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63 chapters
Preface.
Preface.
Three Friars, says a legend, hid themselves near the Witch Sabbath orgies that they might count the devils; but the Chief of these, discovering the friars, said—‘Reverend Brothers, our army is such that if all the Alps, their rocks and glaciers, were equally divided among us, none would have a pound’s weight.’ This was in one Alpine valley. Any one who has caught but a glimpse of the world’s Walpurgis Night, as revealed in Mythology and Folklore, must agree that this courteous devil did not over
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Volume I.
Volume I.
Chapter III. Degradation. The degradation of Deities—Indicated in names—Legends of their fall—Incidental signs of the divine origin of Demons and Devils 15 Chapter IV. The Abgott . The ex-god—Deities demonised by conquest—Theological animosity—Illustration from the Avesta—Devil-worship an arrested Deism—Sheik Adi—Why Demons were painted ugly—Survivals of their beauty 22 Chapter V. Classification. The obstructions of man—The twelve chief classes—Modifications of particular forms for var
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Volume II.
Volume II.
Chapter III. Ahriman, the Divine Devil. Mr. Irving’s impersonation of Superstition—Revolution against pious privilege—Doctrine of ‘Merits’—Saintly immorality in India—A Pantheon turned Inferno—Zendavesta on Good and Evil—Parsî Mythology—The Combat of Ahriman with Ormuzd—Optimism—Parsî Eschatology—Final Restoration of Ahriman 20 Chapter IV. Viswámitra, the Theocratic Devil. Priestcraft and Pessimism—An Aryan Tetzel and his Luther—Brahman Frogs—Evolution of the Sacerdotal Saint—Viswámitra the
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Volume II.
Volume II.
Origin of Deism—Evolution from the far to the near—Illustrations from witchcraft—The primitive Pantheism—The dawn of Dualism. A college in the State of Ohio has adopted for its motto the words ‘Orient thyself.’ This significant admonition to Western youth represents one condition of attaining truth in the science of mythology. Through neglect of it the glowing personifications and metaphors of the East have too generally migrated to the West only to find it a Medusa turning them to stone. Our pr
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Chapter I. Dualism.
Chapter I. Dualism.
The necessities of expression would, of course, operate to invest the primitive conceptions and interpretations of celestial phenomena with those pictorial images drawn from earthly objects of which the early languages are chiefly composed. In many cases that are met in the most ancient hymns, the designations of exalted objects are so little descriptive of them, that we may refer them to a period anterior to the formation of that refined and complex symbolism by which primitive religions have a
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Chapter II. The Genesis of Demons.
Chapter II. The Genesis of Demons.
The intermediate processes by which the good and evil were detached, and advanced to separate personification, cannot always be traced, but the indications of their work are in most cases sufficiently clear. The relationship, for instance, between Baal and Baal-zebub cannot be doubted. The one represents the Sun in his glory as quickener of Nature and painter of its beauty, the other the insect-breeding power of the Sun. Baal-zebub is the Fly-god. Only at a comparatively recent period did the de
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Chapter III. Degradation.
Chapter III. Degradation.
Even where the names of demons and devils bear no such traces of their degradation from the state of deities, there are apt to be characteristics attributed to them, or myths connected with them, which point in the direction indicated. Such is the case with Satan, of whom much must be said hereafter, whose Hebrew name signifies the adversary, but who, in the Book of Job, appears among the sons of God. The name given to the devil in the Koran—Eblis—is almost certainly diabolos Arabicised; and whi
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Chapter IV. The Abgott.
Chapter IV. The Abgott.
That is to say—Ours is the true god: your god is a devil. The Zoroastrian conversion of deva (deus) into devil does not alone represent the work of this odium theologicum . In the early hymns of India the appellation asuras is given to the gods. Asura means a spirit. But in the process of time asura , like dæmon, came to have a sinister meaning: the gods were called suras , the demons asuras , and these were said to contend together. But in Persia the asuras —demonised in India—retained their di
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Chapter V. Classification.
Chapter V. Classification.
Finally, it must be remarked that the nature of our inquiry renders the consideration of the origin of myths—whether ‘solar’ or other—of secondary importance. Such origin it will be necessary to point out and discuss incidentally, but our main point will always be the forms in which the myths have become incarnate, and their modifications in various places and times, these being the result of those actual experiences with which Demonology is chiefly concerned. A myth, as many able writers have p
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Chapter I. Hunger.
