Angels. The ideas associated therewith. Why winged. Wishing-caps. Jehovah and His Angels made to walk by the historian.The belief in Angels incompatible with that of anomnipresent and omniscient God. Pictorial representations.Absurd conceptions of angelic wings. Angela want birds'tails. Men have tried to fly. Difference between birds andmen. Arms and wings. A writer at fault about this world isnot to be trusted in his accounts of another. Bats andsimilar mammals. The Devil better winged than Michael—YetSatan, a roaring lion, goes about as a bull with bat'swings. Angels and beetles. Harmony in creation. Strange ideaof spirits. Spiritualism. Varieties of angelic forms. Notthe products of lunacy. Angels and demigods. Egyptian ideas.Assyrian notions. Christian fancies. Birds and Men united inhuman celestialism. Persian Angels. Mithra winged. Angels inPersia twelve in number. Job, the work of a Persian Jew.Angels referred to therein. Darius had a consecrated table.Babylonian belief. Daniel. Greece and Rome. Gods, Demigods,Angels, and Saints. Christian demigods. Angels' duties.Book-keeping, clerks of wind and weather;—police-agents.The inventor of Heaven admired centralization. Babyloniantutelary Angels. Christian ones. Christian saintly imagery.The bleeding heart of Mary. A funny Chaldean goddess tomatch. Popish saints have an aureole, but no wings. Francisof Assisi could make stigmata but could not change his armsinto pinions. Babylonian and Papal emblems identicalDevelopment of Angels amongst the Jews in Babylon. Angelicmythology founded upon Astronomy and Astrology. Planets areArchangels. Angels and Devils mentioned on bowls found inMesopotamia by Layard. The probable meaning of their names.Hebrews adopted Chaldee beliefs: evidence. Juvenal. Jews andChaldeans. Sadducees and Pharisees. Sadducees and ourReformers compared. A legal anecdote. Angels in AncientItaly. Our angelic forms are of Etruscan origin. Some suchbeings had three pairs of wings. Etruscans had guardianangels for infants and children. Angels carry variousmatters. Angels of marriage. Angels for heirs of salvation.Etruscan angel of marriage. Jewish match-maker. Raphael.Description of an Etruscan painting in tomb of Tarquin. Theangel of death. The Greek theology. The Greeks taught theJews. The Jews never taught other nations. Greeks had asupreme god and a host of inferior deities. War in heaven.Titans—giants. Children of the sons of God and daughters ofmen. Greek origin of Christian and Miltonian angelicmythology. The begotten Son of God (Hercules born to Jupiterby Alcmena). Restores the kingdom to his father. Greek ideasof demons. Hebrew and Christian ideas of good and badspirits. The recording angel. Demigods and archangels. Greekdeities not winged except Mercury. Some minor gods havepinions.—Pegasus has wings. Hymen, the angel of thecovenant of marriage. Genius loci and cherubim. Alcmena andMary. Jupiter and "the power of the Highest" Romanmythology. Romans adopted the Etruscan form of angels.Christians adopted it from Romans. The Christian crozier isthe Etruscan and Romanlituus, or "divining staff." Romeand London both avid of religious novelty. Instability inreligion a proof of infidelity in the old. Hence a desirefor infallibility, to crush doubt. Angelic mythology of theBible. Christians use words in parrot fashion. Words oughtnot to stand for ideas. Prayer-cylinder in Thibet.Contradictions. Figures and metaphors are theologian citiesof refuge. Prophet who says that he converses with an angel--is he to be credited? A spirit without flesh and bones,cannot move his tongue to utter words. Drunkards see "bluedevils"—they are unreal If the appearance of a man in adream is an illusion, his words are so too. Absurd ideasabout phantoms. Notice of the deeds of a few Hebrew angels.A resume of their history. Inspiration did not revealangels. Human fancy did. Conspiracy in Heaven! The Genesisof Hell. What sort of a place it is supposed to be. God madethe Devil, so man must multiply his imps! Lucifer taughtElohim! Old Testament less knowing than the New. The Devilnot a fallen angel. The book of Enoch. Deductions drawn.
There is scarcely a single article in our current belief which does not prove, on examination, to have descended to us from Pagan sources, or to be identical with heathen beliefs older than the Hebrew. The idea of a personal God dwelling in some locality, vaguely described as "Heaven," in which He reigns, and rules, like a modern emperor, has been found to exist in almost every nation whose language we know, and whose history has descended to us. Human weakness makes it so. Such a ruler has been called Brahma, Siva, Vishnu, Mahadeva, Bel or Baal, Melech or Moloch, Ormazd, Elohim, Jah, Jehovah, Jupiter, Yahu, God, and a variety of other names; but He has always been hailed as king, and lord of all creation, having a throne beside which attend a number of servitors, standing before and around him, all ready to do his bidding and to go wherever they are sent. As a potentate rules on earth over provinces far distant from the central government, so the heavenly monarch was, and is yet, supposed to have "viceroys," "lieutenants," or "vicars," who have authority delegated to them, and exercise it under his superintendence.
