emy of mankind, the
principal agent, who in a thousand several shapes, after divers
fashions, with several engines, illusions, and by several names, hath
deceived the inhabitants of the earth, in several places and countries,
still rejoicing at their falls." [269] Verily this protean, omnipresent,
and malignant devil has proved himself a great convenience! He has
been the scapegoat upon whom we have laid the responsibility of all
our mortal woe: and now we learn that to his infernal influence we
are indebted for our ignorance and superstition. Henceforth, when
we are at our wit's end, we may apostrophize the difficulty, and
exclaim, "O thou invisible spirit, if thou hast no name to be known
by, let us call thee devil!" We hesitate to spoil this serviceable
illusion: for as we have known some good people, of a sort, who
would be distressed to find that there was no hell to burn up the
opponents of their orthodoxy; we fear lest many would be
disappointed if they found out that the infernal spirit was not at the
bottom of our abysmal ignorance. But we will give even the devil
his due. We are not like Sir William Brown, who "could never bring
himself heartily to hate the devil." We can, wherever we find him;
but we think it only honest to father our own mental deficiencies, as
well as our moral delinquencies, and instead of seeking a substitute
to use the available remedy. "To err is human"; and it is in humanity
itself that we shall discover the source of superstition. We are the
descendants of ancestors who were the children of the world, and
we were ourselves children not so long ago. Childhood is the age of
fancy and fiction; of sensitiveness to outer influences; of
impressions of things as they seem, not as they are. When we
become men we put away childish things; and in the manhood of
our race we shall banish many of the idols and ideas which please us
while we grow. Darwin has told us that our "judgment will not
rarely err from ignorance and weak powers of reasoning. Hence the
strangest customs and superstitions, in complete opposition to the
true welfare and happiness of mankind, have become all-powerful
throughout the world. How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well
as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not
know; nor how it is that they have become, in all quarters of the
world, so deeply impressed on the mind of men; but it is worthy of
remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the