Chapter I. Hunger.
The expedition which went out to India to observe the last solar eclipse was incidentally the means of calling attention to a remarkable survival of the Hunger-demon in connection with astronomic phenomena. While the English observers were arranging their apparatus, the natives prepared a pile of brushwood, and, so soon as the eclipse began, they set fire to this pile and began to shout and yell as they danced around it. Not less significant were the popular observances generally. There was a se
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Chapter II. Heat.
Chapter II. Heat.
Much is said in Vedic hymns of the method of producing the sacred flame symbolising Agni; namely, the rubbing together of two sticks. ‘He it is whom the two sticks have engendered, like a new-born babe.’ It is a curious coincidence that a similar phrase should describe ‘the devil on two sticks,’ who has come by way of Persia into European romance. Asmodeus was a lame demon, and his ‘two sticks’ as ‘Diable Boiteux’ are crutches; but his lameness may be referable to the attenuated extremities sugg
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Chapter III. Cold.
Chapter III. Cold.
This old miracle-play of Nature—the return of summer flower by flower—is deciphered from an ancient Assyrian tablet in a town within only a few hours of another, where a circle of worshippers repeat the same at every solstice! Myfyr Morganwg, the Arch-Druid, adores still Hea by name as his Saviour, and at the winter solstice assembles his brethren to celebrate his coming to bruise the head of the Serpent of Hades (Annwn, nearly the same as in the tablet), that seedtime and harvest shall not fail
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Chapter IV. Elements.
Chapter IV. Elements.
7. Where, O Rudra, is that gracious hand of thine, which is healing and comforting? Do thou, removing the evil which cometh from the gods, O bounteous giver, have mercy upon me. 8. To the tawny, the fair-complexioned dispenser of bounties, I send forth a great and beautiful song of praise; adore the radiant god with prostrations; we hymn the illustrious name of Rudra. 9. Sturdy-limbed, many-shaped, fierce, tawny, he hath decked himself with brilliant ornaments of gold; truly strength is insepara
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Chapter V. Animals.
Chapter V. Animals.
The popular feeling which underlay much of the animal-worship in ancient times was probably that which is reflected in the Japanese notions of to-day, as told in the subjoined sketch from an amusing book. ‘One of these visitors was an old man, who himself was at the time a victim of a popular superstition that the departed revisit the scenes of their life in this world in shapes of different animals. We noticed that he was not in his usual spirits, and pressed him to unburden his mind to us. He
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Chapter VI. Enemies.
Chapter VI. Enemies.
In considering animal demons, the primitive demonisation of the Wolf has been discussed. But it is mainly as a transformation of man and a type of savage foes that this animal has been a prominent figure in Mythology. Professor Max Müller has made it tolerably clear that Bellerophon means Slayer of the Hairy; and that Belleros is the transliteration of Sanskrit varvara , a term applied to the dark Aborigines by their Aryan invaders, equivalent to barbarians. 5 This points us for the origin of th
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Chapter VII. Barrenness.
Chapter VII. Barrenness.
Had we only the true history of the Sphinx—the Binder—we might find it a landmark between the rise and decline of Egyptian civilisation. When the great Limitation surrounding the powers of man was first personified with that mystical grandeur, it would stand in the desert not as the riddle but its solution. No such monument was ever raised by Doubt. But once personified and outwardly shaped, the external Binder must bind thought as well; nay, will throttle thought if it cannot pierce through the
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Chapter VIII. Obstacles.
Chapter VIII. Obstacles.
Mephistopheles. So say ye! It seems clear as noon to ye, Yet he knows who was there the contrary. I was hard by below, when seething flame Swelled the abyss, and streaming fire forth came; When Moloch’s hammer forging rock to rock, Far flew the fragment-cliffs beneath the shock: Of masses strange and huge the land was full; Who clears away such piles of hurl’d misrule? Philosophers the reason cannot see; There lies the rock, and they must let it be. We have reflected till ashamed we’ve grown; Th
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Chapter IX. Illusion.
Chapter IX. Illusion.
To the ancients there were two seas,—the azure above, and that beneath. The imaginative child in its development passes all those dreamy coasts; sees in clouds mountains of snow on the horizon, and in the sunset luminous seas laving golden isles. When as yet to the young world the shining sun was Berchta, the white fleecy clouds were her swans. When she descended to the sea, as a thousand stories related, it was to repeat the course of the sun for all tribes looking on a westward sea. No one who
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Chapter X. Darkness.
