ries require no description. We all know how they will come to a christening and fix the infant's destiny, not seldom mixed with a dash of spite. As man's faith in, and respect for, the supernatural influence has dwindled, so has the realization of the beings exercising it. Diana, the dreaded Artemis, granddaughter of the first and greatest of the Titans, and sprung from Jove himself, and who was also one of the twelve great Olympian deities, has dwindled down to Titania, the fairy queen, who despatches her subjects with the command Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds; Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings, Whilst the fays and elves and all the varied streams of beings, which have contributed to their pedigrees, have now shrunk into one small common stream, fast drying up in the sands of thought, some of the conceptions from which they sprang, at an early date diverged and struck root independently. This new departure produced a luxuriant growth, which has since become as important in the world's history as the other has faded into insignificance. most Starting from the general principle that everything in heaven and earth had its spirit, we can at 1 "Midsummer Night's Dream," Act ii. sc. 3. F once understand how good things and beneficent phenomena had good and beneficent spirits. When the expanse of heaven was regarded as the most sublime object that could be presented to the senses, the great spirit of the heavens was looked upon as the Supreme God, the originator of all other spirits, and the creator of all things in heaven and earththe Father in Heaven. The sun and moon, and the five other planets come next in the order of sublimity; far beyond the reach of man, moving about the heavens, of apparent set purpose, and not like the other stars; their spirits therefore came next in order in the heavenly hierarchy, and amongst the star-gazing people of Chaldea, imposed a veneration for the number seven, which has reverberated throughout the world, and is still instinct with life in our midst at the present day: we thus have amongst the Chaldeans seven gods of the seven planets, and among the ancient Persians or Zends, Ahura-Mazdu associated with the seven Amshaspands, immortal saints who assisted him in the government of the world. The Jews had their archangels, each one with a host of angels under his command: the Egyptians had good genii in the service of Osiris : and in the Apocalypse we read of the seven lamps before the throne of God, which have their seven angels, the watchers,—or unsleeping ones, to whom was committed the care of the seven Christian Churches. One star after another was seen to dart across the heavens; these were messengers sent on special missions of mercy or retribution. retribution. Or the falling star, apparently torn from its place and suddenly cast down into darkness, had its spirit, which in like manner was cast out of heaven; one of the wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. 1 The innumerable stars, the host of heaven, each one with its attributed spirit, most naturally furnished the Great Spirit and the archangels with messengers and attendants; and so we find them continually described both in sacred and secular literature. These angels are perfectly pure spirits, without sin and invisible; they are messengers" and ministers of God's will and purposes, nothing is too great or too insignificant for them to perform ; they will destroy Sodom with fire and brimstone, or tend the growth of a wayside herb. Their number is beyond computation, outnumbering the inhabitants of the world in the proportion of a million to one." These hosts of angels passed on from the Jewish faith into the Christian creed: no wonder that in view of such a wealth of beneficent spirits, man should have concluded that one of their number was specially commissioned to guard and defend him 1 Jude 13. 2 Farrar's "Life of Christ," ii. 466. |