A scheme such as we have described does not seem to have existed from the first amongst the Jews; for, when men of reasoning powers conceived the idea of a Creator, He was regarded as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. It became gradually interwoven with theology; for when men of limited capacity thought of such a vast empire as the universe, they, under the influence of a grovelling anthropomorphism, recognized, as they imagined, the necessity of furnishing it with a system of acquiring intelligence, and promulgating decrees which should be far superior to any postal plan devised by human kings. Amongst the Kaffirs, men with missives race against time, and by means of relays, messages are sent to vast distances in a comparatively short period. By means of horses, skilfully engaged beforehand, an ancient Persian tyrant could make his commands known all over his vast empire in the course of a few days, and moderns, by means of railways and the electric wire, can forward information at a still more rapid rate.
Yet, to old theologians, and even to observant men of the present day, all these means of communication between God and his subjects seemed to be slow. We may, for example, notice a fly buzzing round the head of the running Kaffir, or the ears of the fleetest of Persian steeds, and a swallow on the wing outstrips a railway express. The velocity of the carrier-pigeon has long been known. All these were, therefore, regarded as swift-winged creatures, and fit for message bearers. As then, it was observed, that of all beings who could move, the bird is the swiftest in its movement from place to place, it was very natural that dogmatists should represent the messengers of the great king with powerful pinions, like those of the eagle or the albatross. In this manner the addition of wings to any mythological character sufficed to show that he who bore them was a celestial being; one who stood before the supreme ruler, and received from him delegated power—either as vicar, viceroy, or messenger. Thus the Greeks depicted Mercury with wings on his legs and elsewhere, and the Hebrews gave large pinions to their seraphim—sometimes as many as six being used by each (Isa. vi. 2.) The Etruscans pictured their angels with two wings only, and we have followed, implicitly, their lead. But the Hindoos did not in early times adopt ideas such as this. They noticed the speed of the sunbeam, the velocity of the hurricane, and the rapidity of thought; and since they saw many birds borne away by the wind, they imagined that celestial messengers must travel in a corresponding fashion. For one who rode upon the clouds of the typhoon, pinions were useless. I have in my possession a plate,* in which the celestial attendants on the god are all wingless, but have sex. The name given to the attendants referred to is "Apsaras," who are described as having been produced in myriads when the ocean was churned. They are said to reside between the waters above the firmament and those below it, and are represented as being of consummate beauty and elegance of form, their business being to attend upon the gods and give them pleasure, by singing, music, dancing, and in every possible way. They are sometimes represented as being of both sexes, all having the power to change their gender. Generally, they are described as females, and take the business of Venus in the Greek heaven, and of the Houris in that provided by Mahomet and his followers. The Hindoos have in their theology an abode of bliss, in which the pleasures are wholly sensual. In this they do not differ from the Christians, except that the latter only expect to indulge in music and a sanctified vengeance.
* Plate x., vol. 1, "Recherches sur l'origine, &c., des Artsde la Grèce," D'Harcanville, London, 1785. The author statesthat the plate is copied from Le Voyage de Niebuhr, T. 1,Tab. vi.
With great ingenuity the Hebrews conceived that the will of God must be equivalent to His wish—that His wish must be the same as a command, and, consequently, that He could send His messenger from one spot to another in an instant; or, if He chose, He could go Himself and communicate personally, as He did with Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, and Joshua. For such a Being even light would be too slow (see Psalm xviii. 10; civ. 3, 4).
From a similar thought arose the stories which have found their way into our fairy mythology of "wishing caps" which would enable the bearer to pass in an instant of time, and wholly invisibly, from one part of the world to another. In oriental countries, a carpet or a coat was the carrying agent, whilst amongst the more clumsy story-tellers of Europe, a pair of boots was furnished, whose wearer could cover twenty miles at a stride.
In the plenitude of our prejudice we may smile at the caprice which invented the "wishing cap;" but if we reflect calmly upon the matter, we discover more depth of thought in this than has been shown in the formation of tales in which winged angels are introduced. The contrast will readily be recognized if we take a scene from "Fortunatus," and another from the Old Testament The former, by putting on a cap, could transport himself in a moment from Formosa to Great Britain. Whereas we learn, from Genesis xviii, that three angelic men took "a walk" from somewhere to Sodom, that they might see what sort of a place it really was. The hero in the fairy tale was not fatigued; the angels of the Hebrew mythology were glad to wash their feet, and to eat and drink, so as to recruit their energies (v. 8; Ps. lxxviii. 25.) A mythical tale like this demonstrates incontestably the mean condition of the story-teller, who does not furnish Jehovah even with a mule or ass, but makes Him go afoot.
We must, therefore, regard the theological contrivance which furnished angels with wings, as being a clumsy one; indicating superficiality, rather than profound thought, and emanating from human infirmity rather than divine inspiration or direct revelation. We shall see this more distinctly if we inquire into the ideas necessarily associated with wings.
The theologians who have furnished their ideal messengers with wings show, in the first place, that they have the idea of an air upon which the sails can strike—of muscular structures to move the pinions, and of the necessity for food to enable the motive power to be kept up. The idea of a winged angel, therefore, necessarily implies a belief in the presence of a solid material body moving through an aeriform fluid, resembling the atmosphere just above the earth's surface. That there really was this belief associated with celestial messengers we find in the Jewish scriptures, wherein it is stated, as if it were a common occurrence, that angels came to talk familiarly with men; as, for example, Gen. xviii, xix., xxxii.; and Judges i., where we are told that an angel came from Gilgal to Bochim, to deliver a statement, to the Hebrews, such as a silly girl at Lourdes asserted the Virgin Mary had come from Heaven to make to her; see also Judges xiii., and the book of Tobit.
