 | Zóphiël ; or, the bride of seven |  |
XVI.
From their bright locks the briny drops: nor staid
Zóphiël on ills, present or past, to look;
For, weary as he was, his lonely maid
Unguarded she, what being might molest
Even now? His chilled and wounded substance warms
But at the thought, the while he thus addrest
According to the Hebraic writings, nothing animate or inanimate exists throughout all nature without a particular angel to protect and take care of it.
“Archangelos et angelos, quibus cura committitur Regnorum, provinciarum, Nationum, principum, et particularium personarum; quæritur igitur, num etiam animalia bruta, et res insensibiles, id est lapides, et elementa atque etiam vegetabilia habeant proprios Angelos ad sui custodiam destinatos?”—
Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica: Bartoloccii.This, whether true or false, is much more delightful than the belief or knowledge that every thing depends on material laws. The Greeks had a nymph for every tree; and their religion was a mere alteration of those of the more Oriental and ancient nations. The idea of the Elysian Fields was, it has been supposed, conceived by Orpheus after a glance at the vast subterranean abodes of the priests of Egypt, who, as is usual, converted those sublime truths conveyed to them, according to the faith of the fathers, by erring but celestial intelligences, to purposes of the grossest fraud and cruelty.
All is but desolation here, and gloom.
Up! let us through the air, nor more delay.
Nay, droop not now: a little more essay,
I'll bear thee forward to thy bower of bloom,
Come through the desert! banquet on thy store
Of dews and sweets! Come, warm thee at my breast!
On! through the air, nor think of danger more.
| Zóphiël ; or, the bride of seven | |