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THE
BIOGEAPHY OF SATAN
OR, A HISTORICAL EXPOSITION OF
THE DEVIL AND HIS FIERY DOMINIONS
DISCLOSING THE OEIENTAL ORIGIN OP THE BELIEF IN A
DEVIL AND FUTURE ENDLESS PUNISHMENT; ALSO, AN
EXPLANATION OF THE PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE
SCRIPTURAL TERMS, BOTTOMLESS PIT, LAKE OF
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, CHAINS OF DARK-
NESS, CASTING OUT DEVILS. WORM
THAT NEVER DIETH, ETC.
By KERSEY GRAVES
\\
Author of " The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors"
WITH A FOREWORD
By MARSHALL J. GAUVIN
Author of "Illustrated Story of Evolution," " Fundamentals of
Freethought," Etc.
FOURTH EDITION
NEW YORK
PETER ECKLER PUBLISHING CO.
1924
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
BY FREDERICK GT7MBRECHT, BROOKLYN, N. Y.
By MAESHALL J. GAUVIN
Thought has a history. The intellectual life of
the present is the heritage of the beliefs and
doubts, the hopes and fears, of the past. We
think over again the thoughts of our fathers, with
such variations only as are due to broader cul-
ture. And this broader culture is the product of
intellectual variations.
Thought varies in the direction of growth.
But the change of thought is, for the most part,
a slow process. Beliefs are tenacious, and no
beliefs are more tenacious than religious beliefs.
This is because religion has to do with gods
and devils; because it presumes to tell man of his
place in and relation to the world and the whence
and whither of his being; because it teaches the
necessity of holding certain beliefs regarding
these things, and because it appeals fundament-
ally to man's emotions to his hope for happiness
and fear of pain in another world.
These features of religious belief give relig-
ion a universal interest. All men are interested
in religion. They are interested in it because it
has so largely dominated the life of humanity;
because for- countless ages mankind lived and
iv FOREWORD
thought and suffered almost wholly within the
confines of religious sanctions ; because every step
the race has taken in the direction of intellectual
progress has been taken in defiance of religious
authority; because the whole range of the scien-
tific culture of our time regarding man and the
universe is a challenge to, and is challenged by,
the religious notions that have come down to us
from the distant past.
Accordingly, the Christian and the Deist, the
Theosophist and the Spiritualist, the Agnostic
and the Atheist, are equally interested, though
from different points of view, in the story of
humanity's religious beliefs the history of the
world's religious thought.
"Without a knowledge of man's past, his pres-
ent cannot be understood. Yesterday's beliefs
are keys to the doors of to-day's thoughts. From
what yesterday's religion was, the religion of to-
day has become, and on the foundations we lay
down, whetherflimsy or secure, the superstructure
of tomorrow's thought will rise to challenge the
winds of change and to be tested by the stressful
storms of science.
At the bottom of the religion of the Christian
world has even been and is, tjie belief in an eternal
fiery hell, presided over by a devil, ths prince of
fiends. The church has ever taught and still
teaches that tfce fait&ful, the devout- at best but
FOREWORD v
a mere few mil be chosen to share the eternal
glory of God's presence in heaven, and that the
countless hillions of unregenerate and unredeem-
ed will he tortured forever in the flames of hell,
under the everlasting surveillance of the Devil's
malicious leer.
That atrocious doctrine -the doctrine of eter-
nal punishment for unbelievers has been, in
every age, the mainspring, the 1 driving force of
Christianity. Armed with that belief, the church
launched herself upon the Roman Empire, de-
stroyed the pagan religions, extinguished pagan
culture, overthrew classical civilization, and
ushered the world into the noisome gulf of the
Dark Ages.
Fired with that belief, the church filled! the
world with religious hate, with fanaticism, with
intolerance of science and reason. Urged to des-
peration by that belief, the church established the
Inquisition; filled the Christian world with spies
and informers ; and for a long succession of gen-
erations, imprisoned and stretched on racks and
burnt alive, the noblest, the most progressive
men and women of our race, because they had
brains enough to think and courage enough to
express their thought.
To satisfy that infamous belief, Hypatia and
Huss, Bruno and Vanini, Servetus and Ferrer,
with innumerable martyrs filling the way between
vi FOREWORD
the Greek teacher in the fifth century and the
Spanish educator in our own day, sealed their
convictions with their blood and gave their ashes
to the winds.
The belief in eternal punishment gave the
world a thousand religious wars. It put a ban
on investigation. It gagged honest thought. It
made ignorance universal and progress impos-
sible. It put the world beneath the feet of priests.
For more than fifteen hundred years, the insane
notion that a hell of flames awaits the souls of
unbelievers in another world did more than any
other single thing to transform this world into
a kind of hell.
Thundered from millions of pulpits, over and
over again, during all the centuries of Christian-
ity, that heartless belief filled the lives of men
and women and children with an awful fear
a fear frequently amounting to terror a wither-
ing fear that only recently began to pass away.
Think, for example, of these terrible words,
from the lips of so otherwise good a man as the
Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, the eminent Baptist
preacher of the London Metropolitan Tabernacle,
only a generation ago:
"Only conceive the poor wretch in flames!
See how his tongue hangs between his blistered
lips! How it excoriates and burns the roof of
his mouth, as though it were a firebrand! Be-
FOREWORD vu
hold him. crying for a drop of water! I will not
picture the scene. Suffice it for me to say that
the hell of hells will be to thee, dear sinner, the
thought that it is to be forever. Thou shalt look
up there on the throne of Grod, and on it thou
shalt see written: 'Forever.' "
Then, dropping into verse, the eloquent
preacher continues:
"Forever is written on their racks,
Forever on their chains,-
Forever burneth in the fire;
Forever ever reigns."
Against such frightful teachings reason has
had to fight; science has had to struggle, and the
spirit of humanity has made way but slowly. The
emancipation of the human mind is, as yet, far
from complete. The old thraldom still maintains
an ominous dominion. The chains of fear still
bind the beliefs of scores of millions. Wherever
priests and preachers are powerful, wherever the
light of modern knowledge has not yet penetrated
the dark recesses of superstition, the belief in
hell retains its hold upon the people. The whole
world of Christian orthodoxy still respects the
Devil with its belief and still honors him with the
tribute of its fear. And the ignorance and des-
potism, the confusion and war, that still darken
the face of civilization are part of the price hu-
manity still pays for being deceived by a false
viii FOKEWORD
religious doctrine that has, in every Christian
age, diverted man's mind from the cultivation of
those concerns upon which rests his welfare in
this world.
But some gains have been made. The belief
in the Devil and hell has vanished from the
whole intellectual world, and as education ad-
vances, the unbelievers in these terrible sup-
erstitions will multiply by the millions. The
mission of education, of modern science and
Mstori'cal criticism, is to win the world for en-
lightenment, and that goal will be reached event-
ually, in spite of the puerile preaching of priests
and the fulminations of the Fundamentalists.
