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PREFACE.

AFFAELLE was one of the most famous of the far famed Italian painters. I think you must remember both his name and his paintings, if you have ever been at Hampton Court Palace, or the National Gallery. This great painter invented the beautiful pictures in this little book, besides a number of others which are known by the name of Raffaelle's Bible. When travel to Rome, you you will see these pictures painted in a large and noble palace there, called the Vatican. They were painted on the vaulted ceiling of a part of the palace called the Loggie, not by Raffaelle himself, but by some of his scholars, after his drawings. I dare say these pictures (which have been copied from those at Rome) will make you desire to know something more about Raffaelle. He generally painted pictures which relate to events in the Bible; and I will tell you, as far as I can recollect, where some of his principal works are to be found in this country.

Raffaelle's Cartoons (so called because they were painted on card or stout paper) are at Hampton Court, and his painting of St. Catherine is at the National Gallery. Among Lord Francis Egerton's pictures there is a Holy Family. Mr. Samuel Rogers has a beautiful picture of Christ on the Mount of Olives. The Marquis of Lansdowne, at Bowood, St. John the Baptist preaching. Mr. Miles, of Leigh Court near Bristol, has Christ bearing his Cross. Lord Cowper, at Panshanger near Hertford, has two pictures of the Virgin Mary and our Saviour. And at Blenheim at Woodstock, there is a large and most noble picture of the Virgin Mary and our Saviour, and two Saints. Raffaelle lived three hundred and twenty-four years ago. He lived to be only thirty-seven years old. His birth-day was on Good-Friday, March 28th, 1483, and the day of his death was on Good-Friday, April 6th, 1520. The more you know of Raffaelle's pictures, the more you will love them; and when you remember them, they will always bring to your mind images of beauty and grandeur. I am sure you will learn to respect Raffaelle's memory, and teach others to do so likewise.

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No. I.

ADAM AND EVE.

THE

HE man and woman whom you see in this picture are Adam and Eve; they were our first parents, from whom the whole human race are descended; and the two children are Cain and Abel, their little sons. Eve is seated on a projecting part of the trunk of a tree, with her distaff in her hand; and her little boys are at her knee: all three are protected from the heat of the sun by a kind of thatched roof, for now, since their disobedience to the commands of God, they feel and suffer from heat and cold as we do. Adam is returning from his work, probably to partake of his mid-day meal; his axe lies on the ground, as if he had just left off work.

Their lot is sadly changed, since they were living

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