two; and that, except with the faithful few, the evil should prevail.' If this was the appointed lot of the Devil, we cannot wonder that shoals of men were found ready to enlist under his banners, and to enjoy "the pleasures of sin for a season," regardless of the end to which it led. The Devil thus had too many disciples among men to make him at any time absolutely unpopular, and Le Sage's lame Asmodeus, the "Devilon-two-Sticks," is a strange mixture of philosophy, cynical wickedness, and common sense. But another change was to come over this aggressive spirit. Children in their childhood, and rustics all their lives, might believe in a black Devil with tail and horns and cloven hoofs. But such a personality could not survive, and dropped into the limbo of vain conceits. The traditional form had disappeared, but not his works: he was as untiring, as industrious as ever: unseen, unrecognized, he threaded his way through crowded humanity, wherever thought was lightest and joy the highest : he would penetrate into the seclusion of the cloister and the cell, and whisper his temptations to the ascetic and the student. The old coarse notion of the Devil carried with it a wholesome panic dread, which, if it influenced at all, tended to repulsion. But the ideal of evil, which grew more and more refined as the culture advanced with which it kept pace, was far more insidious; and grew in strength and power to influence and subjugate, as the old form disappeared, and gave place to a graceful spirit of refinement and elegance. Mephis. The culture, too, that shapes the world, at last Witch. The northern phantom from the scene hath passed, False calves I now have worn for many a year. To see once more the gallant Satan here! But people from the change have nothing won, So spake Mephistopheles, the courtly, seeming slave, but real master. The grimy garb, the brawny arms, and rough sledge-hammer of Vulcan have given place to the "gold-laced scarlet vest, the stiff silk mantle, the gay feather, and the long pointed rapier," and well-turned limbs of the youth of high degree, into whom he has become transformed. 1 Goethe's "Faust," 2146-55; 2156-60. The material fire, and the tool of brute force, formidable, but capable of useful work, have been replaced by the moral fire, and the polished and more deadly arm, made only for the purpose of destruction. VIII. DRAGONS AND SATYRS. Primeval Monsters-Honesty of Mythological Traditions Ichthyosaurus-Plesiosaurus - Atlantosaurus - Pterodactyle -Fights with Dragons-Leviathan-Facts precede Ideals — Composite Animals-Chaos-Babylonian Monsters-Scorpion Men-Æneas-Hesiodic Monsters-St. Michael-St. George and the Dragon-Dragons of Romance and Poetry-Bunyan's Apollyon-Satyrs and Pans - River-drift Man - Aborigines -Man and the Ape-Hea-bani-Hebrew Satyrs-Horns. IN examining the physical forms attributed to the Devil, it is hardly possible to avoid concluding that traditions of primeval monsters, the existence of which, at one time, cannot be doubted, are accountable for some of the most characteristic types. These monsters were by their aspect and ferocity, calculated to strike terror into all beholders; and to fix upon their memories an indelible impression of physical evil, and of irresistible malignant power. Such experience and impressions must have been passed on from generation to generation, with that vividness and exaggeration which are born of a horrible terror. As these races of monsters gradually died out, and at last became extinct, the traditions of them became less and less capable of verification by contemporary facts; and those traditions would thus become more and more misunderstood and distorted, although still preserving their general character and truthfulness. In matters of religious belief, the world has exercised far more sobriety and conscientiousness than it has credit for; and these virtues are, as a rule, manifested in the inverse proportion to the culture of a race or community. There is no evidence —and in the absence of evidence it ought not to be assumed that at any time in the world's history, has any individual, or body of men, deliberately set to work to originate mythological traditions, for the purpose of either deceiving their contemporaries, or imposing upon posterity. Uncultured or simply cultured man is far too much surrounded by the unknown and the inexplicable; and by reason of his ignorance, far too superstitious, to dare an attempt to foist upon others fanciful and foundationless traditions. As science advances, and phenomena pass from the domain of the unknown to that of the known and understood, scepticism advances too, and keeps pace with science; while the beliefs of the past are more and more treated with ridicule, or as pretty fables only fit for poetical elaboration. Then comes the time when imagination runs riot, loosed from the shackles of responsibility; and that which once was a venerable record, degenerates into a |