But while the Devil and his fiery dominions
are disappearing from the realm of man's be-
liefs, it must be borne in mind that belief in His
Satanic Majesty and in a place of endless torment
for the major portion of mankind are vital to
Christianity. The reality of Satan is as plainly
taught in the New Testament as is the reality of
Christ. It was Satan who tempted the Son of
Grod at the close of his forty days' fast. It was
Satan who carried the younger God to the pin-
nacle of the Temple and thence to the top of a
mountain, and offered him the kingdoms of the
world, in exchange for worship.
Again and again, according to the New Test-
ament, Christ cast devils out of human beings.
FOREWORD ix
Moreover, Christ threatened men with eternal
punishment in hell (Matthew xxv:41, 46).
If these representations are not trne; if the
Devil is only a myth and hell bnt a figure of
speech, the authority of the New Testament falls
to the ground. With the Devil and hell gone, sal-
vation loses its meaning ; the savior is left without
an office; the atonement remains unperformed;
the wrath of God resolves itself into a priestly
fiction Christianity is seen to be not a divine
revelation, but a gross superstition that has, for
nearly two thousand years, deceived, betrayed
and martyred mankind.
The author of this book has performed for his
fellowmen the signal service of pointing out to
them the fact that the Christian doctrine of a
Devil and a hell were utterly unknown to the
ancient Jews, and are nowhere taught in the Old
Testament. He shows that these doctrines were
derived from the mythologies of the heathen
nations that surrounded the Jewish people. He
shows that these doctrines were derived from the
mythologies of the heathen nations that sur-
rounded the Jewish people. He shows that the
God of the Old Testament and the Devil of the
New Testament that is to say, "Our Father
which art in heaven" the God whom Christians
worship and the Lord of Hell the God whom
Christians fear were "originally twin brothers
FOREWORD
known by the same titles," and that this God and
this Devil were Chaldean sun-gods.
He shows further that the Christian notions
of the "Kingdom of Heaven," of the "bottom-
less pit," of a "lake of fire and brimstone," and
other such ideas were borrowed from Babylonian
and Persian sources.
In other words, he shows that the Christian
ideas as to the future worlds of bliss and torment
were not made known to man by Divine revela-
tion, but, rather, were borrowed by the founders
of Christianity from the rich treasure house of
pagan mythology.
Thought has a history. Christianity belongs
to the natural history of thought. Its origins are
found in the development and migration of
mythology. And humanity is outgrowing it to-
day because thought, illumined with knowledge,
is moving to a higher plain to the altitude of
science and Rationalism.
"The Biography of Satan" is an instrument
in this forward movement because it is an in-
forming, an emancipating book, and therefore
Kersey Graves, its author, was a benefactor of
mankind.
Minneapolis, Minn.,
July 30. 1924.
PREFACE
In presenting the present edition of this work
to the public the author deems it necessary only
to add in the preface that it has been thoroughly
revised and corrected, and that the numerous re-
sponses from those who availed themselves of a
copy of the previous edition of the book, leaves
the author no reason to doubt that the motive
which actuated him in the publication of it will be
fully realized. That motive was to expose and
arrest the progress of the most terror-inciting su-
perstition that ever nestled in the bosom of the ig-
norant, or that ever prostrated the energies of the
human mind, and reduced its possessor to the
condition of an abject, groveling and trembling
slave !
It is common in the prefatory exegesis of a
work to explain the motives which lead to its au-
thorship or compilation. But as the motives
which prompted this work are already partially
disclosed in the initiatory chapter, headed "Ad-
dress to the Beader," and the succeeding chapter
which sets forth some of the practical evils which
spring legitimately from the doctrine of future or
post mortem punishment, we will only add to the
explanation thus furnished, so far, as to state:
5
6 PREFACE
1. That notwithstanding many ages have
rolled away since the after-death penalty was first
originated and promulgated to the world, yet no
work designed to furnish to the general reader a
Ifull, and at the same time, brief exposition of the
origin and design of this mischievous doctrine,
with all its various and multifarious terms,
dogmas, and childish traditions, has ever before
been presented to the public since an extensive
inquiry has been awakened on the subject.
2. We deem it a matter of the greatest mo-
ment, that some one should make the effort to
arrest the almost boundless tide of terror and
misery, of which the practical dissemination of the
doctrine of endless damnation has ever been and
still is, a truly prolific source. For no person who
has not scrutinizingly investigated the matter, can
.form any just or proximate conception of the ex-
tent to which the Heathen and Christian worlds
have been demoralized and flooded with misery
and unhappiness, by the propagation of this doc-
trine. These facts, wedded to the hope of check-
ing this widespread river this shoreless current
of mischief, constitute our principal reason for
publishing this work.
3. The single and serious fact, that the super-
stitious fear of after-death punishment furnishes
the primary motive-power by which more than a
million of sermons are annually dealt out from
PREFACE 7
the Christian pulpits of the United States alone,
at a cost of many millions of dollars, levied mainly
upon the pockets of the poor, which have the ef-
fect of exciting in the minds of the religious
classes the most agonizing emotions and the most
torturing fears, often producing, temporarily,
the ruin of health and happiness, even among the
most virtuous; and the people (and most of the
priests, too) being ignorant of the origin of these
alarming superstitious doctrines, the author con-
siders as ample warrant, upon moral grounds,
for attempting the task of aiding in checking the
evil and demoralizing effects of this barbarous,
anti-civilizing and terrifying heathen superstition.
Whether these reasons furnish a sufficient just-
ification for such an enterprise, is left for the can-
did reader to judge.
It is gratifying to learn that the superstitious
fear, which in every age and country in which it
has prevailed and enslaved the minds of thou-
sands, and still holds millions in its iron grasp,
is likely to be better understood in its real nature,
its pernicious effects and in its origin.
KEBSEY GMVES
CONTENTS
FOREWORD. By Marshall J. Gauvin .. iii
PREFACE 5
INTRODUCTION 11
CHAPTEE I.
Evils and Demoralizing Effects of the Doctrine of End-
less Punishment ... 19
CHAPTER II.
Ancient Traditions Respecting the Origin of Evil and the
Devil 25
CHAPTER III.
A Wicked Devil and an Endless Hell not Taught in the
Jewish Scriptures 29
CHAPTER IV.
Explanation of the Words Devil and Hell in the Old
Testament - , 36
CHAPTER V.
God (and not the Devil) the Author of Evil According
to the Bible 42
CHAPTER VI.
God and the Devil Originally Twin-Brothers, and known
by the same Titles ; 45
CHAPTER VII.
Origin of the Terms, "Kingdom of Heaven," "Gates of
Hell," etc.; also of the Tradition Respecting the
Dragon Chasing the Woman, the Woman Clothed
with the Sun, etc . ., 70
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII.
Hell First Instituted in the Skies. Its Origin and Descent
from Above 78
CHAPTER IX.
Origin of the Tradition of "The Bottomless Pit." 80
CHAPTER X.
Origin of the Belief in a Lake of Fire and Brimstone 82
CHAPTER XI.