That angels were, moreover, supposed to possess thews and sinews, we find from Gen. xxxii. 24-30, wherein we are told that some celestial being wrestled with Jacob, but could not prevail against him. In a previous chapter, although it is only in a dream, Jacob saw them mount and descend a ladder as if their wings—if they then had them—were useless.
We shall not now be far from the truth, if we affirm that winged messengers, envoys, or angels, can only be supposed to exist by individuals whose god is nothing more than a man without universal power and knowledge. To any one who believes God to be omnipresent, the idea of His having ambassadors, or vicars upon earth, is blasphemous.
The comparative coarseness of those minds which fabricated the notion of winged men, as celestial messengers, will be the more certainly recognised, if we examine into the pictorial conception which they have permitted, and still allow, to pass, for the embodiment of their idea. Let me, for example, invite the reader to cast his mental eye over the winged men-like bulls, &c., of Assyria and Babylonia; the winged genii of the ancient Egyptians; the winged soul and angel of Death of the Etruscans; the angels of ancient and modern Christian painters; and the pinioned heads which came from the walls to listen to the music of Saint Cecilia—according to Papal legends—and then to try to discover the locality of the muscular organs which are necessary to give movement to the wings. Everybody who has ever carved, at his dinner-table, a grouse, partridge, pheasant, duck, or other fowl, must be aware of the enormous mass of flesh which is associated with the wings. If we bare the breast and remove the pinion bones from any bird which flies—(it is necessary to make this proviso, for such as the dodo, the aptéryx, the ostrich, emu, and others, have wings which are only rudimentary, and not used for flight)—we find but a very meagre body remaining behind. Hence we see the necessity of furnishing an imaginary angel which has wings with muscles that will enable the pinions to be used; but in no pictorial representation of an angelic messenger do we ever find the ordinary figure of a man departed from, or any provision made for muscles to move the feathered organs. And we must notice, in passing, that it is monstrous to suppose that a man must become, in part, a bird ere he can be useful to a god!
Again, we recognize in the conventional form of angels a total absence of knowledge of natural history, of gravity, of force, &c. Let us, for example, imagine for a moment that the metaphorical wings are real ones used in flight. We see directly that they will only raise the individual perpendicularly into the air. The angelic human creature, even if his wings were—as they ought to do—to replace his arms, would still lack a tail, to use as a rudder to direct his flight. It is clear, then, that no one has seen an angel, and that those who have pretended to have done so, were deeply ignorant men. To make our observations upon this point somewhat more comprehensible, we may just refer to the fact that many individuals, misled apparently by the mass of ideal celestial men—or angels—which are to be seen in almost every cathedral or parish church in Europe, have conceived the idea that they could fly, if only they could contrive the necessary apparatus to append to their arms, legs, or both; in other words, many men have fancied that they could do better for themselves than nature has done for them. But a few minutes' calm thought would teach any one familiar with the composition of forces, that an attempt at the imitation of a bird's flight must be a failure in man. Let me show this by a simple observation: A bird extends its wings, and by a strong stroke towards its own body, rises into the air, though neither solid nor rigid, both wings and air have apparently been so. In imitation of this bird, we will now suppose that a man places himself, with arms outspread, like the letter T between two uprights, forming something like the letter U.
The individual would then be represented thus [J]—unlike the bird, hispoint d' appuiwould be solid, and his arms would be far more unyielding than feathers. Yet not one athlete in a million could spring upwards, so as to stand upon the summit of the U. Man's "pectoral muscles"—as physiologists call the mass of flesh below the collar bone and above the nipple—are intended to move the arm; the bird's pectoral muscles are intended to move the body. Cut off a man's arms and pectorals—the counterpart of the bird's wings and fleshy breast—and he has barely lost a tenth part of his weight; on the other hand, cut off the corresponding parts of a bird, i.e.t the pinions and the muscles which move them, and not a tenth part of the original weight is left behind. Speaking coarsely, we may then affirm that man's body is relatively about a hundred times heavier—air being the standard—than that of a bird, and his pectoral muscles, relatively to his body, a hundred times less in bulk. Consequently, even if a human being could, by muscular action, develop the bulk of his "pectorals," so that they should be relatively to the rest of his frame, equal to those of a bird, still his bulk would be so much more solid than that of the bird's bones, flesh, and feathers, that his power of flight would be a hundred times less. A man, with the exception of his lungs, is in health, solid or fluid, in every part of him; a bird's bones, on the contrary, are everywhere permeated by air cavities, which make them as light as pith or cotton wool. A pound of lead and a pound of feathers are certainly equal in weight, yet, if both are allowed to drop from a balloon, the first will reach the ground a long time before the second. In like manner, by contrivance, I could with my breath sustain an ounce of eiderdown in the air, although I am quite powerless to sustain, by like means, the same quantity of solid meat. I say nothing of the relative position of the shoulder-joint in man and birds—although the point is physiologically important.
