THE CHIMERAS: AN ATTEMPT TO SHOW THAT THE By Lieut.-Gen. the Hon. Sir E. Cust, D.C.L., President. (READ 1ST AND 8TH DECEMBER, 1859.) By the word chimera is understood a mere creature of the imagination, composed of such contradictions and absurdities as cannot possibly exist anywhere but in thought.* In mythology it was a fabulous monster, as old as Homer and Hesiod, which had the composition of lion, goat and dragon, and breathed a fire fierce, menacing and unextinguishable. Bellerophon was commanded to destroy this monster, and with the assistance of the flying horse, Pegasus, he slew the chimera. But the fable was supposed to have had a foundation, which was this-that there was a burning mountain of the name in Lysia, the top of which, being desert, was the abode of lions; the middle, having good pastures, was inhabited by goats; and the marshy ground below abounded with serpents. As Bellerophon was the first who caused this mountain to be inhabited, it was feigned that he slew the chimera. Dr. Johnson calls chimera "a vain and wild fancy, remote from reality." Let us now quit the fabulous history of the creature Chimera, to enquire into the "vain and wild fancies, remote from reality," which have arisen as "creatures of the imagination," and notwithstanding their "contradictions and absurdities" have amused the credulity of mankind in all ages. The following are the best known chimeras, personified by various combinations of man, beast, bird and reptile : First, we must name Cherub, Cherubim and Seraphim and the Evil Angel. * Encyclopædia Britannica, in loco. ASHMOLEAT OXFORD LIBRARY Second, the Sphinxes, Andro-Sphinxes and Griffins. Third, the Centaurs, Minotaurs and Hydra. Fourth, the Griffins, Dragons, Harpies and other heraldic inventions. Fifth, the Fauns and Satyrs, Sirens, Tritons and Mermaids. The first notice we receive of a fancy remote from reality" is derived from the Bible. The Almighty commanded Moses, then setting up the tabernacle in the wilderness, to "make two cherubims of gold, of beaten "work, in the two ends of the mercy-seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end even of the mercy"seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the "cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy"seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward "the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubims be."* Here is express mention of a winged human-faced figure, of a form unknown to man—in fact, that of an angel. The nations who acknowledged one Almighty Creator, and repudiated with scorn a plurality of gods, were nevertheless willing to accept some objects of intermediate homage, whom they imagined to be placed between their humanity and the awful supremacy of an unseen God. The belief in such superior beings we find to be very ancient, and authorised by a variety of passages in scripture. The bodily forms assigned to them are various, none allowed to be actually impossible, but being "remote from reality," they were deemed to be merely allegorical. Still, the co-existence of orders of beings superior in nature to ourselves and never instigated by human passions, had been recognised in the messengers or agents of the mercy or wrath of the Almighty Creator. It has never been called in question by any religion, and has been as extensive as the belief of a God. Nevertheless, such beings constitute, according to the definition, a chimera. Without pursuing our enquiry into the nature and order of these heavenly creatures, it is sufficient here to notice that the Divine command given to the lawgiver recognises and admits a chimera in the composition of cherubim and seraphim. The actual shape of these celestial creatures is no where given to us: the general opinion has been, that they were spiritual substances, that might at any time assume bodies, and * Exodus xxv., 18, 19, 20. appear in any shape they pleased. The Jewish doctors have always represented them as winged heads, but the scriptures have never described any particular form under which they have been therein related to have appeared to man. After the period of the captivity, the Jewish ideas concerning angels were modified by admixture with the Chaldaic belief on the same subject; but from the first we hear of an impersonated fallen angel, with the mission of making mischief and counteracting good. The Mosaic account described this fallen angel as a serpent, but subsequent representations of Satan were that of the dragon, soon changed to a more elevated character, the star-bright apostate, who drew after him the third part of heaven. After numberless representations of this terrible being, Raphael fixed the proportions of the demon as human, giving him a swarthy red colour, with horns, hoofs, a serpent tail, and wings like those of a bat. The original conception of a superior angel, however, always remained the same, that of a human. face with wings; and the prophet Isaiah makes seraphim to have six wings, Ezekiel gave the cherubim four, and St. John described those he saw as having "six wings, full of eyes within.” The several descriptions, therefore, which the scripture gives of cherubim differ from one another. They are first named in the Bible as guarding Paradise, but without any description whatever of their form.* In the later writings they are described in the shapes of men, eagles, oxen, lions, and in a composition of all these together. It would appear that they were more commonly regarded as containing in their composition the parts of an ox; for which this reason has been given-that the word cherub has its root from a word in Arabic, Syriac and Chaldee, signifying "to plough;" from thence the inference seems to have been deduced that as the animal most usually employed in ploughing in all Eastern countries was the ox, therefore the cherub consisted of the ox and man united, and this interpretation has been strengthened by the fact, that the word which the prophet Ezekiel in one place calls the face of a cherub, he employs in another to mean the face of an ox. Grotius says, that cherubim were figures like a calf. Bochart thinks they were very nearly of the figure of an ox. The representations of cherubim have always erred in two extremes--some, considering them as very near humanity, have designed them as angelic men; others have imagined them as winged calves or oxen. Josephus * Calmet. says that cherubim were extraordinary creatures unknown to mankind, and that in his day no one could tell, or even conjecture, what was their shape. Leaving thus in uncertainty the original form of cherubim, we next come to their representation at the construction of the temple. King Solomon made "within the oracle two cherubim of olive-wood, each ten "cubits high." These were altogether distinct from the Mosaic figures already mentioned, which were placed upon the ark of the covenant within the vail; they were small and of beaten gold, while Solomon's were of a greatly increased size, and were made of wood overlaid with gold. It is not stated that they were placed there by any Divine command, and therefore they may have been merely added for the greater ornamentation and glory of God's house, but nevertheless they were conspicuously manifest right and left of the holy of holies. It is perfectly understood from Grotius and others, that these two cherubim had the parts and properties of man, lion, ox and eagle, expressly to show the dispensations of Providence-by the lion, the severity of his justice; by the man, his goodness and mercy; by the ox the slowness of punishment (according to the Greek proverb, ẞoε TOTÌ); by the eagle's wings, his ubiquity;-thus representing the activity, wisdom, boldness, patience and knowledge of the angel messengers through whom the world is governed. The existence of these figures of a "fancy remote from reality" in Solomon's temple at Jerusalem must have been known to all the Jewish people, and must have been continually present to their sight in the temple worship. The God that "dwelled between the cherubims " was present to the eye of faith behind the vail, which was suspended between and behind these symbolical, chimerical colossi. That in their composition they were not offensive to the Almighty may be devoutly and reverently inferred from the position they were permitted to retain throughout the existence of the first temple, and from the visions of his Almighty presence which it subsequently pleased the Deity to convey to Ezekiel and St. John, under the form of these mystical creatures. But it is no part of our subject to follow the cherubim beyond the temple, into those sublime habitations where they have not been further made known to us; and we therefore proceed to consider other remarkable chimera. Clement of Alexandria believes that the Egyptians imitated the cherubim of the Hebrews in the creation of their Sphinxes and other hieroglyphical |