Where is Hell; Ancient Notions Respecting its Origin 87
CHAPTER XII.
Origin of the Idea of Man's Evil Thoughts being Prompt-
ed by a Devil 90
CHAPTER XIII.
The Christian's Devil, Where Imported or Borrowed
from 94
CHAPTER XIV.
The Punitive Terms of the Bible of Oriental Origin , 97
CHAPTER XV.
The Doctrine of After-Death Punishment Proved to be of
Heathen and Priestly Origin 104
CHAPTER XVI. ,
Explanation of Hell, Hades, Tartarus; Infernus, Gehenna,
and Tophet 115
CHAPTER XVII.
One Hundred and Sixty-three Questions for Believers in
Post Mortem Punishment 117
APPENDIX
Origin of the Traditions Respecting "War in Heaven,"
and an Explanation of the Terms Hell, Hades, Tartar
rus, Gehenna, Sheol, Valley of Hinnom, etc. 144
Index... . s. .....151
INTRODUCTION
"FEAR HATH TORMENT"
FEIENDLY READEE : Are you, or have you ever
been a believer in the doctrine of future endless
punishment? And did you ever tremble with
fearful apprehension that you might be irrevoc-
ably doomed to a life of interminable woe beyond
the tomb? Did you ever shudder at the horrible
thought, that either yourself or some of your
dearest friends might possibly, in "the day of
accounts, ' ' be numbered among those who are to
receive the terrible sentence, "Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
Devil and his angels?" Matt, xxv: 41. Were you
ever tormented and goaded with such fearful fore-
bodings as these, and haunted with them day and
night, for weeks and months together, if not
during long and tedious years, as thousands upon
thousands of the most devout believers in the
Christian faith have been in all ages of the
Church? Or were you ever present during a
"religious revival," to witness the priest remove
(in imagination) the cover from Hell's burning
mouth (that blazing, "bottomless pit," whose
lurid flames of fire "ascendeth up forever and
ever"), and did you hear him depict to a terror-
11
12 INTRODUCTION
stricken audience the awful fate of the countless
millions of the " doomed, damned souls" of the
underground world? Did you ever listen as he por-
trayed their agonizing sufferings, and spoke of
their loud, terror-inspiring, heart-rending wail-
ings of anguish, their woeful groans, their
doleful yells and soul-bursting shrieks of
despair, which, like a thousand commingling
thunders, reverberating along the great arch-
way of their murky prison, shook " Heaven,
and Earth, and Hell?" And did a shudder-
ing fear steal over your nerveless frame,
and chill the blood in your very hearts in spite of
your efforts to resist it and stave it off, as the
" pulpit orator," in glowing eloquence, depicted
the wretched inhabitants of this world of woe, as
being tossed to and fro with their naked souls
upon a fathomless sea of flame ; a shoreless ocean
of boiling, blazing, sulphurous fire, lashed into
furious, dashing mountainous billows, by the ever
thundering, ever bursting, never-ceasing storms
of divine wrath? And as they essay to quench their
parching thirst with this liquid fire, "the worm
that never dies," robed in burning brimstone, we
are told, makes his eternal feasts upon the vitals
of their bleeding hearts, lacerated by the swift-
sped thunderbolts of Jehovah's direful vengeance
aye, the barbed arrows, fresh drawn from
Grod's own quiver! An old grim Lucifer, the
INTRODUCTION 13
deputed executor (in part) of God's vengeful
wrath, heedless of their doleful yells and madden-
ing cries, culminates the awful drama as he
" woods up the fires and keeps them burning,"
and pours the red-hot, blistering embers down
their shrieking throats!
A popular Christian clergyman, the Eev. Mr.
D , in a fit of inspirational turgescence and
mental explosion, which recently came off in
Xenia, Ohio, as he collapsed, let off the following :
"Fathers and sons, pastors [mark this, ye preach-
ers!] and people, husbands and wives, brothers
and sisters, in unquenchable fire, with swollen
veins and bloodshot eyes, strain toward each
other's throats and hearts, reprobate men and wo-
men, devils in form and features, hideous to
behold. As God's vengeance is in his heart, and
he delights to execute it, he will tread them in his
wrath and trample them in his fury, and he will
stain all his garments with their blood ! [Wonder
if he will then reascend his burnished and beauti-
ful " emerald throne" with these bloody clothes
on.] My head grows dizzy, as it bends over the
gulf!" [Quite likely, Brother; lofty climbing
always has the effect to make men with small
brains giddy-headed. Empty vessels float easily.
And we humbly suggest that you should have been
cupped, blistered, bled, and put to bed instanter,
and opiates and cooling powders administered ad
14 INTRODUCTION
infinttum after such an exhausting, moonstruck
effort to scare sinners into Heaven.]
Take another example : A Rev. Mr. Clawson, a
Methodist Episcopal clergyman, as "it came to
pass," being once pregnant with the spirit of
eternal damnation, and not knowing, as we
suspect, " whether he was in the body or out of
the body" (2 Cor ii:4), blew up the unconverted
portion of his audience in the following spasmodic
style : "God will heap the red-hot cinders of black
damnation upon your naked souls as high as the
pyramids of Egypt." We suggest that Mrs.
Partington would have considered this as rather a
dangerous case of "information of the brain,"
or of "a rush of brains to the head."
