xx. 1--"I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of

the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand." In some Etruscan paintings we have scenes which are supposed to indicate the preparation of a bride for the wedding ceremony. In these there are diminutive angels introduced, which are sometimes hovering in the air and sometimes seated on the edge of the bath; these are by the learned supposed to represent Cupid, Eros, Hymen, or Love, and they indicate the devout feeling, that an angel watches over those who contract marriage in an orthodox manner.*

* Whether the Romans obtained all their inferior deities from the Etruscans, or whether the priests of the Eternal City in ancient times improved upon the mythology which came to them from their predecessors, just as the priests of modern Rome have expanded, without improving, the Christianised paganism which came to them, is a matter difficult to decide. But it is certain that the old Romans multiplied their "gods," as the modern ones have multiplied their "saints." Amongst the former were many curious deities, who presided at the wedding of young people, some at the public ceremony, and others at the private rites. "PRema" was the angel of quietness, whose business it was to see "ne subacta virgo se ultra modum commovens semen a vulva ejiceret." "Subigus" was another angel or demigod, whose duty it was to see that the consummation should take place in an appropriate manner--lovingly, pleasantly, and peacefully. There was another--Pertunda--of whom Augustine (Civ. Dei, vol. 9) remarks--"Si adest dea Prema ut subacta se non commoveat quum prematur, dea Pertunda quid ea facit?" In modern times the Papal saints, Cosmo, Damian, Foutin, and sundry others, have had the special duty assigned to them to make the husband fit for his marital duties.

That the absence of such a spirit was looked upon as unlucky we gather from an expression in Propertius (b. v. el. 3) in which a wife, whose husband has been obliged to leave her, and go to a distant war, when bewailing her destiny, amongst other references says--"I wedded without a god to accompany me." This calls to memory the statement in Hebrews