suggested to me by the Eastern legend of the two angels, Harut and Marut, as it is given by Mariti, who says, that the author of the Taalim founds upon it the Mahometan prohibition of wine. The Bahardanush tells the story differently.

Page 19.

Why, why have hapless Angels eyes? Tertullian imagines that the words of St. Paul, "Woman ought to have a veil on her head,* on account of the angels," have an evident reference to the fatal effects which the beauty of women once produced upon these spiritual beings. See the strange passage of this Father, (de Virgin. Velandis,) beginning "Si enim propter angelos, &c.," where his editor Pamelius endeavours to save his morality at the expense of his Latinity, by substituting the word "excussat" for "excusat." Such instances of indecorum, however, are but too common throughout the Fathers, in

* 1 Corinth. xi. 10. Dr. Macknight's Translation.

proof of which I need only refer to some passages in the same writer's treatise, " De Animâ," to the Second and Third Books of the Pædagogus of Clemens Alexandrinus, and to the instances which La Mothe le Vayer has adduced from Chrysostom in his Hexameron Rustique, Journée Seconde.

Page 24.

When Lucifer, in falling, bore

The third of the bright stars away.

"And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." Revelat. xii. 4.-" Docent sancti (says Suarez) supremum angelum traxisse secum tertiam partem stellarum.” Lib. 7. cap. 7.

Page 25.

Rise, in earth's beauty, to repair

That loss of light and glory there!

The idea of the Fathers was that the vacancies, occasioned in the different orders of angels by the fall, were to be filled up from the

human race. There is, however, another opinion, backed by Papal authority, that it was only the tenth order of the Celestial Hierarchy that fell, and that, therefore, the promotions which occasionally take place from earth are intended for the completion of that grade alone: or, as it is explained by Salonius (Dial. in Eccl.) Decem sunt ordines angelorum, sed unus cecidit per superbiam, et idcirco boni angeli semper laborant, ut de hominibus numerus adimpleatur, et proveniat ad perfectum numerum, id est, denarium." According to some theologians, virgins alone are admitted "ad collegium angelorum;" but the author* of the "Speculum Peregrinarum Quæstionum" rather questions this exclusive privilege :"Hoc non videtur verum, quia multi, non virgines, ut Petrus et Magdalena, multis etiam virginibus eminentiores sunt," Decad. 2. cap. 10.

*F. Bartholomæus Sibylla.

Page 30.

'Twas RUBI.

I might have chosen perhaps some better name, but it is meant (like that of Zaraph in the following story) to define the particular class of spirits to which the angel belonged. The author of the Book of Enoch, who estimates at 200 the number of angels that descended upon Mount Hermon, for the purpose of making love to the women of earth, has favoured us with the names of their leader and chiefs-Samyaza, Urakabarameel, Akibeel, Tamiel, &c. &c.

In that heretical worship of angels, which prevailed, to a great degree, during the first ages of Christianity, to name them seems to have been one of the most important ceremonies; for we find it expressly forbidden in one of the Canons (35th) of the Council of Laodicea. ονομάζειν τις αγγελος. Josephus too mentions, among the religious rites of the Essenes, their swearing" to preserve the names of the angels," και συντηρήσειν τα των αγγελων ονοματα. Bell. Jud.

lib. 2. cap. 8.-See upon this subject, Van Dale, de Orig. et Progress. Idololat. cap. 9.

Page 30.

....... Those bright creatures, nam'd
Spirits of Knowledge.

The word cherub signifies knowledge-T

αυτών

xaι dεOTTIXOV, says Dionysius. Hence it is that Ezekiel, to express the abundance of their knowledge, represents them as "full of eyes."

Page 33.

Summon'd his chief angelic powers
To witness, &c.

St. Augustin, upon Genesis, seems rather inclined to admit that the angels had some share ("aliquod ministerium") in the creation. of Adam and Eve.