Chapter 1
Angels, spirits and demons; beings between God and man; their nature, orders and dealings with men.
717 passages · 166 principal · Covers the 49 volumes of primary texts
The idea of the angel covers every being thought to stand between God and man. It includes the good angels who praise, govern and serve. It includes the fallen angels and devils who tempt and torment, and the demons, genii, jinn, ghosts and elemental spirits that crowd the literatures outside the Christian scheme. As Renan observes, Christianity sorts every independent supernatural being into one of two classes, angel or fiend1. That division gives the Harvard Classics a continuous thread from the Book of Job to Andersen’s tales. The idea matters for these books because it gathers several questions in one figure. One is whether the order of creation is complete without intermediate natures. Another is what a pure intelligence would be like. A third is how good and evil reach the human soul from outside it. The last is what man himself is, measured against beings above him.
The first question is whether such beings exist at all. Socrates, defending himself against the charge of atheism, argues that anyone who believes in spiritual agencies must believe in spirits, and anyone who believes in spirits, as sons of gods, must believe in gods2,3. Epictetus takes it for granted that all things are full of beings spiritual and divine4. Sir Thomas Browne makes the argument from the other direction. To deny spirits, witches and devils is to break the scale of creatures, and it amounts to atheism5. Pope likewise places angels in the chain of being above man6. The Acts of the Apostles records the ancient dispute directly: the Sadducees deny angel and spirit, the Pharisees affirm both7. Hobbes cites the same split8.
Hobbes then turns the dispute into an account of error. The ancients, he says, ascribed madness to demons possessing men9. The Gentiles filled the world with demons, ghosts and fairies10. When Christ addressed unclean spirits, he spoke in figure, not as proof of possession11. Marcus Aurelius had already declined to credit exorcism by incantation12. Later scientific writers extend the critique. Lyell lists demons and witches among the supernatural agents wrongly invoked to explain phenomena13. Huxley describes a former world in which innumerable good and bad spirits were thought to alter nature’s course14. Hugo finds the medieval gnomes, witches and Satan to be products of the popular grotesque15. Folk belief survives at the margins of the collection, as in Harrison’s peasants who imagine the devil riding their cattle16 and Burns’s Halloween spirits17. Pliny, between credulity and doubt, simply asks whether ghosts exist and tells the story of the haunted Athenian house18.
Locke takes a practical middle course. Knowledge of spirits comes chiefly from revelation, so children should get their notion of spirits from a history of the Bible and not from tales of goblins19,20. The subject should wait until the child is ripe for it21.
Granting that spirits exist, the next question is what they are. Hobbes thinks the ancients pictured ghosts as thin aerial bodies, because an incorporeal spirit cannot be imagined22. Voltaire notes that the early Fathers held even angels to be corporeal23. Milton gives the fullest and boldest answer. His spirits are uncompounded and can assume either sex or any shape24. They can shrink their huge forms to tiny ones25 and cannot be barred by walls26. Raphael eats with real hunger, not merely in appearance as some theologians gloss it27. Angelic bodies heal of themselves and cannot be mortally wounded28, and angels love by a total mixing of spirit with spirit29. Huxley turns the invulnerable angels to comedy: their wounds shed only ichor30. Cervantes makes a similar joke. Quixote holds that devils wear bodies of air and carry hell about them, and Sancho answers that this one is plump and smells of amber31,32.
The difficulty is partly one of representation. Dante explains that the Church gives Gabriel and Michael human faces to suit human perception33. Lamb thinks spirits lose their power when shown to the bodily eye34. Burke finds the bare words “angel of the Lord” more affecting than any painted winged figure35.
On angelic knowledge the authors agree more than they differ. Angels are exalted but finite. In Job, God charges even his angels with folly36, and Thomas à Kempis draws from this that man has all the more to fear37. Browne holds that angels cannot comprehend eternity38 and are God’s servants, not his senators39. Yet he grants that they may know our thoughts and rejoice at a sinner’s conversion40, echoing the Gospel’s joy in the presence of the angels41. The Koran holds that angels can intercede only by God’s permission42 and that they too seek nearness to their Lord43. In Dante even the Seraph who gazes most fixedly on God cannot answer every question44. Dante also says the angels were created all at once and some fell soon after45. Those who stood are confirmed in will and, always beholding God, have no need of memory46. Browne adds that angels are exempt from time, place and motion47.
