The Devil in Literature.

The Devil has always been my favorite character in fiction. And, if we may judge by the extent to which he figures in the literature of every age since the Christian era, he has always been a favorite with both readers and writers. The Devil is distinctly a Christian character. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Oriental nations, all had conceptions of spirits of evil of one kind or another, but all quite distinct from the Devil. The Old Testament contains a character very slightly sketched, which Christians have generally identified with the Devil. But the spirit of evil who tempted Eve and visited heaven to dispute with the Almighty is only the suggestion of a character which the Christian imagination of the Middle Ages could alone fully create.

In the Middle Ages, the monkish chronicles and the legends of saints are full of the Devil, who suddenly becomes a very active member of society. He is now a rather contemptible, mischievous fellow. His primary object is to entrap human souls; but if not successful in making holy men sin, he is content, nevertheless, for he at least makes them miserably uncomfortable. He is always playing tricks upon the unwary, in which he is usually discomfited. A typical example of the Devil in the literature of this time is found in the story of his persecution of St. Dunstan. He was constantly visitting the saint's blacksmith shop to make sinful suggestions and disturb the holy man's pious meditations. But one day, as the Devil poked his head in at the window, the doughty saint caught his diabolical nose in red hot pincers, and the Devil fled howling, to trouble the saint no more.

The Devil's meanness and smallness is characteristic of all the literary creations of the Middle Ages, with the exception of a few of the national epics.