orders in the garden of Laurent le Magnifique?" said the young man with haughtiness.

"Follow me, and you shall know," replied the unknown, walking towards the palace.

"Most certainly; I will follow you and force you to restore me my Faun!" cried Michael Angelo, walking beside him with angry strides. When the unknown, still smiling, and the young man, still fuming and swearing, arrived at the steps of the palace, Michael Angelo, seeing his conductor about to walk up, hastily took hold of his arm and stopped him, saying,

"Stop, stop, sir! Do you mean to go on to the prince's apartments? In his garden, if you like, since he gives permission; but if you enter here, we shall both be turned out." The unknown gently withdrew his arm, and without saying anything continued his way. When he crossed the antechamber, the guards and servitors who were there immediately rose up and saluted him with profound respect.

"Ah, what!" said our young artist to himself, quite surprised; "can this countryman possibly be any one employed in the palace? Then I have made a great mistake in talking to him as I have done. But pooh!" said he again, with the indifference natural to his age, "it is of no consequence. My Faun is my own, and he must give it back to me."

The unknown, whom Michael Angelo still continued to follow, crossed the galleries and halls, not only without being stopped, but everywhere meeting with the same deference and respect.

"What the deuce!" the latter began to say to himself anxiously; "I think I have had a very foolish freak. If this good man should be the secretary of the prince, I shall have closed the doors of this palace against myself forever."

At this moment, and without

turning round, the unknown pushed open the door of a cabinet regally furnished, and enriched with the most precious works of art. Michael Angelo stopped on the threshold, perfectly dazzled. Frightened and trembling, he thought himself most certainly lost; and as he raised his eyes, in trying to make apologies for his conduct, he perceived in the midst of all these works of art his old Faun, placed on a beautiful console richly carved.

"You see, my friend," then said the unknown, still smiling in the same good-humored manner, "that if I have had your work taken away, it was in order to place it in very good company."

"But, good God!" exclaimed the young man, unable to contain himself any longer, "what a profanation! for my rough attempt is quite unworthy of all these beautiful objects which surround it. What will the prince say when he sees it here?"

"The prince will say that the future of a great man is to be seen in your work, my child; and he holds out his hand to you to aid you to walk in the arduous path which leads to glory."

And, whilst speaking thus, Laurent le Magnifique-for it was heheld out his hand to Michael Angelo, who raised it to his lips with lively gratitude.

From this day, the young artist remained attached to the prince, who had discovered his rising talent; but, unfortunately, this happiness was of short duration. His protector died a short time after, and then commenced for Michael Angelo endless peregrinations, which wearied his very existence. Often he was without money and without work, pursued by the hatred of his rivals, to whom his admirable talent gave offence; and it is said that a Roman sculptor even attempted to assassinate him.

But, through all these vicissi

tudes, the third wish of his godparents was accomplished, as well as the two others; for he completed his glory in erecting the cupola of St. Peter's at Rome.

Michael Angelo is undeniably the greatest genius of his age, as a painter, a statuary, and an architect. He has left in these three different arts the finest works in existence; namely, the picture of the Judgment, the statue of Moses, and the unequalled cupola which is still so much admired at Rome.

He declined gradually of a slow fever, and expired the 17th of February 1563, at the age of eightyeight years.

Michael Angelo possessed physi

cal beauty, and beauty of the soul, which is a thousand times more precious. Generous towards others, he lived scantily, and deprived himself of everything through his boundless charity; for he gave enormous sums to his relations, to his servants, to the poor, but more especially to artists.

Eager and earnest at work, not caring for pleasure, learned, grave, and austere, he loved solitude, less from a desire to avoid society than from a wish to recollect himself in God. Never neglecting his duties, severe for others, but much more severe for himself, his life was irreproachable, and he united firmness of soul to the sublimity of genius.