Again, we may assert that the originators of the angelic mythology were absolutely ignorant of that which is called comparative anatomy. We have already expressed our belief that no one has a right to expect that people will believe in the reality of a man's knowledge respecting the unseen world, so long as he is palpably at fault in his notions respecting the visible creation. Consequently we assert that one who is careless as regards actual phenomena and ignorant of common truths, cannot be trusted in metaphorical, mythological, or divine lore.
A comparatively small amount of observation proves to us that amongst the highest classes of animal life, the wing is the counterpart of the arm or of the fore-leg. In the creature called the "flying squirrel," there is no pinion as there is in the "condor,"—there is simply an unusual development of skin which unites the fore and hind limbs much in the same way as the web unites together the toes of the goose or duck. In the bat, which, though a mammal, is allied, as regards its power of flight, to the birds, we find that the fore-leg is developed so as to make a bony frame on which a thin skin may be stretched, which is still farther strengthened by being attached to the hind leg. In the ordinary bird, the skin which we see in the bat and flying squirrel is replaced by feathers, which are longer, broader, and lighter than a fold of skin. The ordinary method, therefore, in which angelic beings are depicted does not associate them with the highest classes of animal life. Our modern artists are much more skilful in depicting Satan than in pourtraying Raphael, Gabriel, or Michael.
Our last remarks would be comparatively unimportant, were it not that the close observation which the moderns have given, to every thing connected with natural history, has shown us that there is a harmony throughout creation. No animals have noses on their backs, nor eyes in their hind legs. No insect—so far as I can remember—has a thick neck; nor has any mammal or bird a thin one, like the wasp, bee, or fly. As we imagine that it is proper to extend our knowledge rather by the lights which we have already attained, than by silly or hap-hazard guessing, so we think that it is better to investigate the subject of angelic forms by comparative anatomy, than by the dreams of divines, who probably have never studied any other subject than the best means of gaining influence over their fellow-mortals. We assert that there is not in all the creation, known to man, any creature with arms and legs—or their equivalents, legs and wings, or fore-legs and hind legs—which has, in addition, wings upon arms, legs, head, or back. In such a combination there is something monstrous. I confess that I could, if satisfactory evidence were given, credit the occurrence of a devil with a tail—of a centaur with a horse's body and a human head—but I could not possibly believe that Satan went about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he could devour in the dress of a bull with bat-like wings, as well as horns and hoofs; or that an angel of God approaches us in a form nearer to the scarabseus of Egypt than to the human form divine. Yet when we say that a pictorial angel approaches nearer to a beetle that revels in filth, than to an etherial essence which ought to be very close upon perfection, we are still far from precision. Ladybirds, cockchafers, and others of the class allied to the scarabseus that was almost deified in Egypt, have six legs, two wings, and two wing cases—ten means of locomotion in all. Butterflies, moths, and the like, have six legs and two wings. Consequently, if there be any design in creation, and angels have been created, they can only be regarded as the connecting link between the highest and the lowest classes of animal life.
If then, there be such a thing as harmony of design in Creation—if the Creator be not the author of confusion (1 Cor. xiv. 33)—if matter be material, and imponderable forces cannot be weighed or made otherwise recognisable by the senses, except by their effects—if the Almighty be omnipresent and omniscient, it is absolutely impossible for a thoughtful mind to believe in the existence of angels in any shape—whether material, immaterial, or essential. But this consideration forces us still further, and we feel compelled to ask ourselves, whether, with our minds constituted as they are, we can believe in, or understand any thing wholly immaterial? Whether we can imagine the existence, for, example, of "force" without matter?—a shape which is formless?—a form visible to the eye, yet wholly immaterial?
It seems to me to be desirable, at the present day, to call attention to this point in a particular manner, inasmuch as there are vast numbers, both in Europe and America, who believe in what is called Spiritualism, and are, in reality, as greatly the dupes of charlatans as were the disciples of Alexander the false prophet, whose history we gave in vol. II. The jargon of these pretenders is based upon the assertion in the Bible that there are spirits—the accounts of certain of these returning to the earth which they have quitted, or conversing with human beings in dreams, or in reality. But both they and their victims fail to see that a spirit, being without a material existence, cannot put matter into motion—it cannot produce the waves in the ether that cause those impressions on eye and ear which give the idea of sight and sound. We may best give our reader a glimpse of our meaning, if we compare a spirit to a picture projected on a sheet by a magic lantern. It is true that we can see it—yet we know that it is powerless to hear, to speak, to move; it cannot of itself even vanish. Yet there are many onlookers who, by a ventriloquist, can be made to believe that the picture speaks.
After prolonged observation, I believe that spirits, angels, demons, &c., have no reality except in the delusions of individuals whose diseased brains induce them to believe that they see apparitions and hear them speak. To this matter we shall probably return by and by.
