Virgin and Child, in an attitude of adoration. According to the Greek formula, the three in combination represent the triple power, military, civil, and religious, of the celestial hierarchy: St. Michael being habited as a warrior, Gabriel as a prince, and Raphael as a priest. In a Greek picture, of which I give an outline, the three Archangels sustain in a kind of throne the figure of the youthful Christ, here winged, as being Himself _the_ supreme Angel (ἂγγελος), and with both hands blessing the universe. The Archangel Raphael has here the place of dignity as representing the Priesthood; but in Western Art Michael takes precedence of the two others, and is usually placed in the centre as Prince or Chief: with him, then, as considered individually, we begin. ST. MICHAEL. _Lat._ Sanctus Michael Angelus. _Ital._ San Michele, Sammichele. _Fr._ Monseigneur Saint Michel. (Sept. 29.) ‘Michael, the Great Prince that standeth for the children of thy people.’—_Dan._ xii. 1. It is difficult to clothe in adequate language the divine attributes with which painting and poetry have invested this illustrious archangel. Jews and Christians are agreed in giving him the pre-eminence over all created spirits. All the might, the majesty, the radiance, of Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, are centred in him. In him God put forth his strength when He exalted him chief over the celestial host, when angels warred with angels in heaven; and in him God showed forth his glory when He made him conqueror over the power of sin, and ‘over the great dragon that deceived the world.’ To the origin of the worship paid to this great archangel I dare not do more than allude, lest I stray wide from my subject, and lose myself, and my readers too, in labyrinths of Orientalism. But, in considering the artistic representations, it is interesting to call to mind that the glorification of St. Michael may be traced back to that primitive Eastern dogma, the perpetual antagonism between the Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil, mixed up with the Chaldaic belief in angels and their influence over the destinies of man. It was subsequent to the Captivity that the active Spirit of Good, under the name of Michael, came to be regarded as the especial protector of the Hebrew nation: the veneration paid to him by the Jews was adopted, or rather retained, by the Oriental Christians, and, though suppressed for a time, was revived and spread over the West, where we find it popular and almost universal from the eighth century.