The Portland daily press., 1875-12-09

Last evening the concluding lecture IN the
Mercantile Library course was delivered by
Moncure D. Conway. His subject was
sDemonology," and it was treated with a
weight of thought and wealth of illustration
rare on the lecture platform in these latter
days. Mr. Conveys delivery is not pleasing,
he lisps, his voice is uneven, and be is diff
cult speaker to report.
The theme was colored by the well-known
theological views of the speaker. He appear
ed to have in mind Heine's lines:
'Ihe old God is dead above
And the old Devil is dead below,
ADD he seemed to hold to the idea that in
theology old things have passed away, and all
things have become new. His opinions were
not however intrusiyely advanced. though
they throughout gave tone to his address. In
the earliest mytnologies. he said. there was no
Devil. The Gods themselves were imperfect,
partaling of human virtues and defects, doing
good at times and sometimes evil, but never
doing evil for the mere love of it. To please
themselves, to crafty their appetites aud pas.
sons, they frequently became wrong-doers
But the idea of malignant being exulting in
wickedn ess, tormenting the human race and
leading it astray because of pure love of evil is
not anywhere to be found in the elder mytho-
logies. 1t was only as men progressed, as
they formed an idea Of Deity pure and pas
sonless and sustaining paternal and benefi-
cent relation to man, that it was found neces-
Say to have Devil. Men found it impossible
to reconcile the evil in the world with the idea
of God doing only good. So the Devil was
invented. The evil spirit had its birth in the
IT, ~, Ia nc ~,
1igions. At first the rugged powers of nature,
like the tempest and the earthquake, were
looked upon as demons. For example, the
typhoon of the Indian seas gets its name from
malignant demon of the winds. The bene-
fcent powers Of nature were recognized as
deities. The sun " as the earliest God Of near
ly all nations In time the conflict Of nature
became transferred to the realm of mind.
Then in the subtitle Persian mythology the doc
trine of personal Devil first came to the
birth in the conflict Of Ahriman and Oronas-
des.
There was difference between devils and
demons The devil was wicked and malic-
ious fellow from the mere love of it. The
demon was only destructive or disag.eeable to
supply some need. The demon was always
pictured as nearly all stomach. He was a
goblin because he ''gobbled up" The vampire
is of the same kind and people in the super
stitious ages have sought to appease demons by
sacrifices.
Different nations place vastly different est-
mates upon the power of demons In the
play of Punch and Judy in England the devil
finally gets away with the wicked Punch In
oil
the devil, and only surrenders to policeman.
He also gave the audience v.iion of the crea-
ton and troubles of our first parents quite diff
ferent from that generally accepted The man
Adam and the woman were created at the
same time. When the woman was req uired to
be help-meet and second generally to Adam
she rebeled. She was as old as the man, knew
as much and all that and there was no sense
in the arrangement. She was turned out of
the garden and another woman created from
Adams ribs But this other woman was
bound to make trouble. She didn't want the
man but she coveted the garden of Eden. In
short she was the real devil. The serpent was
on guard at the gate of Eden and by some
means she prevailed upon the .rpent to allow
her to enter the garden disguised in his form,
so that during all the time the serpent instead
of the woman has been regarded as the one
who brought "sin into the world and all our
woes"
The audience was small, and grew less dur
ing the evening" The lecture conveyed more
information and showed the evidence of more
thought than any other delivered this season,
But people do not care to be instructed; thew
only wish to be amused, and they withdrew by
scores before the lecture was finished.