ADAM, in his fallen state, associated his two sons to his work and penitence. He shared the cultivation of the earth with his eldest son, and the pastoral care of the flocks with Abel, the second born. The sons did not regulate their conduct according to the commands of their father in the services of religion, as they had done in their respective departments of labor, and hence a novelty was introduced in the outward worship. Adam no longer contented, as in the days of his innocence, to pay due homage to the Creator of all things by abstaining from a few of them, he added the effusion of blood to the offering of the finest productions of the land and fold. The father and his offspring acknowledged themselves sinners; they confessed that they had no longer any claim to life, and substituted the blood of a victim to their own in order to express their sentiment. But the blood of ani

mals could not replace that of man and expiate his sin; it was only a confession of guilt, yet sufficient to render the offering of Abel more perfect than that with which Cain satisfied himself.

Such is the source of the offerings and sacrifices which have always constituted the essential worship down to Jesus Christ, even among nations absolutely unknown to each other, and which is still in the complete and perfect order of religion ordained by the adorable Redeemer. The ever bountiful fruitfulness of Providence is praised among Christians by the offering of bread and wine, always accompanied by the essential worship by means of the adorable Victim who reconciles sinners by His blood, and has given them life by the sacrifice of Himself.

If we reunite in one the particulars of the histories of Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and of the following

ages, we find in all their religious services, a common repast after the sacrifice, great respect for the dead and a devout care for the preservation and decoration of their tombs. All those customs were equally admitted by the other nations, and indicate among the Hebrews, as well as the rest, the tradition of two important truths, viz., that all men ought to love each other, as being children of one and the same Father, who provides for them in common, and that there is a second economy of life, and something to hope for after death.

The silence of the sacred historian on the intention of these practices is well worthy of remark. If at the same time that he mentions the practices, he had also stated the intentions of them, he might be looked upon as the inventor of this doctrine. The more it seems natural to us, on the one hand, that Moses should have spoken of them, the more we perceive, on the other, that his silence was not without a motive. He leaves to a greater master the care of informing us about those important truths. This is the object of the great alliance which is to reclaim man from error and to bring him back to his duty. But the narrative of Moses, by mentioning the offerings, the sacrifices, the common repast, the funeral honors, and the tender at tachment of families to their ancestors, shows the traditional knowledge of the truths connected with all those practices. The cupidity of the human heart wanted to find something else in them; the conceit of unenlightened human judgment pretended to interpret them; the rashness of selfish opinion dared to rule them: hence the first crime of idolatry. The knowledge of those things became more or less disfigured and confused; but notwithstanding, they remained in society, and proceeded from a prim

itive institution, which we cannot refuse to acknowledge. In fact, the conformity of practices among nations that either hate or know not each other proves their reunion in one common origin. Therefore the history of mankind written by Moses has its vouchers and proofs throughout the society which covers the earth.

By transmitting to us the memory of the customs of the first ages, Moses informs us of the most important fact that could be communicated by ancient history, namely, that religion was never abandoned to the arguments of the human mind nor to the changeable researches of our reason. The Creator imprinted the principles of it on the conscience, with the "light that illumines every man coming into this world." No one can be ignorant of that law which is properly called the natural law, because the common nature of spirits is such that they are all sensible how just it is to honor our Maker and love our fellow-creatures. But the spirit of singularity might presume to add to, or retrench something from it; therefore all was fixed from the very beginning by the regulation of outward worship. Adam and Noah, when they ordered their children to make religious assemblies at certain determined times, and prescribed to them the rule of offerings, sacrifices, common repasts, and funeral honors, transmitted likewise to their posterity the instructions inseparably connected with these practices.

The latter were significant and a real language, forming a public and perpetual predication, through which all those that were willing to understand it, conceived easily and without hesitation that we ought to give glory to Him from whom we receive everything; that we are obliged to acknowledge ourselves sinners, and to supplicate for the expiation of our iniquities;

that we are bound to love our fellow-men, as being children of a common Father; and finally, that we ought to honor the dead who have been faithful to the law, and be still united to them in the bond of charity, because they are not really dead any more than their works, but expect the judgment of God in an economy wherein the good shall be rewarded and the wicked punished.

