The Angels of Mons | Page 4

from the angels being possibly due to the strong statements that I have
made on the matter. The pulpits both of the Church and of
Non-conformity have been busy: 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 Psychical Research
Society's expert confesses that no real evidence has been proffered to
her Society on the matter. And then, to my amazement, she accepts as
fact the proposition that some men on the battlefield have been
"hallucinated," and proceeds to give the theory of sensory hallucination.
She forgets that, by her own showing, there is no reason to suppose that
anybody has been hallucinated at all. Someone (unknown) has met a
nurse (unnamed) who has talked to a soldier (anonymous) who has seen
angels. But that is not evidence; and not even Sam Weller at his gayest
would have dared to offer it as such in the Court of Common Pleas. So
far, then, nothing remotely approaching proof has been offered as to
any supernatural intervention during the Retreat from Mons. Proof may
come; if so, it will be interesting and more than interesting.

But, taking the affair as it stands at present, how is it that a nation
plunged in materialism of the grossest kind has accepted idle rumours
and gossip of the supernatural as certain truth? The answer is contained
in the question: it is precisely because our whole atmosphere is
materialist that we are ready to credit anything--save the truth. Separate
a man from good drink, he will swallow methylated spirit with joy.
Man is created to be inebriated; to be "nobly wild, not mad." Suffer the
Cocoa Prophets and their company to seduce him in body and spirit,
and he will get himself stuff that will make him ignobly wild and mad
indeed. It took hard, practical men of