The orders of angels belong chiefly to Dante and Milton. Beatrice names the nine orders and recalls Dionysius’s ranking48. In her account the circles are angelic intelligences that rule the heavens with more power the nearer they stand to God49, moving the orbs as a workman moves a mallet50. Milton’s God likewise gives angels charge over sun and planets51, and Uriel is one of seven archangels who serve as God’s eyes52. Browne finds that the hierarchies of angels parallel degrees among the saints53. Rousseau mocks the whole apparatus54.
Milton makes hierarchy a matter of drama. The angels debate their own origin and the obedience they owe55. Bagehot traces how the exaltation of the Son over the angelic thrones provokes the rebellion56. He notes an inconsistency: Abdiel claims the Son helped create the angels, yet the Son is introduced to them as if new57. Bagehot also complains that Milton’s good angels are insipid messengers without character, so that sympathy goes to Satan58.
Worship is the angels’ most constant office. The Psalms call on the heavenly host to praise59, and the Latin hymn has Cherubim and Seraphim crying Holy, Holy, Holy60. In the Koran, angels bear God’s throne and ask pardon for believers61. Dante’s angels descend into the rose like bees, casting no shadow on the divine light62, and sport around the Queen of Heaven63. Thomas à Kempis marks the difference this makes for man: angels adore by sight, while man adores by faith under a veil64. Goethe borrows the frame of Job. His archangels praise the cosmic order while Mephistopheles stands among the Lord’s train65.
Angels are also messengers. The Gospel’s angels announce the birth of the Saviour to the shepherds66, and Milton’s cherubim harp in choir to the newborn child67. Gabriel announces John’s birth to Zacharias and Jesus’ conception to Mary68,69, and the Koran tells both annunciations70,71. Stephen in Acts says the law itself was ordained by angels72. Milton’s Raphael and Michael come to instruct Adam73,74. Against this mediating ministry stand two other voices. Augustine longs to hear God’s Word without an angel’s voice75. The Koran answers its scoffers that angels would have been sent as apostles only if angels walked the earth76.
Whether each man has a guardian angel is a question on which pagan and Christian sources converge. Epictetus says God assigns every man a sleepless Guardian Spirit77. The Koran says angels guard each person at God’s command78. Emerson recalls the ancient genius allotted to each mortal at birth79. Plutarch’s spectre announces itself as Brutus’s evil genius80. Walton reports the common belief and cites the church’s words on Peter’s escape from prison, “It is his angel”81,82. Browne doubts that the phrase proves tutelary angels, since it may mean only a messenger83, yet he believes in them on other grounds84. Cellini credits his guardian angel with his survival85. In prison he is guided by a beautiful, austere youth86 and comforted by an angel bearing a palm87.
Deliverance runs through the whole collection. In the Psalms the angel of the Lord encamps round the faithful88, a verse Woolman repeats89. Dante’s angel pilots souls to Purgatory without oar or sail90. Other angels fan his brow, pronounce the beatitudes91,92 and open the gate of Dis93. Coleridge’s dead crew are moved by a blessed troop of angelic spirits94. Browne credits good angels with inventions and charitable warnings95. At death, angels carry the souls of Roland and Galahad96,97 and Andersen’s child98. In the Koran they take the souls of misbelievers, smiting their faces99. Angels also fight. The Koran promises a thousand angels to aid the believers in battle100. Dante’s angels guard the valley against the serpent101, and Milton’s guard Eden and wage war angel against angel102. Bunyan gathers the whole ministry into his Shining Ones, ministering spirits sent to the heirs of salvation103.