Chapter X. Darkness.
How passed this (mental) cave-dweller even amid the upper splendours and vastnesses of his unlit world? A Faust guided by his Mephistopheles only amid interminable Hartz labyrinths. How sadly rises, incomplete and ruddy, The moon’s lone disk, with its belated glow, And lights so dimly, that, as one advances, At every step one strikes a rock or tree! Let us then use a Jack-o’-lantern’s glances: I see one yonder, burning merrily. Ho, there! my friend! I’ll levy thine attendance: Why waste so vainl
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Chapter XI. Disease.
Chapter XI. Disease.
The dawn of Ormuzd corresponds with April. The sun returns from winter’s death by sign of the lamb (our Aries), and thenceforth every month corresponds with a thousand years of the reign of the Beneficent. September is denoted by the Virgin and Child. To the dark domain of Ahriman the prefecture of the universe passes by Libra,—the same balances which appear in the hand of Satan. The star-serpent prevails over the Virgin and Child. Then follow the months of the scorpion, the centaur, goat, &
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Chapter XII. Death.
Chapter XII. Death.
What the savage is really trying to slay when he goes forth to avenge his relative’s death on the first alien he finds may be seen in the accompanying figure ( 17 ), which represents the Mexican goddess of death—Teoyaomiqui. The image is nine feet high, and is kept in a museum in the city of Mexico. Mr. Edward B. Tylor, from whose excellent book of travels in that country the figure is copied, says of it:—‘The stone known as the statue of the war-goddess is a huge block of basalt covered with sc
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Chapter I. Decline of Demons.
Chapter I. Decline of Demons.
In these characteristic sentences from various hymns we behold man making his first contract with the ruling powers of nature: so much adoration and flattery on his part for so much benefit on theirs. But even in these earliest hymns there are intimations that the gods were not fulfilling their side of the engagement. ‘Why is it,’ pleads the worshipper, ‘that you wish to destroy one who always praises you? Was it an old sin?’ The simple words unconsciously report how faithfully man was performin
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Chapter II. Generalisation of Demons.
Chapter II. Generalisation of Demons.
The two great monsters of Vedic mythology, Vritra and Ahi, are not so distinguishable from each other in the Vedas as in more recent fables. Vritra is very frequently called Vritra Ahi—Ahi being explained in the St. Petersburg Dictionary as ‘the Serpent of the Heavens, the demon Vritra.’ Ahi literally means ‘serpent,’ answering to the Greek ἐχι-ς, ἐχι-δνα ; and when anything is added it appears to be anthropomorphic—heads, arms, eyes—as in the case of the Egyptian serpent-monsters. The Vedic dem
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Chapter III. The Serpent.
Chapter III. The Serpent.
‘In the old aphorism, nature is always self-similar . In the plant, the eye or germinative point opens to a leaf, then to another leaf, with a power of transforming the leaf into radicle, stamen, pistil, petal, bract, sepal, or seed. The whole art of the plant is still to repeat leaf on leaf without end, the more or less of heat, light, moisture, and food, determining the form it shall assume. In the animal, nature makes a vertebra, or a spine of vertebræ, and helps herself still by a new spine,
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Chapter IV. The Worm.
Chapter IV. The Worm.
Concerning the accompanying Eleusinian form ( Fig. 24 ), Calmet says:—‘The mysterious trunk, coffer, or basket, may be justly reckoned among the most remarkable and sacred instruments of worship, which formed part of the processional ceremonies in the heathen world. This was held so sacred that it was not publicly exposed to view, or publicly opened, but was reserved for the inspection of the initiated, the fully initiated only. Completely to explain this symbol would require a dissertation; and
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Chapter V. Apophis.
Chapter V. Apophis.
To gnaw yon star is not more tough to me Than hanging grapes on vines of Sicily; I clip the rays that fall; Eternity yields not to splendours brave. Fly, ant, all creatures die, and nought can save The constellations all. The starry ship, high in the ether sea, Must split and wreck in the end: this thing shall be: The broad-ringed Saturn toss To ruin: Sirius, touched by me, decay, As the small boat from Ithaca away That steers to Kalymnos. 3 The natural history of Apophis, so far as he has any,
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Chapter VI. The Serpent in India.
Chapter VI. The Serpent in India.
