classification

21 0 0
                                    

<pre style="font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">CLASSIFICATION.

The obstructions cf man — The twelve chief classes — Modifica-

tions of particular forms for various functions — Theological

demons.

The statements made concerning the fair names of the

chief demons and devils which have haunted the imagina-

tion of mankind, heighten the contrast between their celes-

tial origin and the functions attributed to them in their

degraded forms. The theory of Dualism, representing a

necessary stage in the mental development of every race,

called for a supply of demons, and the supply came from

the innumerable dethroned, outlawed, and fallen deities

and angels which had followed the subjugation of races

and their religions. But though their celestial origin might

linger around them in some slight legend or characteristic

as well as in their names, the evil phenomenon to which

each was attached as an explanation assigned the real

form and work with which he or she was associated in

popular superstition. We therefore find in the demons in

which men have believed a complete catalogue of the ob-

stacles with which they have had to contend in the long

struggle for existence. In the devils we discover equally

the history of the moral and religious struggles through

which priesthoods and churches have had to pass. And

the relative extent of this or th^t particular class of de<span style="font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">mons or devils, and the intensity of belief in any class as </span></pre>

<pre style="font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">shown in the number of survivals from it, will be found to

reflect pretty faithfully the degree to which the special evil

represented by it afflicted primitive man, as attested by

other branches of pre-historic investigation.

As to function, the demons we shall have to consider

are those representing — 1. Hunger; 2. Excessive Heat; 3.

Excessive Cold; 4. Destructive elements and physical

convulsions ; 5. Destructive animals ; 6. Human enemies ;

7. The Barrenness of the Earth, as rock and desert ;

8. Obstacles, as the river or mountain ; 9. Illusion, seduc-

tive, invisible, and mysterious agents, causing delusions;

ia Darkness (especially when unusual), Dreams, Night-

mare; 11. Disease; 12. Death.

These classes are selected, in obedience to necessary

limitations, as representing the twelve chief labours of

demonology and devil-loreWhere stories live. Discover now