respondence.

1. Covenant of Circumcision.
2. Entrance on his Ministry by Moses.
3. Moses by the Red Sea.
4. Delivery of Law on Sinai.
5. Destruction of Korah.
6. Death of Moses.
7. Covenant of Baptism.
8. Entrance on His Ministry by Christ.
9. Peter and Andrew by the Sea of Galilee.
10. Sermon on Mount.
11. Giving Keys to St. Peter.
12. Last Supper.

Of these pictures, Sandro painted three himself, Perugino three, and the
Assumption; Ghirlandajo one, Signorelli one, and Rosselli four.[BA] I
believe that Sandro intended to take the roof also, and had sketched out
the main succession of its design; and that the prophets and sibyls
which he meant to paint, he drew first small, and engraved his drawings
afterwards, that some part of the work might be, at all events, thus
communicable to the world outside of the Vatican.

210. It is not often that I tell you my beliefs; but I am forced here,
for there are no dates to found more on. Is it not wonderful that among
all the infinite mass of fools' thoughts about the "majestic works of
Michael Angelo" in the Sistine Chapel, no slightly more rational person
has ever asked what the chapel was first meant to be like, and how it
was to be roofed?

Nor can I assume myself, still less you, that all these prophets and
sibyls are Botticelli's. Of many there are two engravings, with
variations: some are inferior in parts, many altogether. He signed none;
never put grand tablets with 'S. B.' into his skies; had other letters
than those to engrave, and no time to spare. I have chosen out of the
series three of the sibyls, which have, I think, clear internal evidence
of being his; and these you shall compare with Michael Angelo's. But
first I must put you in mind what the sibyls were.

211. As the prophets represent the voice of God in man, the sibyls
represent the voice of God in nature. They are properly all forms of one
sibyl, [Greek: Dios Boule], the counsel of God; and the chief one, at
least in the Roman mind, was the Sibyl of Cumae. From the traditions of
her, the Romans, and we through them, received whatever lessons the
myth, or fact, of sibyl power has given to mortals.

How much have you received, or may you yet receive, think you, of that
teaching? I call it the myth, or fact; but remember that, _as_ a myth,
it _is_ a fact. This story has concentrated whatever good there is in
the imagin