Demonology and devil-lore . day is, If thine enemy hunger,starve him; if he thirst, give him fire ; if he hate you, heapmelted lead on his head ! Such remains the soul of thegreatest race, under the fatal spell of a creed that itsbarbarism needs only baptism to be made holiness andvirtue. 1 The Holy Grail was believed to have been fashioned from the largest ofall diamonds, lost from the crown of Satan as he fell from Heaven. Guardedby angels until used at the Last Supper, it was ultimately secured by Arthursknight, Percival, and—such is the irony of mythology—indirectly by the aidof Satans own
Demonology and devil-lore . day is, If thine enemy hunger,starve him; if he thirst, give him fire ; if he hate you, heapmelted lead on his head ! Such remains the soul of thegreatest race, under the fatal spell of a creed that itsbarbarism needs only baptism to be made holiness andvirtue. 1 The Holy Grail was believed to have been fashioned from the largest ofall diamonds, lost from the crown of Satan as he fell from Heaven. Guardedby angels until used at the Last Supper, it was ultimately secured by Arthursknight, Percival, and—such is the irony of mythology—indirectly by the aidof Satans own son, Merlin ! HOGARTHS RAREE SHO W. 399 In the reign of George II., when Lord Bute and aPrincess of easy virtue were preying on England, andfanatical preachers were directing their donkeys to heavenbeside the conflagration of John Bulls house, the eye ofHogarth at least (as is shown in our Figure 25, from his* Raree Show) was able to see what the baptized Merlinhad become in his realm of Air. The other worldly-Devil is. Fig. 25.—From the Raree Show. serpent-legged Hypocrisy. The Nineteenth Century hasreplaced Merlin by Mephistopheles, the Devil who, despitea cloven foot, steps firmly on earth, and means the powerthat wit and culture can bring against the baptized giantForce. Him the gods fear not, even look upon with satis-faction. In the Prologue in Heaven, of Goethes Faust,the Lord is even more gracious to Mephistopheles than the 400 THE SPIRIT THAT DENIES. Jehovah of Job was to Satan. The like of thee havenever moved my hate, he says— Mans active nature, flagging, seeks too soon the level;Unqualified repose he learns to crave ;Whence, willingly, the comrade him I gave,Who works, excites, and must create, as Devil. This is but a more modern expression of the rabbinicalfable, already noted, that when the first man was formedthere were beside him two Spirits,—one on the right thatremained quiescent, another on the left who ever movedrestlessly up and down. When the f
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