xiv PREFACE 



"yarns," about such monsters of the deep. 

 And if the interests of ordinary veracity dictate 

 this course, in relation to a matter of so little 

 consequence as this, what must be our obligations 

 in respect of the treatment of a question which is 

 fundamental alike for science and for ethics ? For 

 not only does our general theory of the universe 

 and of the nature of the order which pervades it, 

 hang upon the answer ; but the rules of practical 

 life must be deeply affected by it. 



The belief in a demonic world is inculcated 

 throughout the Gospels and the rest of the books 

 of the New Testament ; it pervades the whole 

 patristic literature ; it colours the theory and the 

 practice of every Christian church down to modern 

 times. Indeed, I doubt, if even now, there is 

 any church which, officially, departs from such a 

 fundamental doctrine of primitive Christianity as 

 the existence, in addition to the Cosmos with 

 which natural knowledge is conversant, of a world 

 of spirits ; that is to say, of intelligent agents, not 

 subject to the physical or mental limitations of 

 humanity, but nevertheless competent to interfere, 

 to an undefined extent, with the ordinary course of 

 both physical and mental phenomena. 



More especially is this conception fundamental 

 for the authors of the Gospels. Without the belief 

 that the present world, and particularly that part 

 of it which is constituted by human society, has 

 been given over, since the Fall, to the influence 



