[Footnote 19:  Genesis, chapter i verses 26-27; chapter ii verse 7.]

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:  and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him....  And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Michelangelo takes these words, and expresses, in his own way, the supreme creative moment when “man became a living soul.”

The man Adam lies on a jutting promontory of the newly made land.  Though his body is formed, he lacks as yet the inner force to use it; he is not yet alive.  The Creator is borne along on a swirling cloud of cherubs, moving forward through space like a rushing mighty wind.  Perhaps the painter was thinking of the psalmist’s beautiful description of God’s coming:[20] “He rode upon a cherub, and did fly:  yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.”

[Footnote 20:  Psalm xviii, verse 10.]

[Illustration:  THE CREATION OF MAN. Sistine Chapel, Rome.]

In His fatherly face is expressed the good purpose to create a son “in his own image.”  The cherubic host accompanying him are full of joy and awe.  We are reminded of that time of which the poet Milton wrote,[21] when

                               “All
    The multitude of angels, with a shout
    Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
    As from blest voices, uttering joy,—­Heaven rung
    With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled
    The eternal regions.”

[Footnote 21:  Paradise Lost, book iii. lines 344-349.]

The sign of the Almighty’s creative power is the outstretched arm extended towards Adam with a superb gesture of command.  As if in answer to the divine summons, the lifeless figure begins to stir, rising slowly to a sitting posture.  The face turns towards the source of life as the flower turns to the sun.  The eyes are lifted to the Creator’s with a wistful yearning.  It is the look we sometimes see in the eyes of a woodland creature appealing for mercy.  It is such a look as might belong to that imaginary being of the Greek mythology, the faun, half beast, half human.  Thus Adam, still but half created, begins to feel the thrill of life in his members, and is aroused to action.  He lifts his hand to meet the Creator’s outstretched finger.  The current of life is established, the vital spark is communicated, and in another moment Adam will rise in his full dignity as a human soul.

This picture was painted long before there was any knowledge of electricity, of electric sparks, and electric currents.  Yet, if we did not know otherwise, we might fancy that Michelangelo had some of these wonderful ideas of modern science in mind, as the symbols of the great thoughts he was trying to express.