[Footnote 26: Jeremiah, chapter ix. verse 1.]

All the pathos of these words is conveyed in Michelangelo's wonderful
figure of Jeremiah. The story of his life is written in his face and
attitude. He is an old man, with long gray beard, but he still has the
splendid vigor which comes from plain and simple living. He sits with
bowed head, lost in thought, his long life passing in review before
his mind's eye. His message is spoken, his race is run; he is weary
of life and longs to die. There is something inexpressibly moving in
his profound melancholy.

The painter has placed just behind the prophet two little figures
which are like attendant spirits. They seem to sympathize with
Jeremiah's sorrows. The figures ornamenting the sculptured niche
remind us of those in the background of the Holy Family and have a
similar decorative purpose.

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,