‘9. The Sun has risen on high, destroying all the many poisons; Aditya, the all-seeing, the destroyer of the unseen, rises for the good of living beings. ‘10. I deposit the poison in the solar orb, like a leathern bottle in the house of a vendor of spirits; verily that adorable Sun never dies; nor through his favour shall we die of the venom; for, though afar off, yet drawn by his coursers he will overtake the poison: the science of antidotes converted thee, Poison, to ambrosia. ‘11. That insign
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Chapter VII. The Basilisk.
Chapter VII. The Basilisk.
In Slavonic legend the king-serpent plays a large part, and innumerable stories relate the glories of some peasant child that, managing to secure a tiny gem from his crown, while the reptilian monarch was bathing, found the jewel daily surrounded with new treasures. This is the same serpent which, gathering up the myths of lightning and of comets, flies through many German legends as the red Drake, Kolbuk, Alp, or Alberflecke, dropping gold when it is red, corn if blue, and yielding vast service
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Chapter VIII. The Dragon’s Eye.
Chapter VIII. The Dragon’s Eye.
As thought goes on, such allies compromise their employers; the creator’s work reflects the creator’s character; and after many timorous ages we find the dragon-guarded deities going down with their cruel defenders. It is not without significance that in the Sanskrit dictionary the most ancient of all words for god, Asura , has for its primary meaning ‘demon’ or ‘devil:’ the gods and dragons united to churn the ocean for their own wealth, and in the end they were tarred with one brush. I have al
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Chapter IX. The Combat.
Chapter IX. The Combat.
Most of the Dragon-myths of Great Britain appear to have been importations of the Colonial monsters. Perhaps the most famous of these in all Europe was the Chimæra, which came westward upon coins, Bellerophon having become a national hero at Corinth—almost superseding the god of war himself—and his effigy spread with many migrations. Our conventional figure of St. George is still Bellerophon, though the Dragon has been substituted for Chimæra,—a change which christian tradition and national resp
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Chapter X. The Dragon-slayer.
Chapter X. The Dragon-slayer.
‘He then took leave of the hospitable people of Doyur, and went to Ghilghit. On reaching this place, which is scarcely four miles distant from Doyur, he amused himself by prowling about in the gardens adjoining the royal residence. There he met one of the female companions of Shiribadatt’s daughter fetching water for the princess. This lady was remarkably handsome, and of a sweet disposition. The companion rushed back, and told the young lady to look from over the ramparts of the castle at a won
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Chapter XI. The Dragon’s Breath.
Chapter XI. The Dragon’s Breath.
We may thus see that there were antecedents to the sentiment of Aquinas,—‘ Beati in regno cœlesti videbunt pœnas damnatorum, ut beatitudo illis magis complaceat. ’ Or, perhaps, one might say rather to the logic of Aquinas; for though he saw that it would be necessary for souls in bliss to be happy at vision of the damned or else deficient in bliss, it is said he could hardly be happy from thinking of the irreversible doom of Satan himself. It would appear that only the followers of the Genevan w
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Chapter XII. Fate.
Chapter XII. Fate.
These great landmarks represent successive revolutions in the Olympian government. Absolutism became burthensome: as irresponsible monarch, Zeus became responsible for the woes of the world, and his priests were satisfied to have an increasing share of that responsibility allotted to his counsellors, until finally the whole of it is transferred. From that time the countenance of Zeus, or Jupiter, shines out unclouded by responsibility for human misfortunes and earthly evils; and, on the other ha
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Chapter I. Diabolism.
Chapter I. Diabolism.
Surely nobody could be ‘deceived’ by ‘a great fiery-red Dragon, having seven heads and ten horns’! In this vision the Dragon is pressed as far as the form can go in the symbolisation of evil. To devour the child is its legitimate work, but as ‘accuser of the brethren before God day and night’ the monstrous shape were surely out of place by any mythologic analogy; and one could hardly imagine such a physiognomy capable of deceiving ‘the whole world.’ It is not wonderful, therefore, that the Drago
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Chapter II. The Second Best.
Chapter II. The Second Best.
This personification, thus ‘at once man’s creature and his tyrant,’ is objectively a name. But as it has been invested with all that has been most sacred, it is inevitable that any name raised against it shall be equally associated with all that has been considered basest. This also must be personified, for the same reason that the good is personified; and as names are chiefly hereditary, it pretty generally happens that the title of some fallen and discredited deity is advanced to receive the n
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Chapter III. Ahriman: The Divine Devil.
Chapter III. Ahriman: The Divine Devil.
