ink was observed to be peculiarly sanguine, they thought it best to inform the magistrate against him, as a magician, who, with his own blood, and by Satanic help, had multiplied Bibles beyond the power of human handicraft. And the magistrate, with the profundity of Justice Shallow, found that he was in league with the devil, and ordered that he be made a public bonfire. Faust saved himself by revealing his art to the Parisian parliament. The decision of Justice Shallow was not wholly in error. There is much beside his judgment to confirm the tradition. At this day there is none to deny that the devil has much to do with printed thought; if not with its form and type, certainly with its essence and spirit.
This must be so necessarily. So long as the drama of life alternates between good and evil, will the devil be a star among the actors. Being the principle of evil, he will have more or less to do with human nature, until that principle loses its place in the heart and its power over the head. It is a restless principle; ever busy at the loom of life, weaving into the tissue its sombre strands, and unrolling to the gaze its fantastic figures, which in letters become the mirror of human vicissitude.
As our imperfect nature has no exemption from its temptations, so every department of literature bears evidence of its influence. Is it the lyric gush? The principle of evil sparkles in the ruby wine, and melts with the amorous eye. Is it the stately drama? It plays the prompter, and puts on the mask. Is it the grandeur of the epic? It gives unity to the action, of which it is the hero!
To analyze this element, it may be necessary—
First, to define what is meant by the Satanic element;
Secondly, to trace it to its source and display its greatest examples in literature;
And lastly, to discuss the good taste of their appearance in so notorious a form.
I. It is hardly necessary that I should give a formal introduction to a personage so well known as the subject of my paper. Most of my readers are acquainted with him, at least by reputation. It may not be necessary to search books to define him. He can be found
