HISTORY OF MAGIC.

supernatural power as anything other than the unpunished exercise of cruelty?

It is important to know at last if the idea of this evil power can be reconciled with the idea of God. In a word, if the devil exists, and if he exists, what he is.

We are not dealing here with a superstition or a ridiculous character: we are dealing with religion in its entirety, and consequently with the whole future and all the interests of humanity.

We are truly strange reasoners! We think ourselves very strong when we are indifferent to everything except material results, such as money, for example; and we let the mother-ideas of opinion drift by chance, which, by their reversals, overturn or can overturn all fortunes.

A conquest of science is much more important than the discovery of a gold mine. With science, one employs gold in the service of life; with ignorance, wealth only provides instruments for death.

Let it be clearly understood, moreover, that our scientific revelations stop before faith, and that, as a Christian and as a Catholic, we submit our entire work to the supreme judgment of the Church.

And now to those who doubt the existence of the devil, we answer:

Everything that has a name exists; a word may be uttered in vain, but in itself it cannot be vain and it always has a meaning.

The Verbe Word is never empty, and if it is written that it is in God, and that it is God, it is because it is the expression and the proof of being and of truth.

INTRODUCTION.

The devil is named and personified in the Gospel, which is the Verbe Word of truth, therefore he exists, and he can be considered as a person. But here it is the Christian who bows; let us let science or reason speak, which is the same thing.

Evil exists, it is impossible to doubt it. We can do good or evil.

There are beings who knowingly and voluntarily do evil.

The spirit that animates these beings and excites them to do evil is misguided, turned away from the good path, thrown across the good like an obstacle; and that is precisely what the Greek word diabolos accuser or slanderer means, which we translate by the word diable devil.

The spirits who love and do evil are accidentally evil.

There is therefore a devil who is the spirit of error, of voluntary ignorance, of vertigo; and there are beings who obey him, who are his envoys, his emissaries, his angels, and that is why the Gospel speaks of an eternal fire that is prepared, predestined in some way for the devil and his angels. These words are an entire revelation and we will have to examine them deeply.

Let us first define evil very clearly; evil is the lack of rectitude in being.

Moral evil is falsehood in actions just as falsehood is crime in words.

Injustice is the essence of falsehood; every lie is an injustice.

When what is said is just, there is no lie.