figure standing between his knees. This may represent a volume of
Chaldean learning. His posture shows that he has been consulting the
volume, and now turns to his writing tablets to record his own
thoughts.

His broad forehead shows him to be a student and a thinker. The waving
hair is brushed back to form an aureole about his face. It is the face
of a dreamer in a moment of inspiration. Eagerly he writes his words
of mingled poetry and prophecy. He is full of youthful enthusiasm for
his work, a nature fitted for action as well as for vision. He has
also the spirited bearing of one who fears neither the rage of a lion
nor the wrath of a king. There is a breezy energy in his motions, as
if thoughts came more swiftly than he could transcribe them.

His expression of happy anticipation is in vivid contrast to
Jeremiah's sorrowful attitude of retrospection. The picture brings out
clearly the fact that the keynote of Daniel's prophecy is hope.
Looking into his rapt face, we may imagine that this is the message he
is writing: "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars
forever and ever."[28]

[Footnote 28: Daniel, chapter xii. verse 3.]




XI

THE DELPHIC SIBYL