I've seen thee look, all radiant, down, Within which nothing wrong could dwel; Now, too, another change of light! As noble bride, still meekly bright, Thou bring'st thy Lord a dower above All earthly price, pure woman's love; And show'st what lustre Rank receives, When with his proud Corinthian leaves Her rose thus high-bred Beauty weaves. Wonder not if, where all's so fair To choose were more than bard can dare; I've watch'd thee through so bright hath been, Hailing thee beautiful in all ! Far better loves to bend its arms Downward again to that dear earth, From which the life, that fills and warms Its grateful being, first had birth. "Tis thus, though woo'd by flattering friends, And fed with fame (if fame it be) This heart, my own dear mother, bends, LOVE AND HYMEN. LOVE had a fever-ne'er could close To let him pine so were a sin ; One, to whom all the world's a debtorSo Doctor Hymen was call'd in, And Love that night slept rather better. Next day the case gave further hope yet, Though still some ugly fever latent ;"Dose, as before"-a gentle opiate, For which old Hymen has a patent. After a month of daily call, So fast the dose went on restoring, That Love, who first ne'er slept at all, Now took, the rogue! to downright snoring. When around you the shades of your Mighty in For, if such are the braggarts that claim to be free. fame, Come, Despot of Russia, thy feet let me kiss; FILICAJAS and PETRARCHS, seem'd bursting to Far nobler to live the brute bondman of thee, view, Than to sully ev'n chains by a struggle like this! THE LOVES OF THE ANGELS. PREFACE. THE Eastern story of the angels Harut and Marut,' and the Rabbinical fictions of the loves of Uzziel and Shámchazai, are the only sources to which I need refer, for the origin of the notion on which this Romance is founded. In addition to the 1 See note on page 524. * Hyde, de Relig. Vet. Persarum, p. 272. 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 passed for philosophy in ancient times. a In Somn. Scipionis, cap. 12. fitness of the subject for poetry, it struck me also as capable of affording an allegorical medium, through which might be shadowed out (as I have endeavored to do in the following stories) the fall of the Soul from its original purity-the loss of light and happiness which it suffers in the pur suit of this world's perishable pleasures-and the In the system of Manes, the luminous or spiritual principa owes its corruption not to any evil tendency of its own, but to a violent inroad of the spirits of darkness, who, finding thenselves in the neighborhood of this pure light, and become passionately enamored of its beauty, break the boundshes between them, and take forcible possession of it. b See a Treatise "De la Religion des Perses," by the Abbé Foucher, Mémoires de l'Académie, tom. xxxi. p. 456. 3 punishments, both from conscience and Divine justice, with which impurity, pride, and presumptuous inquiry into the awful secrets of Heaven are sure to be visited. The beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche owes its chief charm to this sort of "veiled meaning," and it has been my wish (how- | ever I may have failed in the attempt) to communicate to the following pages the same moral interest. 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 assume the government of the months themselves; among whom Bahman (to whom Among the doctrines, or notions, derived by Ormuzd committed the custody of all animals, Plato from the East, one of the most natural and except man) was the greatest. Mihr, the angel sublime is that which inculcates the pre-existence of the 7th month, was also the spirit that watched of the soul, and its gradual descent into this dark over the affairs of friendship and love;-Chûr material world, from that region of spirit and light had the care of the disk of the sun;-Mah was which it is supposed to have once inhabited, and agent for the concerns of the moon;-Isphanto which, after a long lapse of purification and dârmaz (whom Cazvin calls the Spirit of the trial, it will return. This belief, under various Earth) was the tutelar genius of good and virtuous symbolical forms, may be traced through almost women, &c. &c. &c. For all the the reader may all the Oriental theologies. The Chaldeans repre- consult the 19th and 20th chapters of Hyde de sent the Soul as originally endowed with wings, Relig. Vet. Persarum, where the names and attriwhich fall away when it sinks from its native butes of these daily and monthly angels are with element, and must be reproduced before it can much minuteness and erudition explained. It aphope to return. Some disciples of Zoroaster once pears, from the Zend-avesta, that the Persians had inquired of him, "How the wings of the Soul a certain office or prayer for every day of the might be made to grow again?"-" By sprinkling month, (addressed to the particular angel who prethem," he replied, "with the Waters of Life."-sided over it,) which they called the Sirouzé. "But where are those Waters to be found?" they asked." In the Garden of God," replied Zoro aster. 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 towards 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, or ascents, into which the celestial world was supposed to be divided. 