The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-03-08

the mountain top in gratitude for the
perpetuity of the racial grouped, all
united-giants, sibyls, prophets, storms,
hurricanes, hoods-around that majestic
and sublime figure of the eternal Father,
who animates all these creatures by his
breath, supports and governs them by his
power, and irradiates their minds with
the rays of His own wisdom This is
the grand combination; it were impossi-
BILE to go into the particulars of these
wonderful figures. Michael Angelo be-
gan the work novice, ignorant even of
the art of mixing the colors, and now that
1t IS finished it remains the chief glory of
Glullo IL, and we can only marvel how
the poor genius of man could ever have
performed so much. We have seen
artists, in mute contemplation before
these frescoes, lift their arms in astonish-
ment and shake their heads in despara-
ton as if saying, 1--WE are incapable of
copying thisl''
When the vault Of the Sixtine Chapel
was finished Rome was sacked by the
Spaniards and Germans, under command
of the High Constable Bourbon Reli-
gious fury animated the Germans. The
Spaniardswere drawn onward by the de-
sire Of pillage. The great riches of Rome,
restored by eighty years of artistic labor,
reclothed with marble, painted by Ra-
phael and his disciples, and covered with
statues, excited the cupidity of soldiers
who fought not for glory, but for booty,
and considered pillage the Just harvest of
the sword. The legions of Attila and
Alarec, the Goths and Vandals never
brought with them bloodier saturnalia
to the gates of Rome. The plunderers
hacked down the pictures, filled sacks
with ornaments, searched the churches
for precious stones, celebrated their vic
tory by drinking wine from the com
munlon cups, beat cardinals, surmounted
their soldier casques with mitres, clothed
the Cu1ltlnlereS with the robes of the Vir-
gin, pronounced absurd sermons stand
ing detiantly on heaps of dead and
wounded, cut the ears from asses and
placed them on the heads Of the clergy,
tortured many for the sake of ransom,
and killed thousands with unheard of
cruelties. Terrible night. Nunneries pill
laged, pools of blood by the very affairs
of st. Peter, houses In flames, the while
the horrors were increased by the rattle
of muskets the fall of ruins the execra-
tlons of drunken soldiers, the supplica-
tions of terrified women, the death agony
of the dying, and the silence of the dead
lett naked on the ensanguined stones-as
if the Almighty had indeed visited sacri-
leglous Rome In ngeance-and these
were the exterminating angels of the
world
Without the despair of Job we should
not have had the balsam of the gospel,
without the maledictions of Prometheus
we could not have sat at the banquet of
Plato, without the scepticism of the Soph-
lists Socrates would not have revealed to
us the secrets OF the human conscience,
without the pillage of Rome Michael An
gelo would not have painted
The Universal Judgment
1t was the great tragedy Just mentioned
that gave the painter his inspiration.
Long after having visited this painting.
which covers the whole front end of the
chapel, one remembers the stern Justice
OF Jesus, the pity Of Mary, the misery of
the reprobated, the JOY of the blessed.
Beneath is the leaden Styx, on which the
boat OF Charon is plying lreighted with
immortal spirits, and on the left is the
lurld light OF Purgatory. Above are the
dead In every stage of awakening at the
blast Of the angels trump. Some are
raising the marble of their sepulchres
others have scarcely acquired the power
OF motion or shaken the sleep from the
sunken sockets of their mortal eyes, while
Others agitated by terrible uncertainty
are listening to the sentence of irrevoc-
able judgment. To the right of Christ is
a group of women already saved and
among them one is sublime-a mother
who has just heard the judgment of mercy
on her daughter. Angels look upon the
doom of the incorrigible with melancholy
in their faces. Below the angels the
blessed recognize and embrace each other
on the heights of the eternal CITY. In
the centre Jesus, with arm upliited in
awful determination merciful Jesus
in the righteous Indignation of his SLIGHT
ed love, without needing the prayers of
his mother, pronounces the Judgment of
the lost. 1t IS a spectacle never TO be
forgotten But where the terrible genius
Of Michael Angelo shows itself in gran
deur is in that Niagara Of the condemned
who fall awe stricken, in every contor.
5ion of misery into the flames of bot
,omless hell, cursing and revilinp. spit
ing horrors from their mouths. and struo-
Cling furiously and shudderinplv at the
lTgt contact of tbpir hoJ.o- .-..tL Al