A SURVIVAL OF MEDIAEVAL CREDULITY. 581 



Humanum genus, already cited, in which Leo XIII divides the 

 human race into worshipers of God and worshipers of Satan, and 

 then proceeds to adduce facts proving the correctness of this clas- 

 sification. It is, in reality, a bold burlesque of the papal circular, 

 as, indeed, it was intended to be, and would doubtless have been 

 laughed at for a time as a clever persiflage, if the dignitaries of the 

 Church had not taken it seriously, as they were expected to do. 

 Dr. Hacks confessed to an " interviewer," in 1897, that no sooner 

 had he read the pontifical circular in question than he saw in it 

 " a rare opportunity to coin money out of the crass credulity and 

 boundless stupidity of the Catholics. It needed only a Jules 

 Yerne to clothe these extravagant fancies in an attractive garb. 

 I resolved to play the part of this Jules Verne. Strangely enough, 

 the same idea occurred to others. I therefore joined forces with 

 Leo Taxil and a few friends, and began to publish The Devil in 

 the Nineteenth Century, the success of which is well known. . . . 

 I had traversed many lands and got up marvelous stories, the 

 scenes of which were laid in remote regions, which I was sure no 

 one would visit in order to test the truth of my assertions." Be- 

 sides, he counted on the silliness of the persons with whom he had 

 to deal, and felt certain that if he should tell them he had been 

 fooling them they would not believe him, but would remain con- 

 vinced that all his inventions were strictly true. He could not 

 conceive of a body of ecclesiastics as ready to discard a belief which 

 served their turn, however evident its absurdity might be to other 

 minds. " Sometimes I fabricated the most incredible stories, as, 

 for example, that of the serpent inditing prophecies with its tail 

 on the back of Sophia "VValder, or that of the demon, who, in order 

 to marry a Freemason, transformed himself into a young lady, and 

 played the piano evenings in the form of a crocodile. My col- 

 leagues were aghast, and exclaimed, ' You'll spoil the whole joke 

 with your nonsense.' ' Bah! ' I replied. ' Let me be, and you will 

 see! ' " And they did see how eagerly such gross falsehoods were 

 accepted as positive facts. Protestants without exception are de- 

 nounced as godless apostates. Every Lutheran is a Luciferian in 

 disguise. Singapore, he says, like every British colony, is settled 

 by knaves, footpads, and all sorts of criminals. The Protestant 

 Englishman is, at the bottom, an embodiment of scoundrelism 

 coupled with Satanism. There is a strangely infernal element in 

 the social life at Singapore. " The British matrons and even the 

 maidens are incarnations of vice and godlessness. The young Eng- 

 lish woman dedicates all her charms and intelligence to the service 

 of Satan, whose apostle and agent she is; cursed by God, she is 

 the dearly beloved paramour of Lucifer; a woman only in name, 



