and eighteenth centuries, what shall be said? that they are worthy to illustrate Moore's Loves of the Angels? "non ragioniam di lor;" no, nor even look at them! I have seen angels of the later Italian and Spanish painters more like opera dancers, with artificial wings and gauze draperies, dressed to figure in a ballet, than anything else I could compare them to.

The most original, and, in truth, the only new and original version of the Scripture idea of angels which I have met with, is that of William Blake, a poet painter, somewhat mad as we are told, if indeed his madness were not rather "the telescope of truth," a sort of poetical clairvoyance, bringing the unearthly nearer to him than to others. His adoring angels float rather than fly, and, with their half-liquid draperies, seem about to dissolve into light and love: and his rejoicing angels behold them sending up their voices with the morning stars, that singing, in their glory move!"

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As regards the treatment of angels in the more recent productions of art, the painters and sculptors have generally adhered to received and known types in form and in sentiment. The angels of the old Italians,

Giotto and Frate Angelico, have been very well imitated by Steinle and others of the German school: the Raffaelesque feeling has been in general aimed at by the French and English painters. Tenerani had the old mosaics in his mind when he conceived that magnificent colossal Angel of the Resurrection seated on a tomb, and waiting for the signal to sound his trumpet, which I saw in his attelier, prepared I believe for the monument of the Duchess Lanti.'

I pause here, for I have dwelt upon these celestial Hierarchies, winged Splendours, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, till my fancy is becoming somewhat mazed and dazzled by the contemplation. I must leave the reader to go into a picture-gallery, or look over a portfolio of engravings, and so pursue the theme, whithersoever it may lead him, and it may lead him, in Hamlet's words, "to thoughts beyond the reaches of his soul!" 2

It is now in the Lanti chapel in the church of the Lateran.

2 Mr. Ruskin remarks very truly, that in early christian art there is “a certain confidence, in the way in which angels trust to their wings, very characteristic of a period of bold and simple conception. Modern science has taught us that a wing cannot be anatomically joined to a shoulder; and in proportion as painters approach more and more to the scientific as distinguished from the contemplative state of mind, they put the wings of their angels on more timidly, and dwell with greater emphasis on the human form with less upon the wings, until these last become a species of decorative appendage, a mere sign of an angel. But in Giotto's time an angel was a complete creature, as much believed in as a bird, and the way in which it would or might cast itself into the air and lean hither and thither on its plumes, was as naturally apprehended as the manner of flight of a chough or a starling. Hence Dante's simple and most exquisite synonym for angel, 'Bird of God;' and hence also a variety and picturesqueness in the expression of the movements of the heavenly hierarchies by the earlier painters, ill replaced by the powers of foreshortening and throwing naked limbs into fantastic positions, which appear in the cherubic groups of later times." The angels from the Campo Santo at Pisa, numbered 12, 21, and 32, are instances of this bird-like form. They are Uccelli di Dio. Those numbered 27, 28, and 37 are examples of the later treatment.

HAVING treated of the celestial Hierarchy in general, we have now to consider those angels who in artistic representations have assumed an individual form and character. These belong to the order of Archangels, placed by Dionysius in the third Hierarchy: they take rank between the Princedoms and the Angels, and partake of the nature of both, being, like the Princedoms, Powers; and, like the Angels, Ministers and Messengers.

Frequent allusion is made in Scripture to the Seven Angels who stand in the presence of God. (Rev. viii. 2., xv. 1., xvi. 1., &c.; Tobit, xxii. 15.) This was in accordance with the popular creed of the Jews, who not only acknowledged the supremacy of the Seven Spirits, but assigned to them distinct vocations and distinct appellations, each terminating with the syllable El, which signifies God. Thus we have,

I. MICHAEL (i.e. who is like unto God), captain-general of the host of heaven, and protector of the Hebrew nation.

II. GABRIEL (i.e. God is my strength), guardian of the celestial treasury, and preceptor of the patriarch Joseph.

III. RAPHAEL (i.e. the Medicine of God), the conductor of Tobit ; thence the chief guardian angel.

IV. URIEL (i.e. the Light of God), who taught Esdras. He was also regent of the sun.

V. CHAMUEL (i.e. one who sees God?), who wrestled with Jacob, and who appeared to Christ at Gethsemane. (But, according to other authorities, this was the angel Gabriel.)

VI. JOPHIEL (i.e. the beauty of God), who was the preceptor of the sons of Noah, and is the protector of all those who, with an humble heart, seek after truth, and the enemy of those who pursue vain knowledge. Thus Jophiel was naturally considered as the guardian of the tree of knowledge, and the same who drove Adam and Eve from Paradise.

VII. ZADKIEL (i.e. the righteousness of God), who stayed the hand of Abraham when about to sacrifice his son. (But, according to other authorities, this was the archangel Michael.)

The Christian Church does not acknowledge these Seven Angels by name; neither in the East, where the worship of angels took deep root, nor yet in the West, where it has been tacitly accepted. Nor have I met with them as a series, by name, in any ecclesiastical work of art, though I have seen a set of old anonymous prints in which they appear with distinct names and attributes: Michael bears the sword and scales; Gabriel, the lily; Raphael, the pilgrim's staff and gourd full of water, as a traveller. Uriel has a roll and a book: he is the interpreter of judgments and prophecies, and for this purpose was sent to Esdras :

"The angel that was sent unto me, whose name was Uriel, gave me an answer." (Esdras, ii. 4.) And in Milton,

"Uriel, for thou of those Seven Spirits that stand
In sight of God's high throne, gloriously bright,
The first art wont his great authentic will
Interpreter through highest heaven to bring."

According to an early Christian tradition, it was this angel, and not Christ in person, who accompanied the two disciples to Emmaus. Cha