122 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



a little fly by accident, his reason might be unhinged 

 by terror lest he had swallowed the devil. The 

 Eang of Spain used to sleep between the monks to 

 keep the devil off. What a dreadful hue was given 

 to life by this belief ; in what a constant state of 

 apprehension and alarm men lived ! The insane, the 

 epileptic were of course possessed of the devil. All 

 evil, storms, pestilence, disease, everything malodor- 

 ous, was the work of evil spirits. 



When the scientific, conception began to a^faken 

 in many minds, not a step could it take, or cause to 

 be taken, without a collision with the theological 

 conception or its brood of hateful offspring. Every 

 domain was occupied. Disease, insanity, epilepsy, 

 pestilence, storms, comets, fossils, malformations, 

 etc., all had their theological explanations. The 

 scientific idea found itself opposed at every point. 

 Hence arose the warfare of science with theology, 

 which is a thrice-told tale. Lecky has written it in 

 his history of Rationalism, Draper has written it, 

 Andrew White has written it, and is lately adding 

 his " New Chapters." Not one foothold has science 

 gained without a struggle. Not one province has 

 theology given up tUl it was compelled to. But 

 step by step it has been forced to retreat, till at 

 least four fifths of its territory is now occupied by 

 its great rival. Magic and sorcery and alchemy and 

 astrology are given up as idle dreams ; witchcraft 

 and hobgoblins and even the good devil are delu- 

 sions of our fathers. The belief in miracles is 

 narrowed down, among Protestants, to a very small 