From this cosmological chaos the more intelligent Hindus were of course liberated; but the degree to which the fearful training had corrupted the moral tissues of those who had been subjected to it was revealed in the bald principle of their philosophers, that the superstition must continue to be imposed on the vulgar, whilst the learned might turn all the gods into a scientific terminology. The first clear and truthful eye that touched that system would transform it from a Heaven to an Inferno.
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Chapter IV. Viswámitra: The Theocratic Devil.
Chapter IV. Viswámitra: The Theocratic Devil.
It is easy to see what must be the further development of such a type as Viswámitra when he shall have passed from the guarded pages of puranic tradition to the terrible simplicities of folklore. The saint whose majesty is built on ‘merits,’ which have no relation to what the humble deem virtues, naturally holds such virtues in cynical contempt; naturally also he is indignant if any one dares to suggest that the height he has reached by costly and prolonged observances may be attained by poor an
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Chapter V. Elohim and Jehovah.
Chapter V. Elohim and Jehovah.
The ancient gods—the Elohim—were, in the process of absorption into the one great form, the repository of their several powers, distinguishable; and though, for the most part, they bear names related to the forces of nature, now and then they reflect the tendencies to humanisation. Thus we have ‘the most high god’ ( El-elyon — e.g. , Gen. xiv. 18); ‘the everlasting-god’ ( El-elim , Gen. xxi. 33); ‘the jealous god’ ( El-kana , Exod. xx. 5); ‘the mighty god, and terrible’ ( El-gadol and nora , Deu
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Chapter VI. The Consuming Fire.
Chapter VI. The Consuming Fire.
In addition to the above passages may be cited a notable passage from Paul’s Epistle to the Thessalonians (ii. 3). ‘Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (of Christ) shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that, when I was yet with
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Chapter VII. Paradise and the Serpent.
Chapter VII. Paradise and the Serpent.
But one who has perused the philological biography of Ahi already given, vol. i. p. 357 , will not suppose that this was the end of him. We must now consider in further detail the great episode of the Mahábhárata, to which reference has been made in other connections. 1 During the Deluge the most precious treasure of the gods, the Amrita, the ambrosia that rendered them immortal, was lost, and the poem relates how the Devas and Asuras, otherwise gods and serpents, together churned the ocean for
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Chapter VIII. Eve.
Chapter VIII. Eve.
That country could hardly have been India. There is a story in remote districts of India which relates that the first woman was born out of an expanding lotus on the Ganges, and was there received in his paradise by the first man (Adima, or Manu). Having partaken of the Soma, they were expelled, after first being granted their prayer to be allowed a last draught from the Ganges; the effect of the holy water being to prevent entire corruption, and secure immortality to their souls. But nowhere in
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Chapter IX. Lilith.
Chapter IX. Lilith.
The divorce between Lilith and Adam being complete, the second Eve ( i.e. , Mother) was now formed, and this time out of Adam’s rib in order that there might be no question of her dependence, and that the embarrassing question of woman’s rights might never be raised again. But about this time the Devils were also created. These beings were the last of the six days’ creation, but they were made so late in the day that there was no daylight by which to fashion bodies for them. The Creator was just
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Chapter X. War in Heaven.
Chapter X. War in Heaven.
The gods rejoice: The servants of the Sun are in peace. The allusion in the second line indicates that this hymn relates to the navigation of Ra through Hades, and the destruction of Apophis. We may read next the Accadian tablet (p. 256) which speaks of the seven Hathors as neither male nor female, and as born in ‘the Deep.’ Another Accadian tablet, translated by Mr. Sayce, speaks of these as the ‘baleful seven destroyers;’ as ‘born in the mountain of the sunset;’ as being Incubi. It is signific
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Chapter XI. War on Earth.
Chapter XI. War on Earth.
It has been mentioned that in the Assyrian legends of the Revolt in Heaven we find no adequate intimation of the motive by which the rebels were actuated. It is said they interrupted the heavenly song, that they brought on an eclipse, that they afflicted human beings with disease; but why they did all this is not stated. The motive of the serpent in tempting Eve is not stated in Genesis. The theory which Cædmon and Milton have made so familiar, that the dragons aspired to rival Jehovah, and usur
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Chapter XII. Strife.
Chapter XII. Strife.
