MAMMON, the god of riches, according to some authors; though others deny that the word stands for such a deity, and understand by it only riches themselves. Our Saviour says, We cannot serve God and mammon; that is, be religious and worldly-minded at the same time. Our poet Milton, by poetic licence, makes Mammon to be one of the fallen angels, and gives us his character in the following lines:
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell
From heav'n: for ev'n in heav'n his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent; admiring more
The riches of heav'n's pavement, trodden gold,
Than ought divine or holy cise enjoy'd
In beatific vision: by him first
Man also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransack'd the centre, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth,
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound;
And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.