Part 174 (1/2)
The mythology of the Persians has allegorized the same doctrine, in the history of those genii of light who strayed from their dwellings in the stars and obscured their original nature by mixture with this material sphere; while the Egyptians connecting it with the descent and ascent of the sun in the zodiac considered Autumn as emblematic of the Soul's decline toward darkness and the re-appearance of Spring as its return to life and light.
Besides the chief spirits of the Mahometan heaven, such as Gabriel the angel of Revelation, Israfil by whom the last trumpet is to be sounded, and Azrael the angel of death, there were also a number of subaltern intelligences of which tradition has preserved the names, appointed to preside over the different stages of ascents into which the celestial world was supposed to be divided.[2] Thus Kelail governs the fifth heaven; while Sadiel, the presiding spirit of the third, is also employed in steadying the motions of the earth which would be in a constant state of agitation if this angel did not keep his foot planted upon its...o...b..
Among other miraculous interpositions in favor of Mahomet we find commemorated in the pages of the Koran the appearance of five thousand angels on his side at the battle of Bedr.
The ancient Persians supposed that Ormuzd appointed thirty angels to preside successively over the days of the month and twelve greater ones to a.s.sume the government of the months themselves; among whom Bahman (to whom Ormuzd committed the custody of all animals, except man) was the greatest.
Mihr, the angel of the 7th month, was also the spirit that watched over the affairs of friends.h.i.+p and love;--Chur had the care of the disk of the sun;--Mah was agent for the concerns of the moon;--Isphandarmaz (whom Cazvin calls the Spirit of the Earth) was the tutelar genius of good and virtuous women, etc. For all this the reader may consult the 19th and 20th chapters of Hyde, ”_de Religione Veterum Persarum_,” where the names and attributes of these daily and monthly angels are with much minuteness and erudition explained. It appears from the Zend-avesta that the Persians had a certain office or prayer for every day of the month (addressed to the particular angel who presided over it), which they called the Sirouze.
The Celestial Hierarchy of the Syrians, as described by Kircher, appears to be the most regularly graduated of any of these systems. In the sphere of the Moon they placed the angels, in that of Mercury the archangels, Venus and the Sun contained the Princ.i.p.alities and the Powers;--and so on to the summit of the planetary system, where, in the sphere of Saturn, the Thrones had their station. Above this was the habitation of the Cherubim in the sphere of the fixed stars; and still higher, in the region of those stars which are so distant as to be imperceptible, the Seraphim, we are told, the most perfect of all celestial creatures, dwelt.
The Sabeans also (as D'Herbelot tells us) had their cla.s.ses of angels, to whom they prayed as mediators, or intercessors; and the Arabians wors.h.i.+pped _female_ angels, whom they called Benab Hasche, or, Daughters of G.o.d.
[1] The account which Macrobius gives of the downward journey of the Soul, through that gate of the zodiac which opens into the lower spheres, is a curious specimen of the wild fancies that pa.s.sed for philosophy in ancient times.
[2] ”We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and placed therein a guard of angels.”--_Koran, chap. xli_.
THE LOVES OF THE ANGELS
'Twas when the world was in its prime, When the fresh stars had just begun Their race of glory and young Time Told his first birth-days by the sun; When in the light of Nature's dawn Rejoicing, men and angels met On the high hill and sunny lawn,-- Ere sorrow came or Sin had drawn 'Twixt man and heaven her curtain yet!
When earth lay nearer to the skies Than in these days of crime and woe, And mortals saw without surprise In the mid-air angelic eyes Gazing upon this world below.
Alas! that Pa.s.sion should profane Even then the morning of the earth!
That, sadder still, the fatal stain Should fall on hearts of heavenly birth-- And that from Woman's love should fall So dark a stain, most sad of all!
One evening, in that primal hour, On a hill's side where hung the ray Of sunset brightening rill and bower, Three n.o.ble youths conversing lay; And, as they lookt from time to time To the far sky where Daylight furled His radiant wing, their brows sublime Bespoke them of that distant world-- Spirits who once in brotherhood Of faith and bliss near ALLA stood, And o'er whose cheeks full oft had blown The wind that breathes from ALLA'S throne,[1]
Creatures of light such as _still_ play, Like motes in suns.h.i.+ne, round the Lord, And thro' their infinite array Transmit each moment, night and day, The echo of His luminous word!
Of Heaven they spoke and, still more oft, Of the bright eyes that charmed them thence; Till yielding gradual to the soft And balmy evening's influence-- The silent breathing of the flowers-- The melting light that beamed above, As on their first, fond, erring hours,-- Each told the story of his love, The history of that hour unblest, When like a bird from its high nest Won down by fascinating eyes, For Woman's smile he lost the skies.
The First who spoke was one, with look The least celestial of the three-- A Spirit of light mould that took The prints of earth most yieldingly; Who even in heaven was not of those Nearest the Throne but held a place Far off among those s.h.i.+ning rows That circle out thro' endless s.p.a.ce, And o'er whose wings the light from Him In Heaven's centre falls most dim.[2]
Still fair and glorious, he but shone Among those youths the unheavenliest one-- A creature to whom light remained From Eden still, but altered, stained, And o'er whose brow not Love alone A blight had in his transit cast, But other, earthlier joys had gone, And left their foot-prints as they past.
Sighing, as back thro' ages flown, Like a tomb-searcher, Memory ran, Lifting each shroud that Time had thrown O'er buried hopes, he thus began:--
FIRST ANGEL'S STORY.
'Twas in a land that far away Into the golden orient lies, Where Nature knows not night's delay, But springs to meet her bridegroom, Day, Upon the threshold of the skies, One morn, on earthly mission sent,[3]
And mid-way choosing where to light, I saw from the blue element-- Oh beautiful, but fatal sight!-- One of earth's fairest womankind, Half veiled from view, or rather shrined In the clear crystal of a brook; Which while it hid no single gleam Of her young beauties made them look More spirit-like, as they might seem Thro' the dim shadowing of a dream.
Pausing in wonder I lookt on, While playfully around her breaking The waters that like diamonds shone She moved in light of her own making.
At length as from that airy height I gently lowered my breathless flight, The tremble of my wings all o'er (For thro' each plume I felt the thrill) Startled her as she reached the sh.o.r.e Of that small lake--her mirror still-- Above whose brink she stood, like snow When rosy with a sunset glow, Never shall I forget those eyes!-- The shame, the innocent surprise Of that bright face when in the air Uplooking she beheld me there.
It seemed as if each thought and look And motion were that minute chained Fast to the spot, such root she took, And--like a sunflower by a brook, With face upturned--so still remained!
In pity to the wondering maid, Tho' loath from such a vision turning, Downward I bent, beneath the shade Of my spread wings to hide the burning Of glances, which--I well could feel-- For me, for her, too warmly shone; But ere I could again unseal My restless eyes or even steal One sidelong look the maid was gone-- Hid from me in the forest leaves, Sudden as when in all her charms Of full-blown light some cloud receives The Moon into his dusky arms.
'Tis not in words to tell the power, The despotism that from that hour Pa.s.sion held o'er me. Day and night I sought around each neighboring spot; And in the chase of this sweet light, My task and heaven and all forgot;-- All but the one, sole, haunting dream Of her I saw in that bright stream.
Nor was it long ere by her side I found myself whole happy days Listening to words whose music vied With our own Eden's seraph lays, When seraph lays are warmed by love, But wanting _that_ far, far above!-- And looking into eyes where, blue And beautiful, like skies seen thro'
The sleeping wave, for me there shone A heaven, more wors.h.i.+pt than my own.
Oh what, while I could hear and see Such words and looks, was heaven to me?