Now, kind reader, let me ask you, have you had
any practical experience in listening to such
frightful and frightening ebullitions of folly and
fanaticism as the foregoing, which we have pre-
sented here as mere specimens of the kind of
priestly flummery which are continually rolling
out from the pulpit upon tthe recurrence of every
Sabbath, in every part of Christendom? Though
it is true such pompous and foolish language is
not always used as is found in the examples we
have here presented, yet the spirit manifested is
the same. And have you ever calculated or re-
flected upon the vast, untold and almost inconceiv-
able amount of terror, fright, misery and despair,
INTRODUCTION 15
and consequent destruction of happiness it has
brought to millions of minds and millions of fam-
ilies of the present era, as well as those of the 1
remotely past superstitious ages? If so, you can
understand our object and appreciate our motive
in throwing this book before the public. For
certain we are, that "in fear there is torment,"
and consequently unhappiness; and certain, we
are, too, that if the two hundred millions of people
called Christians could be made acquainted with
the historical facts which will be found in this
work, and which go to prove most conclusively,
that the doctrine of future endless punishment
was originated and concocted by designing priests,
and that a benevolent and beneficent God had noth-
ing to do with their origination, as is claimed by
the devout disciples of every primitive religion in
the world, it would have the effect to dissipate a
fathomless and shoreless ocean of fear and misery
from the religious world. For it is now well
known to every intelligent person, that the fear
of endless damnation has been, and still is, a
powerful engine in the hands of the priests for
"converting souls to God" i.e., for grinding (or
scaring) sinners into saints, and that there has al-
ways been at least ten devil-dreading, hell-fearing
Christians to one that is made practically right-
eous by tne natural love of virtue and truth. It
is the fear of the Devil, and not the love of God,
16 INTRODUCTION
which extorts from them a reluctant and tardy
conformity to the principles of justice and the
rules of practical honesty. That is, the Devil is
virtually set upon their track as a hound dog to
scare them into Heaven. And thus, they are
nothing less, properly speaking, than drafted
saints, or rather pious sinners Christians by
practice, but villains at heart. And if they shall
receive the final benediction of "well done," it
will, we opine, have to be attributed more to a
pair of fleet legs than to a virtuous mind, for the
former achieve the work enabling them to out-run
"the grand adversary of souls," who howls upon
every Christian's track, "like a roaring lion, seek-
ing whom he may devour. ' ' And here we may note
it as a remarkable fact, that as momentous and
solemnly important as this subject must be ad-
mitted to be, involving as it does our fate to all
eternity, yet not one pious Christian in a thousand
is able, when interrogated upon the subject, to
give an intelligent answer as to the origin of the
doctrine of post mortem punishment. (I have
never found one that could) . They know nothing
about how, when or where it first started, and this
ignorance is sufficient to account for their blind
and tenacious adherence to the supersitition. It
is generally believed and assumed, that its prim-
ary source is the Christian Bible. And does not,
we ask, this lamentable ignorance greatly enhance
INTRODUCTION 17
the necessity and importance of publishing and
circulating a work of this character, that by virtue
of superior knowledge, the people may be unde-
ceived in supposing that it is of divine institution,
instead of being, as history proves, of mundane
priestly origin, and that they may thereby be de-
livered from the agonizing thraldom of fear and
fright which have in all past ages beset the vota-
ries of the various fear-fraught religions. If it
were ever a wise policy to try to frighten men into
the path of virtue by "the fear of Hell torments,"
as was ingeniously argued by the Grecian Poly-
archists (300 B.C.), that policy is now superseded
by the substitution of more honorable, more lauda-
ble, and more enduring motives.
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
CHAPTEE 1
EVILS AND DEMORALIZING EFFECTS OF THE DOCTBINE
OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT
"Grant me, great God, at least,
This one, this simple, almost no request:
When I have wept a thousand lives away,
When torment has grown weary of its prey;
When I have raved ten thousand years in fire-
Yea, ten thousand times ten thousand.
Let me then expire."
We have not space for an elaborate exposition
of the evils and immoral effects of the doctrine of
endless torment, but will present a brief list of a
portion of them, condensed from our larger work
on this subject, of which this work is an epitome
or abstract :
1. The belief in a cruel after-death punish-
ment is (as we have already shown) the prolific
source, on their own account of groundless and
tormenting, fears to all its believers.
2. It is also the source of a fearful amount of
the most painful unhappiness to millions of the
human race in dread apprehension of the fate of
their friends, even when but little is entertained
on their own account.
19
20 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
3. The post mortem punislunent doctrine
taught by the Christian world, invests the Diety
with a character absolutely dishonorable and dis-
graceful, if not blasphemous, by representing him
as morally capable of inflicting the most excru-
ciating punishment upon the major portion of his
children, whereas he would be a cruel and hateful
monster if he should thus punish one of his sub-
jects for a single day.
4. It also fastens a disgraceful libel upon the
moral attributes of man, by representing him as
being so demon-hearted, even after he is trans-
lated to Heaven and numbered among "the spirits
of the just men made perfect," that he can
witness, unmoved, the intolerable sufferings and
raving torments of the millions of his fellow
beings, consigned to endless woe.
5. It has caused the butchery, the bloody
slaughter of millions of the human race by the
efforts used to convert them, and "the rest of
mankind" to the true religion, in order to "save
their souls from Hell. ' '
6. It has caused numberless suicides, infanti-
cides, fratricides, etc.; children have been mur-
dered, for fear they would lead a life of crime, and
thus "plunge their souls into Hell."
7. The belief in Devil obsession and endless
punishment has caused more than one hundred
thousand human beings to be tortured to death in
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 21
various ways by " Christians" who believed in
the superstitious notion of witchcraft.
8. The belief in post mortem punishment was
the great "motor nerve," the primary mainspring
of the Spanish Inquisition in which "Christians"
slaughtered, and " sent to the bar of God," more
than forty thousand men, women and children.
9. It was the foundation of the fiendish war of
the Crusades, in which five millions of people
were made to drench the earth with their blood
by the hands of "Christians."
10. It has contributed to fill our lunatic asy-
lums with the insane, made so in many instances
by the awful thought of eternal damnation.
11. It has caused an enormous expenditure of
time and money in the various means used (as
books, tracts, sermons, etc.), for propagating the
doctrine.
12. And finally, it converts the Christian world
into cowards, instead of moral heroes, by appeal-
ing solely to the organ of fear the basest of
human motives instead of to the natural love of
virtue implanted in the human mind.
We have an abundance of historical facts in
our possession to prove all the above statements,
but can not occupy space with many of them in
this small work. With reference to the first
objection in the list, as also the third and fourth,
the lines quoted from the poet Young furnish us
22 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
illustrative proof. The victim of endless damna-
tion prays that " After I have raved ten thousand
years in fire, let me then expire. " But the Chris-
tian world tells us God answers, "No sir; your
raving torments shall never, never have an end!"
Now, not only must such doctrine as this be ap-
palling to weak nerves, but we regard it as vir-
tual blasphemy, as it represents God as being a
more demon-hearted, inhuman monster than the
most bloody-minded tyrant that ever drenched the
earth with human blood! For neither Nero nor
Caligula ever attempted to punish and torture, in
the most cruel manner imaginable, even his bitter-
est enemy for a year, much less an eternity, as
God is here represented as doing.
But more and worse. Listen to the following,
from one of tthe most popular promulgators of
the Christian faith that ever graced, or rather dis-
graced, the land of Christendom :
The Eev. J. Edwards, a very popular preacher
of the last century, president of a theological
seminary in New Jersey, and "one of the bright-
est luminaries of the Christian Church," as Eev.
Eobert Hall styles him, proclaimed from the sa-
cred desk, that "the elect (in heaven) will not be
sorry for the damned (in Hell) . It will cause no
uneasiness or dissatisfaction to them, but on the
contrary, when they see this sight, it will occasion
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 23
rejoicing, and excite them to joyful praises."
(" Edward's Practical Sermons," No. 11).
Now, reader, keep down "the old man," re-
strain your feelings of horror till we present you
another example of this kind:
The Rev. Nathaniel Emmons, who quit the
stage of time in 1840, once declared in a sermon,
that "the happiness of the elect will consist in
part in witnessing the torments of the damned in
Hell, among whom may be their own children,
parents, husbands, wives and friends ; . . . but in-
stead of taking the part of these miserable beings,
they will say, 'Amen, hallelujah, praise the
Lord.' "
Now, assuming this to be Christian doctrine,
who will not blush to be called a Christian? But
perhaps some reader will reply that it is not
that it is bogus Christianity. Then we ask him to
explain, how Heaven can be "a place or state of
perpetual happiness" (see Webster's Dictionary),
unless its inhabitants can witness such scenes as
these unmoved. If "perpetually happy," they
must actually enjoy every scene they witness.
