The Angels of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the WarMachen, Arthur
Science
The Angels of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War
Machen, Arthur
Paranormal fiction; Supernatural -- Fiction; War stories, English; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
Bishop Welldon, Dean Hensley Henson (a disbeliever), Bishop Taylor
Smith (the Chaplain-General), and many other clergy have occupied
themselves with the matter. Dr. Horton preached about the "angels" at
Manchester; Sir Joseph Compton Rickett (President of the National
Federation of Free Church Councils) stated that the soldiers at the
front had seen visions and dreamed dreams, and had given testimony of
powers and principalities fighting for them or against them. Letters
come from all the ends of the earth to the Editor of _The Evening
News_ with theories, beliefs, explanations, suggestions. It is all
somewhat wonderful; one can say that the whole affair is a
psychological phenomenon of considerable interest, fairly comparable
with the great Russian delusion of last August and September.
* * * * *
Now it is possible that some persons, judging by the tone of these
remarks of mine, may gather the impression that I am a profound
disbeliever in the possibility of any intervention of the
super-physical order in the affairs of the physical order. They will
be mistaken if they make this inference; they will be mistaken if they
suppose that I think miracles in Judæa credible but miracles in France
or Flanders incredible. I hold no such absurdities. But I confess,
very frankly, that I credit none of the "Angels of Mons" legends,
partly because I see, or think I see, their derivation from my own
idle fiction, but chiefly because I have, so far, not received one jot
or tittle of evidence that should dispose me to belief. It is idle,
indeed, and foolish enough for a man to say: "I am sure that story is
a lie, because the supernatural element enters into it;" here, indeed,
we have the maggot writhing in the midst of corrupted offal denying
the existence of the sun. But if this fellow be a fool--as he is--
equally foolish is he who says, "If the tale has anything of the
supernatural it is true, and the less evidence the better;" and I am
afraid this tends to be the attitude of many who call themselves
occultists. I hope that I shall never get to that frame of mind. So I
say, not that super-normal interventions are impossible, not that they
have not happened during this war--I know nothing as to that point,
one way or the other--but that there is not one atom of evidence (so
far) to support the current stories of the angels of Mons. For, be it
remarked, these stories are specific stories. They rest on the second,
third, fourth, fifth hand stories told by "a soldier," by "an
officer," by "a Catholic correspondent," by "a nurse," by any number
of anonymous people. Indeed, names have been mentioned. A lady's name
has been drawn, most unwarrantably as it appears to me, into the
discussion, and I have no doubt that this lady has been subject to a
good deal of pestering and annoyance. She has written to the Editor of
_The Evening News_ denying all knowledge of the supposed miracle. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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