In my next chapter I shall institute an inquiry into another important doctrine, held by Christians from their first existence until the present day, namely, the Existence and Ministration of Angels. Since the chapter was originally written, Dr. Kalisch has published an essay upon the same subject in the second part of his commentary upon Leviticus. I shall probably take the liberty of quoting from his pages; but, as we treat the matter from different points of view, I do not feel called upon to suppress my own work because he has preceded me. It gives me pleasure to feel and to know that fellow-workers in the same toilsome task, not only may help each other, but rejoice in the opportunity of so doing. CHAPTER IX. Angels. The ideas associated therewith. Why winged. Wishing- caps. Jehovah and His Angels made to walk by the historian. The belief in Angels incompatible with that of an omnipresent and omniscient God. Pictorial representations. Absurd conceptions of angelic wings. Angela want birds' tails. Men have tried to fly. Difference between birds and men. Arms and wings. A writer at fault about this world is not to be trusted in his accounts of another. Bats and similar mammals. The Devil better winged than Michael--Yet Satan, a roaring lion, goes about as a bull with bat's wings. Angels and beetles. Harmony in creation. Strange idea of spirits. Spiritualism. Varieties of angelic forms. Not the products of lunacy. Angels and demigods. Egyptian ideas. Assyrian notions. Christian fancies. Birds and Men united in human celestialism. Persian Angels. Mithra winged. Angels in Persia twelve in number. Job, the work of a Persian Jew. Angels referred to therein. Darius had a consecrated table. Babylonian belief. Daniel. Greece and Rome. Gods, Demigods, Angels, and Saints. Christian demigods. Angels' duties. Book-keeping, clerks of wind and weather;--police-agents. The inventor of Heaven admired centralization. Babylonian tutelary Angels. Christian ones. Christian saintly imagery. The bleeding heart of Mary. A funny Chaldean goddess to match. Popish saints have an aureole, but no wings. Francis of Assisi could make stigmata but could not change his arms into pinions. Babylonian and Papal emblems identical Development of Angels amongst the Jews in Babylon. Angelic mythology founded upon Astronomy and Astrology. Planets are Archangels. Angels and Devils mentioned on bowls found in Mesopotamia by Layard. The probable meaning of their names. Hebrews adopted Chaldee beliefs: evidence. Juvenal. Jews and Chaldeans. Sadducees and Pharisees. Sadducees and our Reformers compared. A legal anecdote. Angels in Ancient Italy. Our angelic forms are of Etruscan origin. Some such beings had three pairs of wings. Etruscans had guardian angels for infants and children.