The fall poses the hardest question: how could a good creature will evil? Augustine asks directly where the evil will in the devil came from, if he was a good angel made by a good Creator104. The answers given name pride and envy. The Koran’s Iblis refuses to adore Adam, proud of being made of fire rather than clay105. Marlowe’s Mephistophilis attributes Lucifer’s fall to aspiring pride106, Bacon to lust of power107, Penn to pride and envy together108. Milton’s Satan resents angels being made servants of man109. Dante adds the neutral angels, cast out for being neither rebellious nor true110.
The ruin of the fallen is both visible and inward. Dante’s Lucifer, once the most beautiful of creatures, is now hideous111. Milton’s Satan is an archangel ruined, his brightness dimmed112, a portrait Burke cites as sublime113. Inwardly, Browne holds that every devil is a hell to himself114, and Milton’s fallen spirit finds that heaven itself brings him no joy115. Milton identifies the fallen angels with the pagan gods116, as Augustine and Paul treat pagan rites as sacrifice to demons117,118. Hell has its own council and empire119. At the other extreme, Burns’s Auld Nick, fallen prince of Seraphim, is pitied and teased120,121 and routed by a shrewish wife122.
The devil’s commerce with men begins in Job, where Satan comes among the sons of God and is permitted to afflict123. Paul warns that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light124. Augustine applies this to proud men who seek angels as mediators and are deceived by demons125. In the Reformation the same text becomes a polemical weapon: Calvin and Luther ascribe false miracles to Satan126,127. Hamlet fears the ghost may be a devil in a pleasing shape128, and Browne holds that apparitions of the dead are in fact devils129. Malory’s fiends tempt in the shape of fair ladies130. The Koran’s devil vows to lead men astray131.
Resistance comes through faith and the Cross132,133. More’s devil flees vigilance, fearing to give his victim merit134. In Milton, Christ tells Satan that he can act only as permitted from above135. Luke’s demons recognize Jesus and obey him136,137, yet a spirit overpowers the sons of Sceva, who invoke his name without authority138. Pascal reads exorcism as a symbol of Christ’s breaking the devil’s power over the heart139. Lear’s Edgar only feigns possession140. Good and evil angels contend for the soul in Dante’s Buonconte141 and in Marlowe’s Faustus142.
Men also try to command spirits, and the attempt is perilous. Cellini’s necromancer raises legions in the Coliseum, and Cellini afterwards warns others against such dealings143,144. Faustus binds Mephistophilis by contract145, only to find petty clowns can vex him too146. Goethe’s Earth-spirit scorns Faust147, and mastery of spirits requires knowledge of the elements148. Manfred compels spirits by charm149 and at the end denies any compact, claiming his power by science and daring150. In the Arabian tradition the jinn are classed as beings made of fire, both good and evil151. Suleyman commands them by a seal bearing God’s great name152,153, and the Jinni of the Lamp serves whoever holds it154. In the classical and Buddhist traditions the intermediate beings take other forms. Aeschylus’s Furies are evil beings born for evil155, Virgil’s Alecto is an infernal agent of the gods156, and Brahma angels receive the newborn Buddha157.
Finally, angels serve as a measure of man. Luke promises that those in the resurrection will be equal to the angels158. Milton’s Raphael tells Adam that men may become like angels159, and Thomas à Kempis grants priests what is not granted to angels160. Pascal warns from the other side that man is neither angel nor brute, and that whoever would play the angel becomes a brute161,162. Pope traces rebellion to men wishing to be angels163. Rousseau reverses the comparison: a virtuous man tried by temptation surpasses the angels164. In the poets the angel finally becomes a figure of human goodness and beauty, as in Laertes’ ministering angel165 or Donne’s beloved, who reads hearts beyond an angel’s art166.
Several questions remain open across these books. Hobbes’s challenge to the reality of spirits is never answered by the poets who use them. The relation of spirit to body, which Milton treats so boldly, is left unsettled. Most persistent of all is Augustine’s question of how a good angel could will evil.
Introductory essay written by Claude Opus 5.5 from the outline and the notes on every passage below; quotations are checked against this edition.
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