EDITOR'S TABLE. 



843 



polls to deposit her ballot in opposition to the 

 males, we might look more confidently for ex- 

 hibitions of force, and, instead of finding wom- 

 an submitting privately to the maltreatment 

 of her husband, we should see her obliged to 

 suffer publicly the brutality of many men. 



I wish that women everywhere would 

 study the one argument that can be brought 

 against woman suffrage. It is this : Woman 

 may reform man. He has shown us clearly 

 that he will not reform himself. Now, unless 

 woman will interest herself in this reforma- 

 tion, she has no business with the ballot. So 

 far woman has done as well as man in the 

 use of the ballot ; she has done no better ; 



but she can, if she will. Man has no right 

 to exi)ect woman to take up issues that he 

 ignores, nor has he any right to withhold the 

 suffrage for fear she will do so. But wom- 

 an in asking for the ballot ought to say to 

 man. We will make better use of it than you 

 have. This is the ground on which we must 

 demand the suffrage. Not the use of the 

 ballot simply to make our own importance 

 greater, but the ballot as it could be used to 

 raise politics out of its filthiness, corruption, 

 and ignorance, and to bring in the reign of 

 purity, patriotism, and intelligence. 



Therkse a. Jenkins. 

 Cheyenne, W. T., 2>^ovember 15, lbS8. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE DEVIL-TnEORY. 



IT is a somewhat melancholy thing to 

 reflect that, while we have a min- 

 istry of truth in the men who, with dis- 

 passionate minds, are applying them- 

 selves to discover the laws of nature 

 and the true succession and affiliation 

 of historical phenomena, we have also a 

 ministry of error devoted to opposing, 

 one by one, the conclusions of science, 

 and fostering in the minds of those to 

 whom it is addressed habits of false and 

 inconclusive reasoning. We may quote, 

 as an example of the first, the work of 

 a man like our valued contributor, Dr. 

 Andrew D. White, whose articles on 

 " Demoniacal Possession and Insanity " 

 in recent numbers of this magazine have 

 attracted so much attention. We re- 

 gret to have to quote as an illustration 

 of the second the recent utterances, on 

 the very same subject, of a man who 

 stands to-day in what but lately was, 

 perhaps, the most progressive pulpit of 

 the whole country, that of Plymouth 

 Church. The Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott 

 is a man of fine sympathies, of wide 

 culture, and of much moderation of 

 character and judgment. He is a man 

 to whom Ave should have been disposed 

 to look for steady work in the direction 

 of sound and reasonable views ; particu- 

 larly considering the vantage - ground 

 he occupies as successor to one who, 

 whatever his faults and eccentricities, 



was ever looking toward the light, and 

 had thoroughly reconciled himself to 

 the leading tenets of modern science. 

 Instead of this, however, we find him 

 accepting to the fullest extent the doc- 

 trine of demoniacal possession, and de- 

 fending it by arguments of the most 

 sophistical character. While the ex- 

 President of Cornell is laboring to ban- 

 ish from men's minds the last vestiges 

 of belief in diabolic agency, the success- 

 or of Beecher is handling the devils of 

 ancient narrative with all the tenderness 

 and respect due to the most venerable pos- 

 sessions of the human race. Let us, then, 

 briefly examine what this prominent di- 

 vine has to say on the topic in question. 

 Dr. Abbott announces the theory 

 that "evil spirits exercise an influence 

 over mankind." He explains later that 

 by "evil spirits" he means "disem- 

 bodied spirits"; and adds that there is 

 " nothing unnatural " in their exercis- 

 ing the same kind of control over men 

 that masterful characters exercise over 

 others of weaker will. This hypothe- 

 sis he holds to be not only scriptural, 

 but more consonant than any other 

 with the facts of science. Charles J. 

 Guiteau, of repulsive memory, he con- 

 siders to have been a man possessed. 

 " What we call the impulses of our 

 lower nature are often," Dr. Abbott is 

 inclined to think, " the Avhispered sug- 

 gestions of fiend-like natures, watching 



