with certain reservations, have retained their popularity, and so,
when it was settled that the English army in its dire peril was
delivered by angelic aid, the way was clear for general belief, and
for the enthusiasms of the religion of the man in the street. And so
soon as the legend got the title "The Angels of Mons" it became
impossible to avoid it. It permeated the Press: it would not be
neglected; it appeared in the most unlikely quarters--in _Truth_ and
_Town Topics_, _The New Church Weekly_ (Swedenborgian) and _John
Bull_. The editor of _The Church Times_ has exercised a wise reserve:
he awaits that evidence which so far is lacking; but in one issue of
the paper I noted that the story furnished a text for a sermon, the
subject of a letter, and the matter for an article. People send me
cuttings from provincial papers containing hot controversy as to the
exact nature of the appearances; the "Office Window" of _The Daily
Chronicle_ suggests scientific explanations of the hallucination; the
_Pall Mall_ in a note about St. James says he is of the brotherhood of
the Bowmen of Mons--this reversion to the bowmen 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