Those who have studied the history of the times in which Michelangelo lived may find in this figure of Jeremiah an expression of the artist’s own character.  Like the old Hebrew prophet, he lived in the midst of a corruption which he was helpless to remedy, and which saddened his inmost soul.  His own life was full of disappointments.  In his lonely old age he wrote a sonnet, which is not unlike some of Jeremiah’s utterances, and which is a clue to the meaning of the picture:—­

    “Borne to the utmost brink of life’s dark sea,
    Too late thy joys I understand, O earth! 
    How thou dost promise peace which cannot be,
    And that repose which ever dies at birth. 
    The retrospect of life through many a day,
    Now to its close attained by Heaven’s decree,
    Brings forth from memory, in sad array,
    Only old errors, fain forgot by me,—­
    Errors which e’en, if long life’s erring day,
    To soul destruction would have led my way. 
    For this I know—­the greatest bliss on high
    Belongs to him called earliest to die.”

X

DANIEL

In striking contrast to the bowed and sorrowful old prophet Jeremiah is the alert and eager youth Daniel.  The two men were contemporaries, though there was a difference in their ages.  When, in the reign of Jehoiakim, the Jews were taken into captivity to Babylon, the youth Daniel went with them, while the old prophet Jeremiah was left behind.  Daniel was chosen, with three companions, to be educated at the court of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.  They were taught the Chaldean language and the sciences, and the king was delighted with their progress.

An opportunity soon came for Daniel to be of service to his royal patron.  Nebuchadnezzar had a strange dream, which none of his magicians could interpret, because, unfortunately, he had forgotten it.  In his anger that no one could supply the lost memory, he commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.  But Daniel prayed to God that the secret might be revealed to him.

His prayers were answered, and he related to the king not only just what the dream was, but the full meaning of it:[27] “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image.  This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces....  And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”

[Footnote 27:  Daniel, chapter ii. verses 31-35.]

In Daniel’s interpretation the different portions of the image represented the different kingdoms which should follow, one after another, in the future.  The stone which brake the image in pieces referred to the final kingdom which the God of heaven shall set up, “which shall never be destroyed,” but which shall stand forever.