The expectation and the persuasion of the first men are evidenced by their practices, as our actions are the expression of our faith. What we have just seen is the ground itself of our own religion, as well as of the natural law; whence it follows that the origin of primitive usages is no other than the foundation of the gospel: it is the same spirit and the same wisdom. Reason then at its first opening had its rule ready made; whatever it has added of its own, is only an alteration. But we cannot derive so much advantage from the narrative of Moses, unless we previously corroborate by unsuspected testimonies that will show its exactness.

The regulations and faith of the first ages mentioned by Moses, are found among the major part of the ancient nations, even those most sunk in superstition and idolatry. Hence all the monuments of profane antiquity become our authorities. Travellers have found the same customs amongst all nations the most obscure and uncivilized, and all unite in one and the same origin, and lead back to a primitive source of uniformity found only in the Mosaic history. Error produced many evil absurdities. Baal, an imaginary lord, placed in the sun; Baaltis, an imaginary queen of heaven, dwelling in the moon; a mother of harvests abiding on the earth, and other similar mad in ventions of corrupted man, all of them destroying solid piety and

VOL. V.-7

trust in God. There was opportunity for capitulating and bargaining with these whimsical and malicious deities, because they were the work of imagination and of human contrivance. But when we consult Homer, Hesiod, Diodorus, Plutarch, and all antiquity, we find among a world of fables, the relig ious assemblies, offerings, sacrifices, and expiations; the common repast and mutual tokens of brotherly love; the honors paid to the dead, and expression of the strict union which men intended to maintain with their departed friends. Paganism annihilated the spirit of religion, at the same time that it clogged it with ceremonies; but the original worship and the primitive truths were found in it. Now, this profession of living brotherly love with all men; of giving glory to a being, author of all things, and equitable judge, who punishes and rewards with justice, is properly what is understood by the natural law. It has been fixed from the beginning of the world, by the uniform teaching resulting from and implied in the outward worship and the earliest ordinances. So that Moses by informing us of the history of man, informs us likewise that he had from the beginning a rule, although he unfortunately pretended to frame it by his own understanding. This caused the fall of the first parents, and perverted the primitive worship and traditional law. All those who swerved from revelation have been led away by a spirit of independence and singularity. Thus the rule prescribed and revealed has been at all times one; whilst the arguments which evade, or obscure, or suppress it, are innumerable, and multiply from one year to another. The Bible continues the history of man throughout the progress of the corruption that ensued from his fall; and from the selection of a few events only, out of

a long extent of time, we perceive that it is rather the history of the human heart than of man. It keeps within the circle of our wants, and teaches us to judge wisely of all things, by valuing them only in subordination to the precepts of religion. When, for instance, it adverts to the most estimable arts, such as metallurgy, agriculture, music, musical instruments, and other beneficial inventions bestowed even on wicked men in the posterity of Cain, it shows that Providence gives even to the badly disposed what may be their due, and that we must notice their industry without jealousy or murmuring. It exhibits the domestic feuds and all the dismal consequences of polygamy first introduced by Lamech, in defiance of the primitive institution. This first example brings on and authorizes greater usurpations, and the greedy and strong appropriate to themselves what ought to have been divided. Anger and fury, supported by a strong constitution and a long life, make society a band of fighting men always in turmoil. Man advances from fall to fall, from mistake to mistake. Religion gradually dwindles even in the families that boasted of a remnant of fidel

ity to outward worship. The sight of God's works, reason, conscience, religion, its practices, and the most intelligible instructions connected with them; in a word, all the aids of religion remained of no effect. The human mind reasoned upon the whole ordinance of heaven, and from the examination of authorities fancied it had found means to evade, or motives to despise them. It cast away the yoke of the law, and of the outward worship; for, wherever the spirit of singularity will intermeddle and pretend to be the rule, there will infallibly prevail schisms, infidelity, immorality, and the most fatal excesses. The Deluge alone could put a stop to the crimes of the first age of the world, whilst at the same time it became a dreadful warning for all futurity. Heathen antiquity has preserved the memory of this catastrophe; poets and historians of several continents have mentioned it; so that there is a monument of the awful event more exposed to observation than a pyramid erected immediately after the occurrence, and which should afterwards be searched for in one single place, without any certainty of the date of its erection.