We may now revert to a subject which we mentioned incidentally a few pages back—viz., the ideas which induced priestly inventors to depict the angels of their imagination in a particular form. Those who are familiar with the Bible, and not with any other book, and who decline to examine into the ways of God in the universe generally, will naturally reply to our strictures that the angels of the Jews were described in a particular fashion, because they were seen "in the visions of Elohim" (Ezek. i. 1; Dan. x. 5, 6; and Rev. i. 10-20). But this observation involves the idea that the angels which have appeared are so various in shape, that an individual who had seen and described one, could not enable another man to recognize a similar messenger when seen under another form. In Genesis xviii, xix., xxxii., and Judges xiii, angels assume the form of men; in Isaiah vi. they have six wings—one pair being used to cover the face, another to cover the feet, and another to fly with. To this it may be objected that what Isaiah described were seraphim; yet verse 6 shows that one of these, at least, was a messenger or envoy. In Ezekiel i. we find an apparent description of angels, or an envoy, which is so involved that it is most difficult to understand it. In Daniel x. an archangel is described as a brilliant man whose body was like the beryl—tarshish—a stone of a sea-green colour probably; or, possibly, a topaz, "whose eyes were like lightning, and whose arms and feet were like polished brass, and whose loins were girded with fine gold"—as if to conceal his sex—a characteristic which we find, from Matt. xxii. 30, angels do not possess. The writer's description must, therefore, be classed with that of afreets, genii, and the like, in theArabian Nightstales. In Zechariah, again, we find an angel or envoys described (ch. i.)—(a), "as a man riding upon a red horse," having behind him "red horses, speckled and white" (v. 8); (6), as "four horns" (vv. 18,19); (c), as "four carpenters" (w. 20, 21.) Again, in chap, v., we find an angel in "a flying roll;" another in "an ephah;" another in a big piece of lead, and another in a woman, and still another in two beings of the same nature.
We can readily understand that some who are unacquainted with lunatics, would describe these portraitures as the result of insanity or hallucination; but those who are more conversant with persons of unsound mind will doubt whether any ordinary insane persons ever see or describe things which they have never met with. One or two, certainly, have wonderful flights of imagination, but these have been highly educated men of extensive reading, &c. In mania, when visions are seen, some person or other whose description has been read by the lunatic, or who has really been observed, appears—or something which the individual has seen depicted, or otherwise been told of, presents itself, or there is a strange jumble of reality and possibility—just as in dreams, comical, grotesque, or horrible combinations are common, and cause us no surprise. There is, however, too much consistency in the method in which angels are depicted, to enable us to believe that their form was decided by any lunatic or dreamer.
We scarcely can form an idea whether the Egyptians had a definite belief in angels, as the word is understood by moderns. With them, as it was with the Greeks, it is most probable that all beings which Jews and Christians alike would call angels, were designated "gods" or "demigods." Be this as it may, we find that the Mizraim had deities who wore wings. A round disc, apparently intended to represent the sun, two erected serpents to support it, and a long broad pinion on each side of the body, was symbolic of "the Supreme." The same may be said to be true of Assyria and Persia—only that in the symbolism of the two last, the serpents did not, generally, appear. In plate 30a, of Wilkinson'sAncient Egyptians, 2d series, a human figure is represented as winged, and before him is a five-rayed star. In plate 35 of the same book, Isis is represented as a nude woman, winged; the position of one pinion being such that it serves to conceal the body from the waist almost to the knees. In plate 36, "Athor" is depicted as being attended by a human-headed bird. On the other hand, in plate 39, where the gods are instructing the king in the use of the bow, the former are bird-headed men without wings. Whilst in plate 44, the soul of a dying man is represented as a human-headed bird with wings, arms, and legs. In plates 52, 53 of the same work, we notice specimens of winged serpents. In plate 63, Isis again appears as a wing bearer, and in this figure we find, as we ought to do, that the feathers of the pinions are attached to the arms of the goddess.
In Assyria, we may gather from the sculptures which have been preserved, that there was not any idea of angels being essentially different to gods. Indeed, it is very difficult wherever there is a polytheism in any form, to understand the distinction between a god and an angel Even in the religion which passes current as "the Christian," which acknowledges three gods as "coeternal together and coequal," we are distinctly told that one of the three "proceeds" from the father and the son (Athanasian Creed). The New Testament, again, repeatedly informs us that the son was "sent" into this world by his father to effect a special purpose—e.g.t "God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him" (1 John iv. 9; see also John iii. 16, 17; Matt. xxi. 37; Mark xii. 4; John v. 38; vi. 29; vii. 28, 29; and compare with John i. 33 and Mal.iii. 1-3). If, therefore, we regard the bearer of a message or an order from the supreme king as an "angel," Jesus of Nazareth was certainly one, inasmuch as he said that he was sent hither by the father of all; and the Holy Ghost was another, for we find John (xv. 26) stating that Jesus would send him to the earth—an assertion repeated in chap, xvi. 7—whilst in the fourteenth chapter of the same book we observe that the father was to send this comforter, who was to abide in this world for ever (v. 16). Indeed, the presumed identification of Jesus with the promised Messiah, "the prince" of Dan. ix. 25, shows the belief that he was one who was as much appointed to do a certain duty as was that "angel of death" which went out to destroy the Assyrian army (2 Kin. xix. 35).
