ww, something betwixt the interjectional whistle of hey-day! and the word itself) — "curse him," continued Dr. Slop, "and may Heaven, with all the powers which move therein, rise up against him, curse and damn him, unless he repent, and make satisfaction. Amen. So be it, - so be it. Amen."

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'I declare," quoth my Uncle Toby, "my heart would not let me curse the devil himself with so much bitterness." "He is the father of curses," replied Dr. Slop. “So am not I,” replied my uncle. "But he is cursed, and damned already, to all eternity," replied Dr. Slop.

"I am SORRY FOR IT," quoth my Uncle Toby. "Dr. Slop drew up his mouth, and was just beginning to return my Uncle Toby the compliment of his whu w-w, or interjectional whistle, when the door hastily opening in the next chapter but oneput an end to the affair." - Tristram Shandy, Book III., Chap. xi.

But the affair was not put an end to. It has flourished, and brought forth good fruit. When people were led to consider that Jews had organs and dimensions like themselves, they first began not to loathe them, then they pitied them, and at last they did them justice. A similar process of reflection took place in behalf of birds and beasts: it was discovered that horses and dogs had limbs to be hurt, as well as ourselves; and it is now doubted by some whether we ought to shut in a cage a winged animal, whose region is the air. (By and by we shall begin to have commiseration for fish, and anglers will cease to think themselves the humanest of men.) At length the

devil himself was done justice to; and noble-hearted Burns finally wished him out of his coal-hole. So

"Fare you well, auld Nickie-ben!

O wad ye tak a thought and men'!
Ye aiblins might — I dinna ken―
Still hae a stake-

I'm wae to think upo' yon den,
Even for your sake!"

1830.

A FEW WORDS ON ANGELS.

S we have said so much about Devils, we thought we could not complete these supernatural discussions better, nor leave off with a pleasanter "taste in the mouth," than by adding what we know of Angels. We hope it will prove like a dessert after the "hot dishes."

Angel comes from the Greek word Aggelos (pronounced Angelos), and signifies a messenger. Mercury in Hesiod is called the Angel of Jupiter. Any messenger, literally speaking, is an angel. A ticketporter might write on his card, "Thomas Jones, Angel." A beautiful woman, coming to us with an errand of peace or joy, is literally, as well as metaphorically, an angel. But in modern language (and herein we desire to speak with a seriousness becoming the idea of "the sweet and loving angels," as Luther calls them *) the word signifies one of the multitudes of those winged spirits, who, according to the Jews and Christians, enjoy the beatitude of the

*Table-Talk.

divine presence, are eternally glorifying it with hymns and harpings, and are occasionally despatched to us on messages or with aid. Luther is of opinion, that while occupied in heaven, they are, nevertheless, fighting for us on earth; "for," says he, in his homely way, and with that vein of familiarity in his respect, which does not diminish the real reverence of enthusiasm," the angels have long arms."* But it has been the general opinion of the churches, that every man has a guardian angel assigned him, who helps him in his ways, encourages his virtues, and supplies proper trouble on occasion to turn him from his vice. This is the Good Demon of the Platonists; nor is it possible to make inquiry into the nature of the one spirit without hearing of the other.

Nothing is here meant to be insinuated against the existence of myriads of heavenly creatures. We have

"And is there care in heaven? And is there love
In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,
That may compassion of their evils move?
There is:- else much more wretched were the cace
Of men then beasts: But O! th' exceeding grace
Of Highest God that loves his creatures so,
And all his workes with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed Angels he sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe!

"How oft do they their silver bowers leave
To come to succour us that succour want!
How oft do they with golden pineons cleave
The flitting skyes, like flying pursuivant,
Against fowle feendes to ayd us militant!
They for us fight, they watch and dewly ward,

And their bright squadrons round about us plant:
And all for love and nothing for reward:

O, why should Heavenly God to men have such regard?"

So Spenser beautifully sings in The Faerie Queene, Book II., Canto viii.

the same hope of their existence as we have of thousands of other things, good and lovely, and the same tendency to disbelieve in their useless opponents. But the most orthodox believers may, according to the divines, be too anxious and too peremptory on these points; and therefore we shall not follow them in their flights with St. Dionysius, who pretended to draw up a peerage of the angelic noblesse. We shall not venture to say with the great poet (who, after all, made a bad business of it), ·

"Into the heaven of heaven I have presumed

neither shall we discuss with the churchmen whether angels have or have not bodies; whether they are always exercising their understandings; how long it would take them to come down from the eighth heaven, reckoning at the rate of a thousand miles an hour; or how many of them could dance on the point of a needle without jostling. A Jesuit, of the name of La Cerda, informs us that a single angel whirls the heavens, and all the orbs about with it, at the rate of 26,000 German miles an hour.* We cannot take his word for it; and, indeed, the greater and more angelical the hopes of mankind become, the less will they take people's words for anything, a dogma by its essence containing the principles of falsehood, which is the reason why so many fine ones come to nothing, and endanger the virtues they pretend to support.†

*De Excellentia Spirituum Cœlestium, Cap. 2.

†The learned reader need not be informed that the word angel, like a great many other words in Scripture, is capable of having other interpretations put upon it than that of a winged messenger from above. See a work entitled the Oriental Missionary.

Yet, on reflection, we give a list of the alleged hierarchy of angels, and of some of their names. The poets, having made use of them, have rendered. them a warrantable part of fiction; and there is a music in the sound. Milton, in the. addresses of Satan, does not observe the due order of the hierarchy, which stands as follows: ·

These are the "trinal triplicities" of which Spenser talks; the whole hierarchy consisting of three classes, and every class of three sections. Upon the subject of their employment round the "throne" of the divine being, we would rather not dwell; our respect for the mystery of the Deity being too great, and not choosing to degrade it even to the heights of poetry. We may remark, however, that the placing Seraphim before Cherubim, or love before knowledge, hardly be thought unworthy of anything divine, and is a fine moral. The distinction of offices and faculties in these lists of angels is, it must be confessed, not always very distinct. It is not so in the one be

can