this book,[5]
Michelangelo often neglected to carry his work to completion. He was
so possessed with his ideas that he could not work fast enough in
sketching them on the marble, but after this, it did not matter so
much to him about the finishing. He had done enough to show his
meaning.

[Footnote 5: Note particularly the Cupid on page 15, and the tomb of
Giuliano de' Medici on page 81.]

There are reasons for liking such work all the better for being
unfinished. Some of the most delightful stories ever written, like
those of Hawthorne, leave something at the end still unexplained. The
reader's imagination is then free to go on forever exploring the
mystery, and inventing new situations. So in this bas-relief, the
great sculptor does not work out the details, but allows us to
exercise our own fancy upon them. He sketches his thought in a few
noble lines, and each may round out for himself the completed ideal.

II

DAVID

Long ago in the country of Palestine lived a lad named David, who kept
his father's sheep. His free life out of doors made him strong and
manly beyond his years. The Israelites were at this time at war with
the Philistines, and David's quick wit and indomitable courage fitted
him to play an important part in the issue of the war.

The Philistine army contained a giant named Goliath, described as "six
cubits and a span" in height. That is over ten feet; but perhaps his
terrible appearance, in all his armor, made him taller than he really
was.

One day this giant came out from his army and made a proposal to the
Israelites:[6] "Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your
servants: but if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be
our servants, and serve us." Every day, morning and evening for forty
days, the Philistine stood forth and repeated his challenge, yet in
vain. Saul, the king, and all Israel, were "dismayed and greatly
afraid."

[Footnote 6: 1 Samuel, chapter xvii. verses 8, 9.]

Now it happened that David's three elder brothers were in the
Israelite army, and one day their father sent him to them with a
present of some provisions. While the lad was talking with his
brothers, Goliath came out with his usual call of defiance. David
listened with wonder and indignation. "Who is this Philistine?" he
asked scornfully, "that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
The brothers were a