And hence must shout, "Amen, hallelujah, praise
the Lord," when witnessing, as they do according
to the Scriptures (Luke xvi:23), their friends
and relatives, rolling, raving and shrieking with
the pangs of perpetual woe.
Now, reader, don't you see that Edwards and
24 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Emmons were preaching the genuine Christian
doctrines? Whether or not, however, we regard
such sentiments not only as blasphemous carica-
tures upon a just and benevolent God, but as in-
sulting libels upon human nature as it exists
among "the spirits of the just made perfect." If
our friends, after entering Paradise, did really
possess such a character as here ascribed to them,
I would rather be a dog and bark at the moon to
all eternity, even though I should be endowed
with the perpetual charter or special privilege of
singing "Old Hundred," or playing on "the
harp of a thousand strings" forever and ever.
And sermous containing just such gospel rant-
ings as these may be found in nearly every
Christian library in the world, exerting a de-
moralizing influence on all who read and believe
them. -
CHAPTER II
ANCIENT TEADITIONS EESPECTING THE OEIGIN OP
EVIL AND THE DEVIL
We now propose to submit to the reader a
brief and condensed history of the ancient notions
respecting the origin and infernal operations and
machinations of that imaginary monster, counter-
foe and arch-enemy to all human bliss and bless-
edness, known as "the Devil," "Satan," "the
Serpent," "the Dragon," etc.; but for whom we
think a more appropriate designation would be,
"The Eival of Omnipotence," or "Omnipotence
Second."
Here let the reader note it and emphasize it as
a remarkable fact, that God, not the Devil, was pri-
marily believed to be the author of evil, by the
Oriental nations, and that this doctrine is taught
in the Christian Bible. The words Evil and Devil
seem to have been originally synonymous terms,
the latter being, as we are told, a contraction of
the words "do-evil," and hence represents a mere
personification of evil. And there is abundance
of evidence accessible to prove that the conception
of evil existed long before the Devil was dis-
covered or thought of ; so that should his Devilish
majesty set up a claim, or any of his friends for
25
26 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Mm as oeing the originator or author of evil, he
would be non-suited in open court. The case
would be reduced to a nolle prosequi, or pro-
nounced tout au contraire. Instead of ascribing
evil to the Devil in the early ages of human
society, we find it was ascribed to the Deity him-
self, and considered the natural action of his own
faculties, the normal and divine powers and pur-
poses. He was assumed to be the source of both
good and evil. There being already (in the con-
ception of the people) one Infinite Being (G-od),
no room was found in the original creation for an-
other, and hence his sooty majesty was left out.
He was an after-thought. It was not until the
second edition of creation was struck off, that his
long-tailed lordship was thought of, or allowed
to have any existence except among snakes. He
was finally gotten up as a " helpmeet " for the
priests, it being discovered that it would require
the three-fold power: first, of "the drawing
chords of love ' ' from the fountain of infinite good-
ness ; second, the draw-game of the priests (upon
the pockets of the people), and, third, the howling
of the Serpent, alias the Dragon, alias the Devil
(like "a roaring lion"), to get a sinner into
Heaven.
Verily, verily, "Jordan is a hard road to travel,
I believe" i.e., Heaven seems to be a place not
very accessible.
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 27
We have stated that the Devil was not thought
of in the original creation, and how the people
were restrained from the commission of universal
crime and carnage without the fear of the imagi-
nary ghost of old king Beelzebub before their
eyes, is a " mystery of godliness," which we sup-
pose only the spiritually-minded can comprehend
that is, those who are sufficiently spiritually-
minded to "understand the things that belong to
the kingdom," or to see a Devil where there is
none.
There is abundance of historical testimony to
prove that no nation in its earlier history not
even "God's holy people," had any idea or con-
ception of the existence of a prime originator of
evil, or "tempter of souls," separate and apart
from God himself, while it is evident that no pos-
sible advantage or end could have been served by
the existence of such a being, while the people
were ignorant of it and the conception foreign to
their thoughts. Hence the presumption must be,
that he. was not yet born or hatched. Strange,
too, when according to orthodox showing, that
was an age of the world in which it was all-impor-
tant and indispensably necessary that he should
have been incoronated and established upon his
throne, and the fact extensively advertised, be-
cause we are told that "the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth" Gen. viii:21
/H^ 1 *
\ w,
< ^v*^'
;*.-"
*
28 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
and, hence, a Devil was needed to scare them on
the right track "the strait and narrow way that
leadeth unto Jordan," as we are virtually taught
this is his "high calling," the great end of his
creation. It certainly, then, was a great blunder,
a serious desideratum, to omit his creation at the
start, or if created, to neglect to make it known.
Good and evil were primarily regarded as only
different degrees of the same thing, and both as
emanations from an all-wise and perfect God, "the
author of everything, both good and bad, ' ' whose
residence then by many was believed to be the sun.
And let it be noted here that the first conception
of evil and a Devil was inferred from the violent
and destructive operations of the elements of
nature not now classified with, or regarded by any
one as moral evils, and which it was known that
human beings could have no agency in producing.
And here dates the first rude conception of a
Devil, which means simply a destroyer not of
souls, but of natural objects.
CHAPTER III
A, WICKED DEVIL AND AN ENDLESS HELL NOT
TAUGHT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
The proof that the early Jews (Hebrews or Is-
raelites, rather), like the heathen at a still earlier
period, were entirely ignorant of, and had no con-
ception of, the existence of a Devil, or distinct evil
principle, and ascribed all evil and all crime, as
well as all goodness, to God, is of a threefold
character.
1. The absence of any allusion to such a per-
sonage in the Jewish Scriptures, or even to a state
of punishment after death.
2. The repeated positive declarations in the
same ' 'Holy Book, ' ' that God himself is the author
of evil.
