and knows every detail of his life; he is always present to minister evil by temptation, to every human creature at the same time; and, with man's own carnal nature for ally, he is able to hurry millions to perdition, whilst only a few brands are plucked from the burning, and are "scarcely saved" from his power. He is the "god of this world," commanding the obedience of the whole hierarchy of evil spirits, "principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual powers in heavenly places," and the King of Death and Hell. This is Satan, the orthodox Devil of the Christian. IV. DEMONS. Demons and Devils-Turanian Demonology-Spirits appurtenant and Spirits unattached-Rabbinical Spirits-Pan-PuckOrigin of the Idea of Spirits-Shade and Psyche-DreamsManes and Manes-worship-Patron-saints-Monsters-JinnsPeris and Deevs-Elves-Mermen-Mermaids and NecksFairies-Lilith, Sorcery and Hair-Fates, Parcæ, Hathors and Nornir-Nymphs-Fays-Dame-du-lac-Oberon and Titania -Angels-Guardian Angels, Genii, Gods and Goddesses-Fravishis Genius--Ka- Cosmical Spirits-Maskim-TitansFrost Giants-Rephaim-Duergar-Dwarfs and Trolls—Metalworkers-Giants and Dwarfs-Accadians-Turanians-Lapps -Eskimos-Alleghans and Aztecs-Beehive and Communal Dwellings—Andaman Islanders—Recapitulation. In treating of demons, it is necessary to premise that there is a clear and well-defined distinction between a demon and a devil. They are both spiritual beings, but their attributes are essentially different. Originally, there were good as well as evil demons, although, in course of time, the term "demons" became exclusively identified with the idea of malignancy. Even then, however, their baneful influences were, in principle, not the result of a desire to injure, but simply of the fulfilment of their natural vocation; causing injury, it is true, but injury which was not the object aimed at, and which might at times be mixed with good. The evils, on the contrary, ascribed to the Devil had their sole origin and motive in pure malignity-- Evil, be thou my good.' The natural history of demons has received much and careful attention, and in result a tolerably clear idea of their nature and origin has been arrived at. At the time that the history of the human race began, that is, when it first emerged from the period when neither written records nor continuous traditions were handed on from generation to generation; the human inhabitants of the world who first created history, appear to have all belonged to the great Turanian race, of which the Chinese are still considered to be, in an especial degree, the representatives and to which the aborigines of America can with certainty be referred.3 It seems to be now satisfactorily established, that, at the dawn of history, these Turanian races extended over the whole habitable world; and although they have to a great extent succumbed to other races, whose religions have superseded theirs, they have nevertheless left on the surface of the great sea of human belief the wreckage of their own dogmas, with which succeed 1 Milton, "Paradise Lost," B. 4. 110. 2 Max Müller, "Science of Religion," 154, &c. ing religions have constructed a great part of their own systems of faith. Probably not a single race or religion now exists which does not show distinct signs of its Turanian inheritance, although that inheritance may be recognized as the most superstitious part of its creed. The Chinese and the American Indians have preserved down to a recent period much of their primeval Turanian character, and in a striking degree, their primeval theory as to demons. The main feature of the Turanian creed was, that the whole of the Universe was peopled by innumerable spirits; that every man, woman, and child had at least two of such spirits; that the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars, each had its demon; that mountains, rivers, fountains, trees, clouds, winds, rain, heat, cold, each had its demon; that many of these had many demons each; that when the sun shone beneficently, this effect was produced by its good demon; when it parched up the land, producing drought and famine, it was the act of the sun's evil demon: that when it thundered and lightened, a war of the demons of the elements was going on. were also demons of the day, and demons of the night; each fever and disease had its demon ; famine, drought, and every other Scourge which visits suffering humanity, had its special presiding demon. Indeed, it may be said, that to every object, living or inanimate, of sufficient individuality to There receive a name, and to every abstraction which did receive a name, at the same time was attributed its demon. All these demons were of a permanent nature, and were assumed to have come into existence at the same time as the body or conception to which they were attached, and to have a commensurate duration; but besides all these, the world of demons was being perpetually recruited by human deaths, for it was a universal belief that the disembodied human soul became a demon as it separated from the body. Demons of this class have had attached to them characteristics as widely different as light is from darkness; but the true and original idea in the Turanian mind seems to have been, that disembodied souls were capable, under certain conditions, of becoming not only most powerful and exacting, but most malignant, if not satisfied in their own particular way. Hence the necessity for propitiating ancestral demons, and the introduction of the whole system of manes-worship, passing into sacrifices to the infernal powers for the dead, and masses for the repose of the soul. As Nature was most prolific and versatile in the production of forces out of which man created demons, so the fertile imagination of the human race has given to these demons a development, the ramifications of which could hardly be conceived, were the origin and history of that development not followed out and demonstrated. As D |