And trample them in my fury; And their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, And I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, And the year of mine avenged is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; And I wondered that there was none to uphold; Therefore mine own arm gained me the victory, And mine own fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the peoples in mine anger, And make them drunk in my wrath, And will bring down their strength to the earth. 1 This i
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Chapter XIII. Barbaric Aristocracy.
Chapter XIII. Barbaric Aristocracy.
Come, O thou traveller unknown, Whom still I hold but cannot see! My company before is gone And I am left alone with thee: With thee all night I mean to stay And wrestle till the break of day. ‘Confident in self-despair,’ the Supplanter conquers his Fear; with the dawn he travels onward alone to meet the man he had outraged and his armed men, and to him says, ‘I have appeared before thee as though I had appeared before God, that thou mightest be favourable to me.’ The proud Duke is disarmed. The
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Chapter XIV. Job and the Divider.
Chapter XIV. Job and the Divider.
These words of the prophet Hosea (x. 1, 2) foreshadow the devil which the devout Jahvist saw growing steadily to enormous strength through all the history of Israel. The germ of this enemy may be found in our chapter on Fate; one of its earliest developments is indicated in the account already given of the partition between Jacob and Esau, and the superstition to which that led of a ghostly Antagonist, to whom a share had been irreversibly pledged. From the principle thus adopted, there grew a h
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Chapter XV. Satan.
Chapter XV. Satan.
That it was popularly used for adversary as distinct from evil appears in Solomon’s words, ‘There is neither Satan nor evil occurrent.’ 6 Yet it is in connection with Solomon that we may note the entrance of some of the materials for the mythology which afterwards invested the name of Satan. It is said that, in anger at his idolatries, ‘the Lord stirred up a Satan unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king’s seed in Edom.’ 7 Hadad, ‘the Sharp,’ bore a name next to that of Esau himself f
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Chapter XVI. Religious Despotism.
Chapter XVI. Religious Despotism.
Finally, as a youth, Krishna, after living some time as a herdsman, attacked the tyrant Kansa, tore the crown from his head, and dragged him by his hair a long way; with the curious result that Kansa became liberated from the three worlds, such virtue had long thinking about the incarnate one, even in enmity! The divine beings represented in these legends find their complement in the fabulous history of Cyrus; and the hostile powers which sought their destruction are represented in demonology by
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Chapter XVII. The Prince of this World.
Chapter XVII. The Prince of this World.
‘Come down from thy throne,’ shouted the evil-formed one; ‘come down, or I will cut thine heart into atoms!’ The Lord replied, ‘This jewelled throne was created by the power of my merits, for I am he who will teach all men the remedy for death, who will redeem all beings, and set them free from the sorrows of circling existence.’ Mara then claimed that the throne belonged to himself, and had been created by his own merits; and on this armed himself with the Chakkra, the irresistible weapon of In
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Chapter XVIII. Trial of the Great.
Chapter XVIII. Trial of the Great.
Of greatest things.... Therefore with manlier objects we must try His constancy, with such as have more show Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise; Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked. 1 The progressive ideas which Milton attributed to Satan have not failed. That Celestial City which Bunyan found it so hard to reach has now become a metropolis of wealth and fashion, and the trials which once beset pilgrims toiling towards it are now transferred to those who would pass beyond
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Chapter XIX. The Man of Sin.
Chapter XIX. The Man of Sin.
The ‘new creature’ must inhale an entirely new physical atmosphere. When Paul speaks of ‘the Prince of the Power of the Air,’ it must not be supposed that he is only metaphorical. On this, however, we must dwell for a little. ‘The air,’ writes Burton in his ‘Anatomy of Melancholy,’ ‘The air is not so full of flies in summer as it is at all times of invisible devils. They counterfeit suns and moons, and sit on ships’ masts. They cause whirlwinds of a sudden, and tempestuous storms, which though o
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Chapter XX. The Holy Ghost.
Chapter XX. The Holy Ghost.
By association with both ecclesiastical and political sovereignty, it came to represent very nearly the old fatal serpent power which had lurked in all its transformations. When the Holy Ghost was represented as a crowned man, the dove was pictured on his wrist like that falcon with which the German lady, mentioned by Mr. Atkinson, identified it. But in this connection its symbolism is more especially referable to a passage in Isaiah: 4 ‘There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
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Chapter XXI. Antichrist.
Chapter XXI. Antichrist.
