after going astray, truly repent and stop squandering everything? If he had lived well after leaving home, would he still remember his father and older brother?
Leonardo da Vinci eventually died in France and never returned to his homeland. Only those who fared poorly outside would "return after going astray."
Some people refused to go home even when things went badly for them. Such people could often be