3. The fact that all those names, terms and
titles now applied to the Devil, or used to desig-
nate such a being, found in the Old Testament,
were by the Jews applied also to God, and are
still more remotely traceable to Pagan astronom-
ical imagery or star-born spiritual beings. -
First. Eelative to the first of these proposi-
tions, it may be remarked, that orthodox Chris-
tians have often been challenged to place a finger
upon a single text in the Jewish Old Testament
29
30 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
(the only authentic record of their doctrine),
which either specially or by fair implication
teaches the existence of either a Devil or an end-
less Hell, or any doctrine tantamount thereto
If we examine the history of the first transgres-
sion ever committed by man, according to the
Jewish and Christian Scriptures, we will find no
allusion to these doctrines, and no threat of pun-
ishment in another life as a penalty for this or any
other sin, as most certainly we should, if these
doctrines were then known, believed and propa-
gated. True, we are told that Mother Eve was
beguiled by a serpent to eat an apple. But a ser-
pent is not a Devil, according to our dictionaries,
but a snake. And according to the opinion of the
learned Dr. Adam Clarke, the serpent that be-
guiled Eve was really nothing more nor less than
an ape or monkey a very different animal
(having a tail and destructive propensities) from
the fancied cloven-footed Orthodox Devil. But
whether the original tempter were a Devil, ser-
pent, snake, snapping-turtle, or biped, quadru-
ped, nonruped, or a legless, crawling reptile, there
is no intimation that he had anything to do with
punishing Adam and his wife for their "manifold
transgressions, " but let them slide over Jordan
unmolested. There is no account that either of
them were consigned to the fiery pit, minus a bot-
tom; no sentence or threat of never-ending tor-
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 31
ment or punishment beyond the grave as penalty
for the first great transgression of the human rae
that "mighty sin" which resulted, we are told,
in the downfall, depravity, and almost moral
wreck and ruin of the entire race of man. Now,
had there been a Devil then "to punish the
wicked," certainly he would have been brought
out, sworn into office, and put upon duty. His
enthronement and inauguration would not have
been delayed an hour. At least his existence and
his fiery whereabouts would have been proclaimed
"from Dan to Beersheba," and Jehovah's threat-
ening vengeance and thunderbolts of wrath would
have been rolled in fiery billows, along the moral
heavens as he announced the existence of a world
of endless woe for all sinners and apple eaters in
the future, as well as the place of consignment for
Father Adam and his new rib-made wife for ruin-
ing the human race, by indulging their gustatory
proclivities upon a pippin. The existence of a
fiery world, with its malignant, restless ruler and
omnipotent potentate, should have been and would
have been announced, and the notice engraven in
imperishable golden characters upon the bound-
less, cerulean, over-arching concave of Heaven,
immediately after the first transgression of man,
as a standing terror and eternal warning to sin-
ners, or those who might be tempted to sin, in or-
der to deter them from future transgression and
32 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
future crime, had such penal arrangements ex-
isted or been thought of. But instead of this, the
punishment was only temporal. The ground was
cursed, Grandmother Eve sentenced to " bring
forth children in sorrow," the serpent doomed
when hungry to eat dust (except in wet weather,
when he had to "go it slyly," if not suffocat-
ingly, on mud), and Grandfather Adam chased
out of the garden "with a sharp stick," but no
roasting or fiery pit punishment is even once
named.
Second. Then look at the case of the first com-
mission of the greatest crime ever perpetrated by
human hands, or ever registered upon the scroll
of human depravity that of the perpetration of
murder, and the murder, too, of a brother (fratri-
cide). Cain was to be a "fugitive and a vagabond
in the earth," for killing his brother, and the soil
was to be unpropitious on his account. But there
is no burning, broiling or frying threatened, or
hinted at, to be inflicted either in this life or "that
which is to come. ' '
Third. Not even on the occasion of issuing
"the law on Mount Sinai," when we must pre-
sume the whole counsel of God was proclaimed,
and when it is confessed the whole world was
steeped in crime, do we find the doctrine of future
rewards and punishments in another life even
hinted at.
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 33
Fourth. Nor yet on the occasion of drowning
the whole world for its superlative wickedness
(Noah and family only excepted), was the fiery
whereabouts of the "Evil One" Ms Satanic
Snakeship made known and announced as the
future home of the wicked. There is no intima-
tion, that while their bodies should be floating on
the expansive waters of the "mighty deep," their
souls should be roasting in pandemonium below,
or should be floating on a sea of fire. Noah was
a "preacher of righteousness," but not a preacher
of "endless damnation."
Fifth. "We will dismiss the argument with the
remark, that while Jehovah is represented as of-
ten getting angry, and as being again and again
engaged in dealing out his fulminating thunders
upon his "holy people" in pouring out his
threats, curses and wrathful imprecations upon
the "devoted heads of his own chosen nation," he
never once threatened them with fire and brim-
stone, or to cast them into the pit without a bot-
tom, for their "numerous transgressions," their
"manifold backslidings," and their "wickedness
of heart," not even after they had rolled up a
mountain of crime, whose towering apex stood in
defiant mockery before the throne of Heaven.
Two thousand five hundred years thus rolled
away after creation, as we have shown (and we
will now add to it at least one thousand more,
34 THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN
basing our calculation on ' Jude's Christian Chro-
nology"), before his Devilish or Snakish Majesty
was born or ushered upon the stage of action; or,
at least, before he was introduced to society, or
anybody was honored with his acquaintance,
or even suspected his .existence. As we find
no traces of him among the prophets, he either
had led a very obscure and retired life, or was yet
in the labyrinths of chaos. For it was not until
about the dawning of the era of the Gospel Dis-
pensation, that he was inaugurated and crowned
king of pandemonium by the Christian world.
Now we have only to appeal to the Jewish and
Christian history to show that society was as
moral, and as free from crime, during this long
period, that the world (or at least this portion of
it) was in want of a "Devil" to help on the cause
of Zion, as during the Devil-preaching, Hell-scar-
ing system or policy of proclaiming the Gospel,
and frightening the people into piety and Para-
dise (or rather into priest-paying pews), which
was practiced in. the "dark ages," so called. If
then, society could prosper without a Devil for
nearly four thousand years, why could it not con-
tinue to prosper without his assistance or presence
through all time to come? More especially as we
have the historical proof that society was not im-
proved morally by his introduction into the world,
or the introduction among the people of the be-
,THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN 85
lief in such a being, as we could amply prove,
and as is well known to every reader of his-
tory. Hence, is it not evident, that as there was
no "prime evil agent" known to society in the
early ages, to assume the introduction of one after
the lapse of several thousand years, is to assume
that in the economy of God something took place
which was entirely useless, redundant, foolish and
absurd. Reader, please answer this question be-
fore you read further. Tell us why it now re-
quires two omnipotent powers (God and the
Devil) to save a sinner or get a Christian into
heaven one leading the way with the inviting
language, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," the
other pursuing in the rear, howling upon his
track like a roaring lion, when but one was suffi-
cient during a period of four thousand years.
Eeader, reason and reflect.
CHAPTER IV
EXPLANATION OF THE WOEDS " DEVIL " AND "HELL"
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
I have asserted what I will here repeat, that the
primitive Jews did not teach the doctrines of a
Devil and a Hell, as appertaining to another life.
It can not be found in the Old Testament, nor in
any writings of the Jews prior to the Babylonian
captivity (600 years B.C.), during which some of
the Jewish sects obtained these doctrines. Let it
not be supposed that I am ignorant of the fact
that the words, "Devils" (always in the plural)
and "Hell," occur several times in the Old Testa-
ment, but they are never used in the sense now
popularly attached to these words. In every in-
stance in which they are employed, they have
exclusive reference to this life. It should be
specially noted that the word Devil never occurs
in the Old Testament. It is always in the plural
"Devils," and in this form had reference either
to heathen deities, or to the evil spirits which
many of the Jews believed infested the minds of
men in this life. They had no "king Satan," or
"prime Devil, ' ' as they had no place to keep him
no bottomless pit of fire and sulphur to cast him
into. As for the word Hell where it occurs in the
36
THE BIOGBAPHY OF SATAN 37
Old Testament, it is translated and derived in
every instance from sheol, and sheol is the He-
brew word for grave. And it is a noteworthy fact,
that it is translated grave in twenty-eight cases.
