4 FACTS AGAINST FICTION. 



demon who, as boys, in our dramatic performance of 

 Pmicli, we used to introduce to our audience as 

 descending from above (an error, I grant), witli a 

 taper at his back to shine behind his red silk eyes, 

 a pitchfork in his hand, a cloven foot stuck mis- 

 chievously out, and a tail, angrily and severely 

 forked, set up behind him, towering far above his 

 head. In this demoniacal representation of the 

 so-called chastiser of sin, I firmly believed. My 

 tutor — Heaven rest his soul ! — never attempted to 

 undeceive me ; nor did my nurses, nor any one 

 else. They, I sujDpose, like the priests of old and 

 the Jesuits now, saw that we feared the imaginary 

 monster, and found our childish belief in tail 

 and pitchfork a useful restraint to keej) us from 

 mischief. 



Alas! that the demon with his cloven foot, the 

 hellish tails, and nursery tales, should all have 

 been swept away by the damnable* doctrines of 

 Darwin, and even the milder charity of the Duke 

 of Somerset ! Eeft of my early fond belief, 

 shocked, astonished, and in some lingering doubt, 



" Keader, do not think I swear, or apply this word unadvisedly 

 to Darwin's doctrines. The " bishops, priests, and deacons," all 

 pious men, &c., will ui^hold me in its use, and will, perhaps, add 

 still greater pungency to its flavour. 