With such indicated reservation, we notice that the angel which the gods sent to watch over various Assyrian kings is depicted almost invariably with wings. Now he is an archer, standing in a disc representing the sun, having wings below him; now he stands in front of the circle, the pinions and sometimes his body terminating in feathers resembling a bird's expanded tail. Then, again, the minor divinities bear wings, some of them no less than four (Bonomi'sNineveh, 2d ed. p. 157). It would be superfluous to linger over a description of the winged bulls with human heads, and the winged men with eagle or hawks' faces, which are so familiar to us in consequence of the researches of Layard and others. All alike bear testimony to the connection, in human celestialism, between birds and men. Nor can we reasonably doubt, that the idea intended to be conveyed by the inventor of the Assyrian composition which we refer to was, that the being, thus symbolized, was famous for strength like the bull; for rapidity of movement, like the eagle; and for wisdom, like a man.
There is to be found amongst the relics of the ancient Persians a symbol of an angel who was supposed specially to guard the king. This somewhat resembles that used at Nineveh. There are, however, many forms of it. For example, we find in Hyde'sDe Religione veterum Persarum(Table 6) a figure of a Persepolitan king, above whom, in the air, and quite distinct from the sun, stands a venerable man fully draped, standing upon what seems to be a large pine cone reversed, which is surrounded by clouds instead of being furnished with wings. The man thus depicted extends the forefinger of one hand to the sun, whilst with the other he holds a ring. In Table 6 Mithra is represented as winged, after the modern fashion of angels.
Hyde assures us, in chapter twelve, that twelve angels were recognized by the ancient Persians, in addition to those who presided over the months and days. One of these appears to be the same as the Greek Rhadamanthus, who sat as supreme judge in the invisible world, and apportioned to the dead their rewards or punishments. A second was equivalent to Neptune and ruled the sea, but he had also under his charge everything which related to generation, or production generally. The third was much the same as the more modern Lares and Penates, and superintended dwelling-houses and families. The fourth had a somewhat similar and subordinate office. The fifth was named after the stars, and had his kingdom in the south heavens. The sixth the learned author does not describe. The seventh really seems to be a sort of duplicate angel, called Haruts and Maruts, who were two naughty ones that rebelled, and are, according to some, imprisoned still in Babylon, being hung up by the heels. The eighth, Hyde is himself doubtful about, and does not describe. The ninth is the same as the German "storm-king." The tenth may fairly be styled the "angel of the victualling department." The eleventh is the giver of life, the opponent of Azrael, the minister of death; and the twelfth angel is one which we may call either by the name of "conscience" or "judgment" for he it is who approves or reprobates the works of man.
Though I quote from Hyde, I am somewhat doubtful of the value of his authority. He relies to a considerable extent upon the work known as the "Zend Avesta," and supposed to represent the tenets of Zoroaster and his followers. This book is, as I have mentioned, generally believed to be a genuine relic of antiquity by Continental scholars, though it is mistrusted by British orientalists, who regard it as a modern production founded upon Aryanism, Christianity, and Maho-metanism. In my judgment, my compatriots are right; and if it be proper to trust such a man as Sir H. Rawlinson in the matter of the "Avesta," one may be pardoned for believing with him that the book of Job was written by a Persian Jew, or translated by a Hebrew from a work in the time of Darius, or some other of the Achoemenidæ.
In Job angels are only once mentioned—viz., in chap. iv. 18, and then they are spoken of in such a way, that we are doubtful whether or not to regard the verse simply as a poetic metaphor. The idea which runs through the part of the chapter in which the passage occurs is this: "Job, you are suffering; the innocent do not perish; the righteous are not cut off; you have been very proper; man has nothing to say against you; but you are not right in accusing God of injustice; you doubtless have done some wrong, for even God's servants are not wholly trusted; they sometimes misbehave unknowingly, and his own angels are called perverse by him (Job iv. 18); you cannot expect to be better than they, and it is no shame to you to be in the same category as they are."
But it must be allowed that the words of the story—"There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them; and the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it"—do really intimate a full belief in good angels and bad, who were not so much angels, messengers, or envoys, as subordinate powers resembling the barons of ancient England, the Paladins of Charlemagne, or the kings created by Buonaparte; amongst whom all were, so to speak, "good angels," except Bernadotte, of Sweden, who rebelled against the imperial thraldom, and became to his late master a modern satan. In whichever way we regard the subject of angels, amongst the Persians there is little doubt that the Iranian conception of God was wholly anthropomorphic, and that the Medians and their magi, as well as their Persian neighbours, acknowledged a "father of lies," who was antagonistic to the deity.*
* Quintus Curtius informs us (Life of Alexander the Great,b. v. a ii.) that Darius had in Babylon a consecrated table,from which he used to eat; that Alexander began to beashamed of his sacrilege in treading upon it—(it had beenplaced as a footstool for his imperial chair)—the sacrilegebeing against the gods presiding over hospitality, carvedupon the table. These may be regarded as angels orotherwise, according to fancy.