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 orb." 1 "We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and placed therein a guard of angels."-Koran, chap. xli. 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 Principalities 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 classes of angels, to whom they prayed as mediators, or intercessors; and the Arabians worshipped female angels, whom they called Benad Hasche, or, Daughters of God. 2 See D'Herbelot, passim. THE LOVES OF THE ANGELS. "TWAS when the world was in its prime, Rejoicing, men and angels met1 Than in these days of crime and wo, Gazing upon this world below. Alas, that Passion should profane, Ev'n then, the morning of the earth! That, sadder still, the fatal stain Should fall on hearts of heav'nly birthAnd that from Woman's love should fall So dark a stain, most sad of all! One ev'ning, in that primal hour, On a hill's side, where hung the ray Of sunset, bright'ning rill and bow'r, Three noble youths conversing lay; And, as they look'd, from time to time, To the far sky, where Daylight furl'd His radiant wing, their brows sublime Bespoke them of that distant worldSpirits, 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," Creatures of light, such as still play, Like motes in sunshine, round the Lord, And through their infinite array Transmit each moment, night and day. The echo of His luminous word! Of Heaven they spoke, and, still more oft, 1 The Mahometans believe, says D'Herbelot, that in that early period of the world, "les hommes n'eurent qu'une seule religion, et furent souvent visités des Anges, qui leur donnoient la main." "To which will be joined the sound of the bells hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the Throne, so often as the Blessed wish for music." See Sale's Koran, Prelim. Dissert. The ancient Persians supposed that this Throne was placed in the Sun, and that through the stars were distributed the various classes of Angels that encircled it. Till, yielding gradual to the soft And balmy evening's influenceThe silent breathing of the flow'rs, The melting light that beam'd above, As on their first, fond, erring hours, Each told the story of his love, The history of that hour unbless'd, 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 prints of earth most yieldingly; Who, ev'n in heav'n, was not of those Nearest the Throne, but held a place Far off, among those shining rows That circle out through endless space, And o'er whose wings the light from Hir In Heaven's centre falls most dim. Still fair and glorious, he but shone And left their foot-prints as they pass'd. Like a tomb-searcher, Mem'ry 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,* And midway choosing where to light, The Basilidians supposed that there were three hundred and sixty-five orders of angels, "dont la perfection alloit en décroissant, à mesure qu'ils s'éloignoient de la première classe d'esprits placés dans le premier ciel." See Dupuis, Orig. des Cultes, tom. ii. p. 112. 4 It appears that, in most languages, the term employed for an angel means also a messenger. Firischteh, the Persian word for angel, is derived (says D'Herbelot) from the verb Firischtin, to send. The Hebrew term, too, Melak, has the same signification ! I saw, from the blue element Oh beautiful, but fatal sight! Which, while it hid no single gleam 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 lower'd my breathless flight, The tremble of my wing all o'er (For through each plume I felt the thrill) Startled her, as she reach'd the shore Of that small lake-her mirror still- With face upturn'd-so still remain'd! In pity to the wond'ring maid, Though 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 ; One sidelong look, the maid was goneHid 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, Passion held o'er me.' Day and night I sought around each neighboring spot; 1 The name given by the Mahometans to the infernal regions, over which, they say, the angel Tabhek presides. By the seven gates of hell, mentioned in the Koran, the commentators understand seven different departments or wards, in which seven different sorts of sinners are to be punished. The first, called Gehennem, is for sinful Mussulmans; the second, Ladha, for Christian offenders; the 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, List'ning to words, whose music vied With our own Eden's seraph lays, Two separate worlds-the one, that small, The dull, wide waste, where she was not! But vain my suit, my madness vain; One earthly look, one stray desire, Of the hot noon but look more white; To which her prayers at morn were sent, Well I remember by her side Sitting at rosy even-tide, third, Hothama, is appointed for Jews; and the fourth and fifth, called Sair and Sacar, are destined to receive the Sabeans and the worshippers of fire: in the sixth, named Gehim, those pagans and idolaters who admit a plurality of gods are placed; while into the abyss of the seventh, called Derk Asfal, or the Deepest, the hypocritical canters of all religions are thrown. |