balances; the intense, inexorable purpose with which they drive on over the prostrate forms at their feet ; but the fourth rider, Death on the pale horse, followed by Hell, portrayed as the wide-opened jaws of a monster into which a crowned head is sinking, degenerates into a ghastly caricature of the most of- fensive German type—a harlequin, far surpassing in hideous- ness the traditional skeleton with scythe and hour-glass.
Similarly, the angel with his feet like pillars of fire, the one upon the sea and the other upon the earth. If we are solemnly impressed by the awful face of the angel breaking forth from the sun, the solemnity degenerates into something akin to amusement, at the feet like solid columns, ending in flame at the knees, and at the Evangelist “ who kneels on a promontory with the corner of the great book presented by the angel in his mouth, apparently in danger of choking.”
In short, such symbols as the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes; the four living creatures, each with six wings, and full of eyes before and behind ; the beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on the horns ten dia- dems,—do not lend themselves to the pencil. An illustration of the sadly grotesque effect of such an attempt may be seen in Mr. Elliott’s “ Horee Apocalyptic,” where is a picture of the locust of ch. ix., with a gold crown on the head, hair like women’s, a breastplate of iron, and a tail like a scorpion’s.
Archbishop Trench very aptly draws the comparison between the modes in which the Greek and the Hebrew mind respect- ively dealt with symbolism. With the Greek, the esthetic element is dominant, so that the first necessity of the symbol is that it shall satisfy the sense of beauty, form, and proportion. With the Hebrew, the first necessity is “ that the symbol should set forth truly and fully the religious idea of which it is in- tended to be the vehicle. How it would appear when it clothed itself in an outward form and shape; whether it would find favor and allowance at the bar of taste, was quite a secondary consideration ; may be confidently affirmed not to have been a consideration at all.”
The imagery of the Apocalypse is Hebrew and not Greek. It is doubtful if there is any symbol taken from heathenism,