Satan tried to evade the fulfilment of his
share in the agreement. But the man, in violation of the written pact,
has often cheated the devil out of his legal due by technical
quibbles. "It is peculiar to the German tradition," says Gustav
Freytag, "that the devil endeavours to fulfil zealously and honestly
his part of the contract; the deceiver is man." In regard to fidelity
to his word, the father of lies has always set an example to his
victims. "You men," said Satan, "are cheats; you make all sorts of
promises so long as you need me, and leave me in the lurch as soon as
you have got what you wanted." Mediaeval man had no scruples about his
breach of contract with the devil. He always considered the legal
document signed with his own blood as "a scrap of paper." "But still
the pact is with the enemy; the man is not bound beyond the letter,
and may escape by any trick. It is still the ethics of war. We are
very close to the principle that a man by stratagem or narrow
observance of the letter may escape the eternal retribution which God
decrees conditionally and the devil delights in" (H. D. Taylor,
_Mediaeval Mind_). We now can understand why in Eugene Field's story
"Daniel and the Devil" it seems to Satan so strange that he should be
asked for a written guarantee that he too would fulfil his part of the
contract. Apparently this was the first time that the devil had any
transactions with an American business man, who has not even faith in
Old Nick.

Reference is made in this story by the devil himself to the popular
saying that the devil is not so black as he is painted. Even the
devout George Herbert wrote--

"We paint the devil black, yet he
Hath some good in him all agree."

This story recalls to us the proverb: "Talk of the devil, and he will
either come or send."

Washington Irving, as we have seen, thinks that he is not always very
obliging.

Satan, the father of lies, is said to be the patron of lawyers. The
men of the London bar formed a "Temple" corps, which was dubbed "The
Devil's Own." The tavern of the lawyers on Fleet Street in London was
called "The Devil."

BON-BON

BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

This writer, to whom the inner world was more of a reality than the
external world, had many visions, especially of the devil. The two
seem to have been on a familiar footing. The devil, we must admit,
filled Poe's imagination even if we will not go so far as to agree
with his critics that h