NOTE.--There is a difference of opinion among
critics as to the subject of the statue at South Kensington.
Heath Wilson considered it an Apollo. The writer has
followed Symonds in calling it Cupid.

The size of the statue may be calculated from the foot rule
which lies across the pedestal in the picture.




IV

MOSES


In Michelangelo's statue of Moses the great Hebrew leader is
represented at the height of his career. He was a prophet, a poet, a
military commander, and a statesman. The story of his life will show
how all these qualities could be combined in one person.

At the time of his birth his people were in slavery to the Egyptians,
who cruelly oppressed them. Their numbers were increasing so rapidly
that it was feared they would soon outnumber their masters. So the
command went forth to drown every boy baby. Now the mother of Moses
had no mind to lose her boy, and "when she could not longer hide him,
she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and
with pitch, and she put the child therein and laid it in the flags by
the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would
be done to him."[9]