Why it was not translated grave in other cases,
and in all instances where it is found in the Old
Testament, is a "mystery of godliness," which
will hereafter be explained. But the context and
the original meaning of the word "Hell," where
it is found in the Old Testament, clearly shows
that it would have made better sense had it been
translated "grave." I will here present some
proof of this. Job ejaculates "Oh, that thou
wouldst hide me in the grave ! ' ' (sheol) . Job xiv :
13. David exclaims: "If I make my bed in Hell
( slieol ) , behold, thou art there ! ' ' (Psalm cxxxix :
8).
Observe how much similarity of sense exists
in the two texts above quoted. And yet the former
is translated grave, and the latter, Hell. Now,
why 'did the translators render sheol Hell in the
latter, instance, so as to make David talk of mak-
ing his bed in Hell? Who that has an ounce of
brains between his ears would speak or think of
making his bed in a cauldron of blazing fire and
brimstone, or a red-hot furnace of living coals
glowing with the most intense heat ? He could not
"sleep a wink" in a month in such a situation.
But had sheol in this text been translated grave
38 THE BIOGBAPHY OF SATAN
instead of Hell, it would read, "If I make my
bed in the grave, " etc., language which ap-
proaches much nearer to good sense, for the grave
will really be our bed when our bodies are con-
signed to the earth. I ask, then, which is the most
reasonable translation, Hell or grave? Again,
Jonah is made to say: "Out of the belly of Hell
cried I, and thou heardest me." (Jonah ii:2.)
What! Did Jonah tumble through "Symme's
Hole" into Tartarus (for he was too righteous a
man to be driven thither) unobserved by Omnis-
cience, who was not apprized of the sad catastro-
phe till the prophet roared and bellowed with a
voice sufficiently stentorian to be heard over the
"waitings of the damned," all the way from the
"belly of Hell up to the throne of Heaven."
How did his Jonahship get loose from the
clutches of old Splitfoot, grizzly king, Beelzebub?
Or how did he manage to elude the vigilant watch
of his jail-keeper, old Tisiphon, who guards the
gates of Cerebus "day and night," so as to dodge
through the door and make his way back to Nin-
eveh? There were no Isaac T. Hoppers in Pande-
monium then to construct underground railroads,
and run off some of the "damned souls" occa-
sionally. The truth is, Jonah's "belly of Hell"
was the belly of a whale a pretty warm place,
but not as hot as boiling brimstone not hot
enough to singe the hair or burn a blister.
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 39
It is evident, therefore, that sheol here is inap-
propriately translated Hell; and it would not
have been so translated, but that, as a Christian
once expressed the idea, "It would not do to have
no Hell and Devil in the Old Testament." His
feelings were analogous to those of the Methodist
Episcopal clergyman, who exclaimed to his con-
gregation: "Brethren, the Universalists tell us all
men are to be saved; but we do not believe it.
We hope for better things." Let it not be under-
stood, however, that those who translated sheol
into Hell, entertained the thought that it had ref-
erence to any other than this life. Some of them
have admitted that it had no reference to another
state of being. I venture to affirm that no He-
brew scholar would risk his reputation for learn-
ing by interpreting sheol as having reference to a
place of torment after death. They all know bet-
ter. Commentators skilled in the language and
in Jewish history, admit this is not the true inter-
pretation, and the context proves it. All Jewish
history shows that they never in their earlier his-
tory had any conception of a Devil or Hell as be-
ing provided or prepared for the wicked in an-
other state of existence.
A volume might easily be furnished of histor-
ical extracts from some of the best and most pop-
ular authors, both Jewish and Christian, in proof
of this statemnt, but a few must suffice :
40 THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN
The celebrated Christian Church historian, Mr.
Milman, declares that "the lawgiver, Moses, main-
tained a profound silence on that fundamental
article, if not of political at least of religious leg-
islation rewards and punishments in another
life." " History of Jews/' vol. i, p, 117.
Bishop Warburton, so well known in English
Church history, and whom a writer, Mr. Arnold,
styles "a great and shining ornament of the Gal-
lican Church," says: "In the Jewish republic,
both rewards and punishments promised by
heaven were temporal only, such as health, long
life, peace, plenty and dominion, etc. (on the one
hand), and disease, premature death, war, famine,
captivity, etc. (on the other). In no one place of
the Mosaic Institute, is there the least mention, or
any intelligent hint, of the rewards and punish-
ments of another life." "Divine Legislation,"
vol. iii, p. 2.
"No mention is anywhere made in the writings
of Moses of a judgment day at the end of the
world," says Mr. Mayer, Professor of the Dutch
Reformed Church. And that great logical de-
fender of the Christian faith, Dr. Paley, avers to
the same effect, that "the Mosaic Dispensation
dealt in temporal rewards and punishments, and
you observe that these blessings consisted alto-
gether of worldly benefits, and the curses of
worldly punishment." Sermon xii, p. 10.
THE BIOGBAPHY OF SATAN 41
Bishop Watson, the champion defender of the
Christian faith against Paine 's " Age of Eeason,"
tells us that devils in the Old Testament means
' ' men and women as traducers. ' ' The learned and
celebrated Dr. Campbell says, relative to the word
sheol which is rendered hell in several places in
our translation of the Old Testament, that "it
sometimes signifies the state of the dead without
regard to their happiness or misery," as the Ee-
ligious Encyclopaedia of England tells us the
Jews had a conception of a world or place of gen-
eral rendezvous for souls after death without dis-
tinction of character.
The ablest and most popular Christian schol-
ars, then, admit that the early Jews, known
primarily as Hebrews, had no conception of a per-
sonified wicked agent, or transmundane personal
Devil, or of a place of endless torment beyond
the confines of time ; but that all words or names
in the Old Testament, seemingly implying such
ideas, were intended to have reference exclusively
to this sphere of being.
CHAPTER y
i
GOD (AND NOT THE DEVIL) THE AUTHOR OF EVIL
ACCORDING TO THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE
Our next and second proposition is, that the
earliest ancestors of the Jewish race recognized
God as being the author of evil by virtue of be-
ing the source of everything. The sequence had
to be admitted to maintain a logical consistency.
God could not be the author of all things without
being the author of evil. The doctrine of future
rewards and punishments constituted no part
of the ancient Jewish creed, simply because, as
we would naturally infer, all human actions,
both good and bad, were regarded as proceeding
from their God, Jehovah, or as being "inspired
by the great Breath," as they express it (in the
Talmud). But we are not left to mere inference
from the omission of after-life punishment for
wrong-doing from their creed, that they regarded
God as the author of evil but we have it taught
in the most explicit and unequivocal language in
their own " Inspired Writings." Eead and mark
well this inspired utterance of the great and lead-
ing prophet of the Jews, "I form light and create
darkness. I make peace, and I create evil. I,
the Lord, do all these things" (Isaiah). Could
42
THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN 43
language be more explicit than this? And the
prophet Am$s asks, " Shall there be evil in the
city, and the Lord hath not done it?" And Job
speaks in the same strain, and puts forth the
same doctrine: "We receive good at the hands
of the Lord, shall we not also receive evil?"
