The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-12-02
The Devil.

devil was mentioned. Probing beneath the
surface of philology they would discover
that demon and deity were originally syn
onomo1s. The Latin word Deds was cor
rupted in the English deuce, and the Egyp-
tian devil was regarded as god. In some
copies of the old Bible they found the Gu
riOus injunction, .'Thou shalt not be afraid
of any bugs by night" This was simply a
contraction of the word bugaboo, with
which ali children were familiar. Beelze-
bub related to Baal, and, in short, all such
words and names, when investigated, showed
a regular affinity. In the early ages the al
legged fall of angels from heaven was taken
in literal sense. Jupiter, it was held, took
nine days in falling, and was, naturally, hurt
by the fall. Lucifer coming down fell upon
his feet, which, no doubt, was the cause of
his cloven hoof. Laughter. Primitive
man found himself encountering in nature
a will antagonistic to his own. He thought
himself surrounded by strange influences,
which he classed as spirits. Man had lived
to learn better. The crowd of gods and
goddesses of the Pagan ages were now re-
garded as the mythology of nature. They
had outlived their day, and were now but
the records by which philosophers studied
the history OF the progressive mind of man.
In none of the earlier sacred books could
they find devil "a being specially and
solely malignant-a creature of unalloyed
wickedness. Everything then in religion
was figuratlve. Clouds were described as
hocks of swans, and the lightning was
classed as fiery serpent. Those shapes
were conceived of simply as powers and
forces. Each was half god, and the other
half the reverse-sometimes affecting and
sometimes benefting man. The reason
why there was no devil in the early books
was because none was needed then. The
gods considered themselves as being equal
20 any emergency that might arise in the way
of wlckedness. Laughter. But when the
happy family of gods and goddesses was bro
ken up, they split into two factions-the
deities and the demons-both being then
regarded as forces of alternate good and
evil 1t was held that the demons-fallen
angels not wicked in their natures,
but were impelled to do evil from an unap-
peasable hunger, even as the shark fol-
lows its prey to satisfy what naturalists call
an Unsuitable appetite.
The superstitious, to appease them, Of
fered gifts, which led to The early sacri-
fees, such as whole burnt offerings and mat
ters of that description. To the ancients
the deities expressed all that was pleasant,
the demons all that was unpleasant. The
former represented sunshine, the latter sun
stroke The first mentioned represented
serene skies, the demons represented the
thunder and the lightning, the sirocco and
the tornado. Primitive man found himself
begirt by the obstacles of nature, and it was
only when his mind became more de-
veloped, and wheE he armed himself to cope
with such difficulties, that his mind became
clearer ON the subject of the supernatural.
Finally, after many ages, he succeeded in
reducing all those obstacles which crowded
on his infancy into one grand whole of un-
pleasaDtness, namely, the devil. This was
the sum and substance of mans esrly idea
of natural obstacles. For generations man
won precarious livelihood from the hard
bosom of nature. He looked around and
saw all creation about him hungry. There
seemed to be spirit of hunger abroad.
The birds and fishes appeared to be so scan
ty, man came to the conclusion that there
were invisible and vorscious beings abroad,
who wanted everything for themselves, and
devoured everything within their reach.
Thus the dragon and the ghoul : the
earliest painted forms of the demons
whole matter was that devils were always
described as lean. Whoever heard of fat
devil? Shakespeare put into the mouth of
Caesar his comment on ''lean Cassius," and
added, ''such men are dangerous" Marc
Antony attempted to defend Cassius, but
the great conqueror replied: "Would he
were fatteri' Great laughter. Argan
fables made devils out as being fair to look
at in the front, but hollow in the back.
Some of them were so thin and so hollow
that they cast no shadow. The lecturer
went on to enumerate the diverse supersti-
tiOns of many countries, and said that in
the East The plague was considered a de-
&C.. L., 4Ia Ill L..
it that the natives lay down to die in abject
cowardice. An Eastern paper tells how a
traveller met a woman ON the wayside, en-
route to Damascus. He asked her whence
she came, and she replied: From yonder
city. l am the. plague. Ten Thousand
people lie dead IN the streets of Damascus.
OF these have slain 1000, and fear killed
all the rest" The idea of the present
devil first originated in Persia, where the
philosophers considered that the universe
was divided into two hostile camps by
great wall, one camp held by a God and
had both immensely-developed mouths,
showing the idea of intense voracity. The
vampire was chiefly slavonic superstition,
but it extended into Germany, and in some
districts of Prussia corpse is never buried
without plenty of food in the ceffin so that
it may not arise to prey upon the living
This idea had even reached the enlightened
sources of America. Not long ago Mr.. Will
lam Rose, living in Rhode Island, had the
body of his daughter dug up and her heart
cut out so that she might drink the blood
of the living members of the family. This
was considered specific in family con-
sumption. In fact, the homely hame hob
gnblin-of British origin-simply signified
ghost that gobbled. Laughter. When
the British officers went to India to view
the solar eclipse, the natives kindled i'm
mense fires for the purpose of blotting out
the sun, so that the foreigners might not
steal it. The officers, however, trampled
out the fire and renewed their work. So
might enlightenment ever trample upon
error and superstition in every land, so that
science might prosper. Loud applausel.
The natives also threw out into the streets
every particle of food in their houses,
In order TO bribe the devil not to steal their
sum- lLaughterl. A strange thing about
the ether by devil. Once invented, the
devil made rapid strides. daughter. He
could not be laid. Il relieved the Deity of
all that was bad in nature, and it gave man
an excuse for his misdeeds- Laughter.
In the latter point of view, the devil might
be considered remarkable success. Laugh
ter In the book of Job there was not one
word of evil against the moral character OF
the devil LLAughter.l He is always men,
toned with great respect, and If any law
yers that were present that would excuse
him, he might say that the devil figured in
the Old Testament rs q sort Of prosecuting
attorney. IRoars of laughter. The lectu
rer at this point showed many sketches of
the devil, which were very interesting. He
described all about the supposed habits of
these demons, and created great meuiment.
ss1Iephistophelezn had been made 70 say in
Esud, when the peOpls were cali 3, for