XXX PREFACE 



The farther back the origin of the gospels is 

 dated, the stronger does the certainty of this con- 

 clusion grow ; and the more difficult it becomes to 

 suppose that Jesus himself may not have shared 

 the superstitious beliefs of his disciples. 



It further follows that those who accept devils, 

 possession, and exorcism as essential elements 

 of their conception of the spiritual world may 

 consistently consider the testimony of the Gospels 

 to be unimpeachable in respect of the information 

 they give us respecting other matters which 

 appertain to that world. 



Those who reject the gospel demonology, on 

 the other hand, would seem to be as completely 

 barred, as I feel myself to be, from professing to 

 take the accuracy of that information for granted. 

 If the threefold tradition is wrong about one 

 fundamental topic, it may be wrong about another, 

 while the authority of the single traditions, often 

 mutually contradictory as they are, becomes a 

 vanishing quantity. 



It really is unreasonable to ask any rejector of 

 the demonology to say more with respect to those 

 other matters, than that the statements regarding 

 them may be true, or may be false ; and that the 

 ultimate decision, if it is to be favourable, must 

 depend on the production of testimony of a very 

 different character from that of the writers of the 

 four gospels. Until such evidence is brought for- 

 ward, that refusal of assent, with willingness to 



