experience. On the one hand science has so
explained many of the processes of outer nature and of the inner life of
man as to leave no room for Satanic agency. On the other hand the modern
view of the inspiration of the Scriptures does not necessitate the
acceptance of the doctrine of the Scriptures on this subject as finally
and absolutely authoritative. The teaching of Jesus even in this matter
may be accounted for as either an accommodation to the views of those
with whom he was dealing, or more probably as a proof of the limitation
of knowledge which was a necessary condition of the Incarnation, for it
cannot be contended that as revealer of God and redeemer of men it was
imperative that he should either correct or confirm men's beliefs in
this respect. The possibility of the existence of evil spirits,
organized under one leader Satan to tempt man and oppose God, cannot be
denied; the sufficiency of the evidence for such evil agency may,
however, be doubted; the necessity of any such belief for Christian
thought and life cannot, therefore, be affirmed. (See also DEMONOLOGY;
POSSESSION.) (A. E. G.*)

DEVIZES, a market town and municipal borough in the Devizes
parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, 86 m. W. by S. of London
by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 6532. Its castle was built on
a tongue of land flanked by two deep ravines, and behind this the town
grew up in a semicircle on a stretch of bare and exposed tableland. Its
main streets, in which a few ancient timbered houses are left, radiate
from the market place, where stands a Gothic cross, the gift of Lord
Sidmouth in 1814. The Kennet and Avon Canal skirts the town on the N.,
passing over the high ground through a chain of thirty-nine locks. St
John's church, one of the most interesting in Wiltshire, is cruciform,
with a massive central tower, based upon two round and two pointed
arches. It was originally Norman of the 12th century, and the chancel
arch and low vaulted chancel, in this style, are very fine. In the
interior several ancient monuments of the Suttons and Heathcotes are
preserved, besides some beautiful carved stone work, and two rich
ceilings of oak over the chapels. St Mary's, a smaller church, is partly
Norman, but was rebuilt in the 15th and again in the 19th century. Its
lofty clerestoried nave has an elaborately carved timber roof, and the
south porch, though repaired in 1612, pre