And Solomon also carries the principle or doc-
trine so far as to declare, "the Lord hath made
even the wicked for the doing of evil," as it
should read: but our translation makes it read,
"the day of evil." Let it not be said that it is
merely physical evils that are referred to in
these texts for, besides these, there are numerous
other texts which go to show that there was
not a crime known or perpetrated at that day,
but what Jehovah himself is represented as com-
mitting or approving, and thereby assuming the
authorship of it. For example, he puts a lying
spirit into the mouths of the prophets (see 1
Kings, 22), so that all the falsehoods they told
were his, and not theirs. And the prophet Jere-
miah goes further, and says that God lied virtually
with his own lips : "Wilt thou be altogether to me
as a liar? " "0 Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I
am greatly deceived" (Jer. xxii:7). And Eze-
kiel caps the climax: "If a prophet is -deceived
I the Lord have deceived that prophet." Now
as deception and falsehood are synonymous
terms it follows that Grod stands charged here
44 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
with being a liar, i.e., "the father of lies" in the
Jewish system, as the Devil was afterwards in the
Christian system. He is frequently represented
as getting mad (Deut. i:37), and swearing; and
also of committing or approving of theft or
stealing (Ex. iii:2), of robbery (Ex. xii:36), of
murder (Deut. xiii: 2), and in fact of every crime
known in that barbarous age.
Now, it is easy to perceive from this, why the
Jews had no Devil. They had nothing for him to
do. The Lord did it all. He perpetrated the evil
as well as achieved the good. And to punish
the wicked or evil-doer with "everlasting fire,"
would have been to build a fire around their God.
And let us here remark, that optimism (the belief
that everything is ordered for the best) is a doc-
trine scouted by the Christian Church yet it cer-
tainly is the legitimate inference from the above
quoted texts from their own sacred Bible.
Of course, if every species of crime, evil and
immorality, had the divine sanction, it was all
right ergo, it was for the best. Nor is it incredi-
ble that the Jews in a state of barbarism, and
mental childhood, should have no clear concep-
tion of a line of demarkation between good and
evil, and hence confound and classify them all
together. The oldest books in the Hindoo Bible
evince the same state of mind, and also teach the
same doctrine.
CHAPTER VI
GOD AND THE DEVIL ORIGINALLY TWIN-BROTHERS,
AND KNOWN BY THE SAME TITLES
Another proof that the primitive Jews, like
some of the earlier heathen nations, had no Devil,
and recognized but one common source for good
and evil, regarding both as proceeding from Je-
hovah, is found in the fact that those names and
titles now applied to the Devil, were by them and
other nations primarily applied to the Deity, thus
evidencing that both characters were formerly
comprehended in one being, that being Jehovah
God; and that after another being (the Devil)
was hatched, created or conjured up to saddle all
the sins of the world on, he still continued to be
known and designated by the same names and
titles that various nations, including Jews, had
used in application to God only; whereas a be-
ing possessing opposite characteristics should
have been designated by a name denoting opposite
qualities. The fact is clear (as we shall soon show)
that the Devil was at first considered a God, and
as such was worshiped by several nations in-
cluding some of the early Christian sects. And
the same is true of Jesus Christ and the Devil,
that the same titles were applied to each, an evi-
45
46 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
dence that they were both derived in common
from the Pagan conception of good and evil,
virtue and vice flowing or emanating from the
same fountain, which fountain was primordially
the sun. In Exodus, 6, God is represented as
saying, "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac,
and unto Jacob, as God Almighty." Now this
God Almighty is found to read in the Hebrew
Bible, Baal-Shadai, and in tracing the derivation
of Beelzebub, the highest title for our or "your
father the Devil," to its original analytic form, we
find it terminate in Baal-Shadai. Thus both are
traceable to the same origin. Beelzebub, in its
original Chaldean and Phoenician form is Baalze-
bub. Then we have Baal-Shadai God Almighty,
and Baalzebub the Devil. And on further re-
search, we find these terms are essentially the
same that is, were originally applied to the same
being. Baal, as synonymous with Bel, was the
Chaldean name for the Lord dwelling in the sun.
Baal-Shadai was the sun in the zenith of his glory,
and Baalzebub the sun while in the sign or
constellation of the scorpion. And then there is
Baal-ial, or Baal-iel, a Chaldean and Phoanician
solar title for God. And this is the word or term
from which the Devilish Beliel of the Christian
New Testament is derived. Beliel is from Baal-
iel, Lord of the Opposite, which means a sign or
constellation opposite to the sun at any given
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 47
point. Adversary, another Satanic title ("your
adversary the Devil." 1 Peter, 5-8), is also
traceable to the same source; Adversary being
like Beliel a sign at right-angles, or adverse (ad-
versary) to the sun. Paul asks, "What concord
hath Christ with Beliel ? " I answer, the same that
Christ hath with the Father, all being traceable to
one and the same original source. Dragon is an-
other title for the great Attorney General of the
lower kingdom, and is found to be synonymous
with Baal and Bel. St. John speaks of "that old
Serpent which is called the Devil and Satan the
great Eed Dragon, with seven heads and ten
horns, and a tail which drew the third part of the
stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth"
(Eev. xii, xiii). Here Serpent, Devil, Satan and
Dragon, are used as synonymous terms, as nouns
in apposition. Now, let it be observed, that the
Dragon was worshiped by the Canaanites under
the name of Dagon, and Dagon is compounded
of Dag, the fish, and On or One, the Egyptian
name for the God of the sun or in the sun. And
this On or One is the source to which "The Holy
One" of Israel is traceable. Dragon or Dagon,
then, signifies Dag, the fish, and On or One, the
sun that is the sun in the constellation of the
fish. Satan, another of the numerous epithets or
titles, with which His Cloven-footed Majesty was
honored or dubbed is from the Babylonian Saith-
48 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
am or Aith-ain, and is said to mean The Word
Logos, Fountain of Wisdom, etc. If, then, Sa-
tan is the founder of wisdom, there is some sense
and appropriateness, after all, in the Scripture
injunction, "Be ye wise as serpents (or satans),
and harmless as doves." And some consistency,
too, may he found, according to this explanation
of Satan, in the two apparently incongruous Scrip-
ture texts one representing God and the other
Satan as tempting David to number the people.
It may seem like a dernier expedient to get rid of
a glaring contradiction to make God and the
Devil both one. But perhaps the end will sancti-
fy the means ; and if truth is sometimes stranger
than fiction, may it not be in this instance?
Another title, applied to both God and the
Devil, is that of Father. Christ spoke of "My
Father in Heaven," and "your Father, the
Devil." "Ye are of your Father, the Devil."
(John vii : 44) . He also referred to a certain class
of believers, crying "Abba, Father." