t of evil, especially the supreme
spirit of evil, the foe of God and man. The word is used for minor evil
spirits in much the same sense as "demon." From the various
characteristics associated with this idea, the term has come to be
applied by analogy in many different senses. From the idea of evil as
degraded, contemptible and doomed to failure, the term is applied to
persons in evil plight, or of slight consideration. In English legal
phraseology "devil" and "devilling" are used of barristers who act as
substitutes for others. Any remuneration which the legal "devil" may
receive is purely a matter of private arrangement between them. In the
chancery division such remuneration is generally in the proportion of
one half of the fee which the client pays; "in the king's bench division
remuneration for 'devilling' of briefs or assisting in drafting and
opinions is not common" (see _Annual Practice_, 1907, p. 717). In a
similar sense an author may have his materials collected and arranged by
a literary hack or "devil." The term "printer's devil" for the errand
boy in a printing office probably combines this idea with that of his
being black with ink. The common notions of the devil as black,
ill-favoured, malicious, destructive and the like, have occasioned the
application of the term to certain animals (the Tasmanian devil, the
devil-fish, the coot), to mechanical contrivances (for tearing up cloth
or separating wool), to pungent, highly seasoned dishes, broiled or
fried. In this article we are concerned with the primary sense of the
word, as used in mythology and religion.

The primitive philosophy of animism involves the ascription of all
phenomena to personal agencies. As phenomena are good or evil, produce
pleasure or pain, cause weal or woe, a distinction in the character of
these agencies is gradually recognized; the agents of good become gods,
those of evil, demons. A tendency towards the simplification and
organization of the evil as of the good forces, leads towards belief in
outstanding leaders among the forces of evil. When the divine is most
completely conceived as unity, the demonic is also so conceived; and
over against God stands Satan, or the devil.

Although it is in connexion with Hebrew and Christian monotheism that
this belief in the devil has been most fully developed, yet there are
approaches to the doctrine in other religions. In Babylonian mythology
"the old serpent goddess 'the lady Nina' was tran