If what we have heard concerning the success of this work, and the announcement of another, be true,-we fear that the natural desire of speedy profit, and of present fame, will render this author (as it has done the great one to whom we have alluded) careless of the higher interests of his lasting reputation. We are far from being among those squeamish and romantic folks, who would have an author of works of imagination hold pecuniary acquisition almost in scorn, but we would have this inducement kept in due subordination to the exertion necessary to permanent fame. We take our leave of Mr. Cooper with thanks for the pleasure we have derived from his productions, and with congratulations on the honour which they do to the opening literature of his country. We shall be most happy to see him again, so that it be not too soon. THE PROTESTANT BEADSMAN; or, A Series of Biogra phical Notices, and Hymns, commemorating the Saints and Martyrs, whose Holidays are kept by the Church of England: to which is appended, A Brief Review of the Scriptural and Traditionary Accounts of the Holy Angels. London, F. C. and J. Rivington. 1822. IN reviewing the progress of literature, we find that the attention of men has generally been directed at the same time to one particular branch of study. Religious, or rather superstitious, researches, chiefly occupied the minds of literary men in the dark ages. These were directed to various quarters, and sometimes led into error, darkness, and mysticism,-sometimes terminated in useful discoveries-in Biblical, or historical, or philosophic, information. Few matters of enquiry were more popular at this period than the nature and economy of the higher order of created beings. Among the early monkish legends were found abundant materials from which a superstitious imagination might frame an angelic system. Though Sacred Writ gave but little light upon the subject, and little encouragement to pursue it, Jewish tradition abounded both with general accounts and particular anecdote; and to the assiduous enquirer another field was presented, in the superstitions of Mahomedanism, where most of the fables of the Rabbins may be found enlarged and embellished. It would astonish many of our readers to see the mass of ponderous volumes which were compiled with infinite labour upon this subject, before and about the period of the Reformation. With these accounts of the Angels were also mixed curiosities of the magic art, mysteries of witchcraft, and disgusting histories of Incubi and Succubæ. These, however, have all been long buried in oblivion, and it rarely happens that any student thinks it worth his labour so much as to transcribe a few extracts from them. The superstitious and degrading creeds of our forefathers are, in truth, little fitted for the light either of religion or philosophy. Nevertheless, a rational inquiry, upon Christian principles, into the order and essence of angelic beings, may not only add to our general information, but produce many profitable impressions. In this inquiry the Word of Truth must be our guide; and after we have gleaned the facts treasured there, we shall run into no danger by amusing ourselves for a short time with some of the fables and conjectures of ancient times. We have been led to the subject by the unassuming and interesting little work whose title we have placed at the head of this article. It consists of short biographical notices of the several saints whose holidays are observed by our church, and of hymns, or rather odes, commemorating their good deeds. The Festival of St. Michael and All Angels introduces the subject to which we now more particularly refer;-but, as all the notices are short, the curious information which the author has collected with regard to it is thrown together in the form of an Appendix at the end of the book. We shall first quote the hymn for that day, as a specimen of the very pleasing poetry of the volume : HYMN. BRIGHT Angels! Ye (a living wreath) That gird the heavenly throne, And purest adorations breathe To Him who sitteth there eternal and alone ;→ Embattled erst by Michael's side, Ye smote the Arch-Apostate's pride; And piteous led, at God's command, Silent ye stood on every steep, With eyes cast down to earth, and half-commoved to weep. But, oh! what hymns of wildest joy Rang through the startled air, When Mary kiss'd her stranger-boy, Redemption's promised seed, the Heavens' eternal heir! The Shepherds bent on humble knee, The wonderful emprize of more than Angels' love. And still 'tis said, in holy lays Ye sing Redemption's plan, Delighted trace th' Almighty's ways, And imitate his love by lending aid to man. Invisibles! 'tis yours, the art To cheer, inform, and nerve his heart; One friend will claim to guide my soul, Safe o'er the rugged course, to Faith's eternal goal!-P. 87-88. An appendix must necessarily be short, and the author does not profess to give a detailed account of all the angelic substances, or non-entities, That e'er danced on the point of a needle, but confines himself to an enumeration of the various qualities and properties which ancient Jewish, Mahomedan, and Christian writers attributed, or denied, to the holy angels of God. Our object will be to notice, in a very cursory manner, a few disputed opinions and fictions, which are there only barely mentioned, or passed over in silence altogether. The Jewish doctors differed much respecting the time of the creation of the angels, some fixing it before the creation of the world, others on the first, second, or fifth day. All these dates have found supporters among Christian doctors. Socinus and his disciples contended earnestly for the first opinion, because any other would destroy an argument against the pre-existence of Christ. For the same reason they affirm that it was to his holy angels that God said "Let us make man." The element from which they were created was supposed by the Jews and Mahomedans to be fire. Air has been substituted by some writers instead of fire. But it has been questioned whether Angels exist at all. The Sad ducees and Samaritans believed them to be mere phan toms and mental delusions, conjured up for some particular purpose, and vanishing like Macbeth's witches into thin air. This belief has likewise been adopted by many moderns, among whom is the celebrated Thomas Hobbes, for which Vossius upbraids him that, like his namesake, he will believe nothing but what he may see with own eyes, and handle with his own hands. Again, a large body of the fathers, with Origen and Chrysostom at their head, took up Plato's doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and supposed the good angels to be the spirits of good men liberated from the bondage of the flesh, and the angels of darkness to be the spirits of wicked men. These various and conflicting opinions were all cut short by Simon Magus, who gravely affirmed that the Angels were all his own dear children, whom he had begotten-(Proh! pudor, O Diana !)— upon the body of the Moon, his concubine. The shape and form of an Angel has not been accurately ascertained. That Angels have wings, and are very proud of them too, no one can doubt, who has read Mr. Moore's Loves. The same poet has assured divers young ladies, in his small poems, that they are extremely like Angels, and where is the lover, learned or unlearned, who has not hazarded the same assertion before his mistress? But there is some reason to fear that this simile is not correct; for, according to all antiquity, Angels are of the masculine gender. The ancient tribes of Arabia did, indeed, worship" the daughters of God," but they were severely rebuked for such foolish idolatry by Mahomet, whose Houris are quite a different race of beings. Milton wisely contents himself with copying the angelic portraits of Scripture. There may exist, too, some |