Evening star., 1896-02-29

must reflect somewhat upon devils in gen.
eral and in particular. assume, of
course, that being human, you have had
sufficient experience to be not without
knowledge on this subject, for while you,
as everybody knows. have always sue
temptations. unfortunately your neighbor
has not, and you have thus had the oppor-
tunity to inquire into the nature and de-
sign Of devils next door, or probably across
the street. Besides, there Is history-your
Bible lessons, especially; these have not
left you without the ability to perceive that
there has been an evolution in the devil as
in man. There was the very old devil
who pestered poor Job, the same whose
power and methods Moses implied in the
wall of the Ten Commandments raised
against his empire. This devil was sim
pie, coarse, brutal. easily detected and
comparatively easy to avoid. He required
Of his devotecs hideous images, patricide,
murder. lust, theft-services against which
asked pound for his tabernacles and
altars save that outside the bounds of So
cial order. Then there came a new devil,
and we have known him long by the name
OF Mephistopheles. He had progressed with
human nature. He had no taste for blood,
was contemptuous Of mere crime and ap-
preciated the advantages Of respectable So
clety. He desired most the murder that
men DO In their hearts, and living like
gentleman among gentlemen, he was lord
of hypocrisy and hate. Now he has fallen
behind the times, and we have again a
new devil. who again rises superior to the
limitations of his predecessors. BE Ge-
cent" he says to his disciples; yea, more
be good; be honest; feed the hungry; clothe
the naked; love your enemies, II you will
think of me- That Is all the new devil
wants of humanity-the mind and en-
throned there in that part of man least
known and least under control the single
mission of the devil, to deny, is operating
at the very stronghold of human conscious
GanVinQ nj
conduct no longer interests him. All that
pertains to it are approaches through
which he has made his way, to the person,
the life itself, of the enemy and the battle
the new devil fights with humanity is rot
for honor, nor creed, but human reason
The harvest he seeks Is not criminals nor
sinners but madmen.
There! OF course it's not at all pretty
for woman to even speak of devils, and
certainly not nice to speak seriously, as IL
she knew all about them. Moreover, it's
presumptious for her to speak with any
thing approaching authority on anything
but the big sleeve question, or possibly the
merits Of her cook, her husband or the
baby; nothing more.
Still. what of that? I am past twenty-five
and married. What is left for me to hope
or fear? 1 will be presumptuous If please
and you, Mrs. Grundy. cannot frighten me.
Development of the New Devil.
1 might hesitate to lay down law OF the
development Of the new devil, If evidence
were not forthcoming to prove it. For one
thing, there Is my own experience in the
novitiate of devil Worshipers, of which you
shall hear presently. Then there is also
within the range of your own observation
every expression of the thought of the day
to sustain me.
You must realize that the fad Of the
times is incomprehensibility - the farthest
possible departure from every revealed law
of natural relations the most superhuman
denial of every established form. In ccn-
duct, this is o-worship-self-culture, self
development-individual made a god. In
religion, it is breaking away from
churches and spiritual riot of the mag
ination in mysticism. In literature, it is
chap books and yellow books. In poetry
it's pre-Raphaelites and purple cows. In
music, it Is Wagner and Yvette Guilbert.
In art, it is posters. Whether you con-
slider the new woman in boomers or the
grotesque lines of the new art; the vege-
table virtue Of the new saint, the abb
normal vice of the new sinner; the prose
gone mad of the new poet. or the apoth-
costs of brass horns and long, lean, black
arms the new music has accomplished, 1t
is all the same, the same blank contradic-
tion of every accepted standard of human
excellence, the same supreme denial Of
every form in which the human mind is ac-
customed to express hself-in word, it is
the supremacy Of the new devil.
have selected a few choice specimens
of the new art to illustrate my point. A