As this dogma struggled on to its consummation and victory, it necessarily took the form of a triumph over the Cæsars, who were proclaiming themselves gods, and demanding worship as such. The writer of the second Epistle bearing Peter’s name saw those christians who yielded to such authority typified in Balaam, the erring prophet who was opposed by the angel; 8 the writer of the Gospel of John saw the traitor Judas as the ‘son of perdition,’ 9 representing Jesus as praying that the rest of his d
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Chapter XXII. The Pride of Life.
Chapter XXII. The Pride of Life.
‘All things slain in the name of idols. ‘How shall I quench my thirst? ‘With wine and intoxicating liquors. ‘What shall occupy my leisure hours? ‘Music, song, love-poetry, and dancing. ‘What is my watchword? ‘The curse of Allah until the day of judgment. ‘But how shall I contend with man, to whom thou hast granted two guardian angels, and who has received thy revelation? ‘Thy progeny shall be more numerous than his,—for for every man that is born, there shall come into the world seven evil spiri
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Chapter XXIII. The Curse on Knowledge.
Chapter XXIII. The Curse on Knowledge.
But the terror with which Jehovah is said to have been inspired when he said, ‘The man has become as one of us, to know good and evil,’ never failed to reappear among priesthoods when anything threatened to remove the means of learning from under their control. The causes of this are too many to be fully considered here; but the main cause unquestionably was the tendency of learning to release men from the sway of the priest. The primitive man of science would speedily discover how many things e
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Chapter XXIV. Witchcraft.
Chapter XXIV. Witchcraft.
It was in these diminutive forms that great systems survived among the common people. Amid natural convulsions ancient formations of faith were broken into fragments; in the ebb and flow of time these fragments were smoothed, as it were, into these talismanic pebbles. Yet each of these conveyed all the virtue which had been derived from the great and costly ceremonial system from which it originally crumbled; the virtue of soothing the mind and calming the nerves of sufferers with the feeling th
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Chapter XXV. Faust and Mephistopheles.
Chapter XXV. Faust and Mephistopheles.
Fig. 22.— Seal from Raven Book. In this book, poorly printed, and apparently on a private press, Mephistopheles is mentioned as one of the chief Princes of Hell. He is described as a youth, adept in all arts and services, who brings spirit-servants or familiars, and brings treasures from earth and sea with speed. In the Frankfort Faust Book (1587), Mephistopheles says, ‘I am a spirit, and a flying spirit, potently ruling under the heavens.’ In the oldest legends he appears as a dog, that, as we
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Chapter XXVI. The Wild Huntsman.
Chapter XXVI. The Wild Huntsman.
In the Odinwald are the Riesenäule and Riesenaltar , with mystic marks declaring them relics of a temple of Odin. Near Erbach is Castle Rodenstein, the very fortress of the Wild Jäger, to which he passes with his horrid train from the ruins of Schnellert. The village of Reichelsheim has on file the affidavits of the people who heard him just before the battles of Leipzig and Waterloo. Their theory is that if the Jäger returns swiftly to Schnellert all will go well for Germany; but if he tarry at
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Chapter XXVII. Le Bon Diable.
Chapter XXVII. Le Bon Diable.
It is hard to destroy the natural sentiments of the human heart. However much they may be overlaid by the transient exigencies of a creed, their indestructible nature is pretty certain to reveal itself. The most orthodox supporters of divine cruelty in their own theology will cry out against it in another. The saint who is quite satisfied that the everlasting torture of Satan or Judas is justice, will look upon the doom of Prometheus as a sign of heathen heartlessness; and the burning of one wid
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Chapter XXVIII. Animalism.
Chapter XXVIII. Animalism.
The devils of Lust are so innumerable that several volumes would be required to enumerate the legends and superstitions connected with them. But, fortunately for my reader and myself, these, more than any other class of phantoms, are very slight modifications of the same form. The innumerable phallic deities, the incubi and succubæ, are monotonous as the waves of the ocean, which might fairly typify the vast, restless, and stormy expanse of sexual nature to which they belong. In ‘The Golden Lege
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Chapter XXIX. Thoughts and Interpretations.
Chapter XXIX. Thoughts and Interpretations.
Were those who killed the martyrs of heresy, for instance, to return to the world and look upon those whom they pierced, they could never recognise them. Were they to see the statues of Bruno, Huss, Cranmer, Servetus, the names and forms would not recall to them the persons they slew. They would be shocked if told that they had burned great men, and would surely answer, ‘Men? We burned no men. The Devil came among us calling himself Huss, and we made short work with him; he reappeared under seve
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