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 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[1]--the loss of light and
happiness which it suffers, in the pursuit of this world's perishable
pleasures--and the 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 (however I may have failed in the attempt) to communicate to
the following pages the same _moral_ interest.
Among the doctrines or notions derived by Plato from the East, one of the
most natural and sublime is that which inculcates the pre-existence of the
soul and its gradual descent into this dark material world from that
region of spirit and light which it is supposed to have once inhabited and
to which after a long lapse of purification and trial it will return. This
belief under various symbolical forms may be traced through almost all the
Oriental theologies. The Chaldeans represent the Soul as originally
endowed with wings which fall away when it sinks from its native element
and must be re-produced before it can hope to return. Some disciples of
Zoroaster once inquired of him, "How the wings of the Soul might be made
to grow again?"
"By sprinkling them," he replied, "with the Waters of Life."
"But where are those Waters to be found?" they asked.
"In the Garden of God," replied Zoroaster.
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 orb.
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
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 friendship and love;--Chûr had the care of the disk of the
sun;--Mah was agent for the concerns of the moon;--Isphandârmaz (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 Sirouzé.
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 Benab Hasche, or, Daughters
of God.
[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 passed for philosophy in ancient
times.
[2] "We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and placed therein a guard
of angels."--_Koran, chap. xli_.