The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-01-27
The DEVIL.
Rev. N. 4. Conveys Lecture at the
Opera House Last Night.

A large and intelligent auolence as
embed at the Hamilton Opera House
asst night TO hear the lecture of Rev.
u. D. Conway. of London, on his novel
ubiect 1.-THE Devil" Mr.. Conway is ap-
about fifty years of age and not
progressing in appear
ance, but Is a fluent and easy speaker.
He came forward on the stage without
sn introduction, and proceeded to speak
as follows
LADIES AND GENTLEMEE.-l have,
after several years, the privilege OF speak
ing to an audience in my native State, |
or what used to be, concerning philoso-
phical and archaeological subjects. l! is a
subject from which many people antici-
pate more fun than there really is in it.
1t is droll at times when we
have to present to you devils,
and describe their characteristics, that
we reflect that these things are related to
the very depths Of the moral nature OF
the world We must reflect that the
devil is the shadow of the evils in uan's
moral nature. An English lady recently
SAID to a friend of mine, both being
mothers of families, "Do you make your
children bow their heads when they men
ton the name of the devil? l do; l
think it safer" 1t is very droll to find
this respect cropping out in some English
family.
Devils are the primitive deities of
of mankind, The word "demon" is
about the same word as "deity." The
latin word "Denos" survives in the slang
word "deuce." Then We have "Beelze-
bub" related to Baal; We have Lucifer
which means "bearer of light" or morn.
ing star. The catalogue might be greatly
enlarged with the names given to, and
the a. .ociations of this being with some
thing beautiful or fair, and there are
other names which describe them as hav-
ing fallen from their bright estate. The
ancient idea that they fell from Heaven
was taken in a very practical way.
Jupiter was said to have pitched some of
them out of Heaven, and some Of them
were famed from the fall. 1t was in that
way that Asmodus. the "devil on two
sticks" limped into romance, and in that
way the Devil got the cloven hoof that is
ascribed to him in popular romance.
In. the play of the elements; in the
elaborate strvings for good and evil in
Nature, in the innumerable forces
around him, man in early times felt the
resistance of will like his own. We
have long given up their personilications.
The mask fell of from their bright
array of Gods and Goddesses when
science struck the hour for unmasking;
they We're revealed, but the marks still
remain to us in the old mytholog;es.
Thew remain us records of mans early
history; as chapters in our intellectual
biography; of what you and thought
and did when ten thousand years ago
we were sacrificing on the banks of the
Nile, or wandering over the. plains of
India. Humanity in its origin, in its
first sacred books painted no picture of
a purely malignant spirit. We have
demons but no Devils. We should under
stand the difference demon and Devil.
The Devil is a being who is evil
the love of doing harm. a demon is
on the contrary, apoor, wandering ghost
who does harm for the purpose of seek
ing satisfaction for his own suffering.
There are demons Of cold. The farmer
used TO leave wild places about his habi-
tation, and in Walter Scots time they
abounded in Scotland. They lettaround
their gardens wild places so that the wild
demons might not be tempted to come
in among the good vegetables; and it
was supposed that if it was Il hungry
demon, If the man would only take the
best sheep IN the flock and sacrifice it TO
alloy the hunger of a demon, he would
spare the rest of the flock. In some parts
we find most elaborate sacrifices made in
order to save the tlocks and vegetables.
Yet all this time there was no conception
of the demon being bad hearted. They
partake of the force of nature, they are
part good and part bad. In all the sacred
books we find no mention of the Devil,
because no Devil WAS needed, the Gods
being quite able to do any evil dong
that had to be accounted tor. at last,
after many ages, men became more OBJ
servant and good, and evil became grad
uslly more siited and more sharply de.
tached from each other, until we have
the deities on one side and demons on the
othor; one representing sunshine and all
that was PLEASANT the other representing
the sunstroke and storm and tempest, and
everything that was unpleasant
AT first there was hunger in the world;
the first trouble OF man was for his daily
bread. He had only his flinted arrow
and found the earth moro ready TO give
him stone when he asked for bread and
he therefore conceived the idea that the
earth was infested with avarcious, hun
gry beings like himself, who wanted all
the good things for themselves. There
Is a tribe of Africans called katiirs
whose great demon is a stomach; it has
only a great mouth with which to swal-
low, and otherwise Is only stomach.
Then there is the vampire which the
Sclavorians believe comes out o: the
grave to suck the block of the living.
1t comes forth to fill is wasted veins
with the life and vita ity of the best |
of the family. How far and wide |
this belief has gone! Why only last
year in Rhode Island man dug up the |
body of his daughter and took her heart |
and burned it because he thought that she |
was preying upon the family and suck |
ing from them their life blood. That is
the reason why in some remote parts of |
Germany whenever corpse Is buried |
some bread and corn Is buried with it,
SO that it may have something to eat
after death and may not be tempted to
come out out of the grave and seek life
In more Objectionable ways. In Fran
coma, in Germany, found that the peas
ants threw few rolls into the fire when.
ever they took baking from the oven
saying, "there poor Devil that is for thee"
They say that if they do not do that the
Devil will get among our rolls,
and they will all come out bLrned,
In the old superstitions when the SUD
came TO be eclipsed it was supposed to
be the work of a hungry demon. Not
long ago England sent out u number Of
officers to observe solar eclipse IN H.