Our knowledge of the angelic mythology of Babylonia is comparatively slight. The main thing which shrouds the subject in darkness is the difficulty which exists to distinguish between god, gods, and angels. If we could put any confidence in the book of Daniel, we should recognize therefrom that his "Nebuchadnezzar" most distinctly believed in the existence of angels, for in chap. iii. 25 he believes that he sees the son of God (bar elohim), and in verse 28 of the same chap. he remarks that "God hath sent his angel (malachah), and delivered his servants that trusted in him." Again, in the fourth chapter, in which he recounts a dream, he declares that he saw "a watcher and a holy one" (geer and kadesk) come down from heaven with a message to him. But Daniel is not an adequate authority upon ancient Babylonian beliefs. We are, in the absence of direct testimony upon this subject» driven to such evidence as is drawn from sculptured or other remains in ruins and on gems, and to cuneiform and other writings. George Rawlinson sums up his account thus—(Ancient Monarchies, vol. I, ch. vii., pp. 138, 9): "Various deities, whom it was not considered at all necessary to trace to a single stock, divided the allegiance of the people, and even of the kings, who regarded with equal respect, and glorified with exalted epithets, some fifteen or sixteen personages. Next to these principal gods were a far more numerous assemblage of inferior or secondary divinities, less often mentioned, and regarded as less worthy of honour, but still recognized generally through the country. Finally, the Pantheon contained a host of mere local gods or genii, every town and almost every village in Babylonia being under the protection of its own particular divinity."
The passage above quoted, which represents very fairly our existent knowledge, suggests to the thoughtful mind a comparison with other religions. In Greece there were many great gods and goddesses, and other divinities of less renown. In Rome there were gods for almost everything. But what these nations called "gods" the Hebrews called "angels," as we shall see shortly. In Christendom angels and gods have, as a general rule, been deposed, and "saints" have taken their places. Not only has every town a cathedral which is dedicated to some particular name—said to have been borne by a holy man or woman, whose aid in heaven is thus secured by his votaries upon earth—but every church in every parish, and every chapel in every church is set apart to a particular "saint." Still farther, every trade and every position in life has its tutelary patron in heaven, and secondary gods are as common in Papal districts as they were in the land of the Chaldeans. The philosopher cannot find a valid distinction between Ishtar, Venus, and Mary, Dionysus and Denis, and a host of other gods, saints, or angels.
Assuming that the minor gods of Greece and Rome, and those essences generally called "angels" are substantially the same order of beings, we find that the Babylonians had a great number of celestial envoys, viceroys, or messengers who ruled over the land and sea, the sky and storms, the thunder and the rain, crops, men, war, buildings—everything, indeed, was superintended by some one on behalf of the Supreme Ruler.
We might pause here to speculate upon the question whether there is any difference in kind between such a kingdom as Babylonia or Russia and the heaven believed in by the ancient Jews and the modern Christians. In all there is an autocratic sovereign who has a prime minister and secretaries of state, who keep his books and perform his will according to his bidding; under these again there are private clerks, who superintend wind and weather, rain and hail, snow and frost; governors of provinces, mayors, or prefects of cities; police, and so large a host of subordinates, that nothing, great or small, can be done which escapes the notice of one of the imperial envoys or ministers. The inventor of heaven, such as we know it, was certainly an admirer of 'centralization'. Those who desire to see the description of the unseen world modified are those who are opposed to an absolute monarchy, and who see in everything, everybody, and in all the world a proof of the presence of a supreme, omniscient, omnipresent, Creator, Ruler, or Governor.
Without going into an account of the Chaldean mythology, we may say that there is strong reason to believe, both from the nomenclature which has survived, and from such gems as are preserved from destruction, that every Babylonian, whether bond or free, was called after some deity, who was supposed ever afterwards to be his tutelary angel In modern times Roman Catholics hold a similar belief, and each parent imagines that by making selection, for his offspring, of the name of a particular saint, the latter can be induced to take the child under its special care.
The learned in papal mythology know that every saint is depicted in such a manner that none shall be mistaken. To such an extent indeed is pictorial contrivance carried, that the art of recognising a particular saint demands a special study. It is all but certain that the same custom prevailed in Babylon; but, as all the professors which taught the means of identification have passed away, we can only guess at the name or nature of the angel. Let us imagine, for example, what an archaeologist could make of the figure of Mary—of the bleeding or burning heart, two thousand years after all history of the mother of Jesus has passed away, like that of Ishtar has done. A curious figure, called heart-shaped, but really not so, is found placed on the central part of a woman's breast; from it flames appear to arise and blood to drop, and through it is a dagger, and this mass of imagery is put outside the body, and the dress is held open to enable any one to see it.
Without a key to the enigma, this is a mystery; but when the key is given, and the inquirer hears the explanation, he finds it so absurd that it is difficult to believe it. In like manner, when I see upon a Babylonian gem, copied as a vignette on the title-page of Landseer'sSabean Researches, a woman who has a beard, a necklace, two small breasts, from each of which she squeezes apparently a river of milk; over whose breastbone there is one large globe and two small ones, placed perpendicularly; who has a spider waist, and wears a skirt covered with pistol-shaped ornaments, I, not knowing whether the Chaldeans adored "our lady of the flowing bosom," cannot frame an idea as to the name of the saint, angel, virgin, or martyr which is depicted, or what may have been her peculiar duties, who she was, and what trade she patronised.
