Demonology - A Selection of Classic Articles on the History and Myths of Demonology

By Read Books Ltd.

This volume features a series of historical and informative publications delving into the dark and mysterious subject of demonology.

Intended to guide readers in the historical context of demonology and the myths surrounding the subject, this volume is an illustrative resource of information and knowledge.

Featured articles in ‘Demonology’ include:

- ‘Obsession and Possession of the Devil’ by Augustine Calmet

- ‘Demons’ by Charles Wyllys Elliott

- ‘Spiritualism and Demonology’ by Rev. A. B. Morrison

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473358539

Book preview

DEMONS.

Homer calls the gods dæmons, and dæmons gods. Either term seems to have suited him and some of the ancients. Another opinion was that they were intermediate between men and gods—and perhaps that they had once been men;* indeed it must have been so, for Plutarch speaks of human souls as commencing, first heroes, then dæmons, and afterward as advancing to a more sublime degree. One practice these heathens had, which can not be counted as altogether foolish, it is thus given by Philo of Byblus: "The most ancient of the barbarians, especially the Phenicians and Egyptians, from whom other people derived this custom, accounted those the GREATEST GODS who had found out things most necessary and useful in life—and had been benefactors to mankind."† The reader may compare our practices with theirs, and draw his own conclusions as to what heathenishnees really is.

The term demon, however, is now used to mean malignant spirits, and comes so to us from the New Testament writers, as many of our notions upon such subjects do; though Mr. Farmer in his elaborate work concludes that they may be either good or bad—at any rate are distinct from what are called the Devil and his angels. So far we can repose in security. Alas, no! not so much as this is vouchsafed to mortal men, who in their frantic gropings for something definite, tangible, real, are apt, for very despair, to grasp at something monstrous. Even this, whether or no the demon is the imp of the devil? remains in doubt, for Dr. Lardner* seems to think them identical, and brings Scripture to prove it.

But Demoniacal Possession—who doubts that? Who doubts that the devils, when they found that they must go, as Mark tells us,† should have besought, saying, Send us into the swine? And who doubts that the swine should have drowned themselves—or that the owner of the swine should have been both surprised and grieved? Or who doubts that the whole multitude of the country round about besought HIM to depart from them?‡

That the New Testament writers had full faith in this demoniacal possession is beyond question, whatever we may think of Jesus’s own belief; yet it is equally true that there is no vestige of their teaching such belief, or giving it countenance except by not denying it. If usage is of any value to the incredulous, they may refer to Josephus’s* words, which assert that the method of exorcism prescribed by Solomon prevailed or succeeded greatly among them down to the present time. This method is not specified; but as we have the satisfaction of knowing that his seal bore the Tetragammaton, the mystic letters which are the name of God, which rendered him in a sort omnipotent as well as omniscient, we can as readily believe that he should have done these magical things, as to have composed a sacred song, or have done some other of his recorded deeds.

From time to time, we have had vague and uncertain rumors that this signet, this name of God was yet in existence here below, and many have fondly hoped that it was so, and that by it distracting doubts might be resolved; but it has, so far, hidden itself from the vulgar soul. The Arabs and some others are said yet to hold on to this faith; for, as they truly say, if we give up this belief where shall we go?—words which have been echoed by men of this day, and in one sense by the godlike.†

The answer may not be so plain to them as to some singular men who would recklessly say—to the devil, of course. Indeed, it may be a matter of painful interest to them, as well as to us, should they at any time discover that the truth is learned through other ways than by signets and stones; that while looking for these unreal and mystic signs, they have quite overlooked what is all around them, which, though mystic, is surely REAL.

It is not altogether insignificant for us to know that there are (so it is said) periods in history when these demoniacs, or possessed persons become numerous to a fearful degree. These periods are marked in the carnal history of man by dire miseries—of body, or of soul, or of both. When the strong oppress the weak, decreeing injustice by law, as men are prone to do, having such a wish for power that nothing can control it—not even their own wisdom; when the grinding sense of injustice breaks down the grains of self-respect and of hope (which every man should garner up in himself), as the mere earthly wheat is brought to dust between the relentless stones of the miller; when plunder, either by the strong hand, or that more fatal kind of the merciless official, renders labor unsafe and starvation sure, then DESPAIR steps in and reaps down the true and noble in man, and sows his tares of demonism and misery.

Those who doubt may look with wondering eyes at wonderful illustrations scattered with a too free hand through history—at the French Revolution, the decay of Rome, the destruction of Jerusalem—and learn wisdom before he too blindly and frantically grasps at wealth and power at such a cost.

Most complete are the results of this misery in those nations which have tasted of freedom and justice—such as Rome and Israel—and less wide among people