Whatever idea the Papal Church entertains respecting her canonised saints, one thing is remarkable, viz., that they are not portrayed as having wings. Each has an aureole of some sort round his or her head—a painter's contrivance for saying "This individual, who seems like a man or woman, is not a common but a divine creature." Francis of Assisi is, in addition, depicted with stigmata, or marks on his hands, feet, and side, which, though they resemble those made with nails in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, were doubtless, in the case of the "saint," made with the strong caustic called "spirit of salt" or other escharotic. We might speculate upon the state of mind which sees in the assumption of "stigmata" a greater evidence of faith than would be offered by the conversion of the arms into the pinions of Michael the archangel; but, as it is so much easier for even the most potent saint to make breaches in his skin, than to persuade feathers to grow on his arms, we do not think the task worthy of our care.
The Babylonians in this respect were predecessors of papal pagans. It is a rare thing to find on any of their gems a winged angel or genius. One such is depicted on the frontispiece of Landseer'sSabean Researches, which is birdlike both as regards the head and pinions; and four other winged creatures are given in Lajard'sCulte de Venus. In two the figures are human headed, and combined with the body of a quadruped. At a later period of Babylonian mythology "grotesques" were introduced, apparently from Egypt.
It is not to be lightly passed by, that the symbol which represented the presence of the deity—which, if we may adopt a phrase, we should call "the angel of his presence" (see Exod. xxxiii. 14,15; Isa, lxiii. 9), is almost identical in the Chaldean and the papal religions, viz., a circle containing a cross, an emblem as common in our churchyards as in the capital of Nebuchadnezzar.
The resemblance between papal and Chaldean emblems and doctrines have repeatedly attracted the attention of theologians; and I am not far wrong in asserting that Protestants generally have identified "the woman" of Revelation xvii., spoken of as "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth," with Rome under the popes. For myself I do not care to express any opinion on the point, beyond a general dissent from the popular estimation of the dictum and its interpretation. At the same time I must declare that every year, over which my inquiries have extended, has imbued me more and more with wonder at the similarity between the ancient Babylonian and the modern papal religion. The two resemble children of the same parents, only that one is older than the other; and it requires but little penetration in an observer to trace in both, the lineaments of a grovelling superstition, united with a base priestly cunning.
In our own estimation the strongest evidence in favour of a belief in angels, of every degree, amongst the Chaldeans and Babylonians is the enormous development of angelic mythology amongst the Jews, who lived in the city of Nebuchadnezzar, and in those who migrated thence into Palestine subsequent to the period of the captivity. From indications, which are necessarily imperfect, we have formed the opinion that the Babylonians were astronomical students of great proficiency, from a very remote antiquity; that many of these professors turned their attention to what is called judicial astrology—i.e., they attempted to judge of future events by certain phenomena occurring in the heavens, and especially in the relationship between different planets and the various constellations.
As the planets wander through the sky, naturally they were regarded as the messengers of El—"the Supreme," who sent them to investigate the condition of groups of stars, many of which formed a sort of community that was unvisited by the Great King, for months together, and, in many instances, not at all.As the heliacal rising of one star seemed generally to be followed by good weather, and the corresponding rise of another intimated the reverse, it was natural that one should be regarded as an angel of happiness, the other as a harbinger of misery or death. So strongly rooted is this belief amongst some, that it even "holds its own" in educated England. The astronomer Royal is often asked to cast a nativity; and a living merchant of Liverpool does so yet, having confidence that his deductions suffice to prove their value.
The formula is "Astra regunt homines, sed regit astra Deus"—"The stars rule men, but God rules the stars." A guardian star, then, that is to say, the particular planet or other conspicuous celestial body which was "in the ascendant" at the period of the birth of each individual, was regarded in the same light as Christians esteem protective angels and Romanists estimate patron saints. There can be, we think, little doubt that the seven archangels are the seven planets known to the ancients, each of which had a day dedicated to it, and who thus originated the week of seven days. These amongst the Phoenicians were called the Cabeiri, or the powerful ones. In the conclusion at which we have arrived we are greatly strengthened by the discovery in Babylonian ruins of certain bowls; facsimiles and descriptions of which are given in Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 510-526. The inscriptions which have been translated appear to be forms of exorcism, or amulets, by which evil spirits are to be driven away; and reference is made in these writings to the devil, for example, under the nameshida; and to Satan under the cognomenSatanah, evidently the same as the Satanas habitually used in the New Testament; also to Nirich, probably from a root like the Hebrewnarag, "a noise maker or screamer." This creature, as I think, is the same as the "Satyr" of Isaiah xiii. 21, and xxxiv. 14, and represents or personifies those unseen but howling maniacs who wandered about at night (seeLilith and Satyrin my second volume). Another demon is calledZachiah, a cognomen which I cannot satisfactorily explain unless it is allied toZachar,and indicates the power which, as the French would say, "can tie a knot in the needle" (nouer l'aiguilette) or "a levin brand." Another of the devils is called "Abitur of the Mountain," whose name resembling, as it does, the JewishAbiathar, is more likely to belong to the good than the bad angels. Lilith is another demon still feared by the Jews, who employ charms against her to this day. She is supposed to be a sort of spiritual vampyre, and to suck the life out of infants and young people. These names of angels occur in the first inscription given by Layard; in the second we find Satan, associated with idolatry, curses, vows, whisperings, witchcraft, andZevatta—a concealer, rider, or enchanter from root like this and answering to the fairy which steals away.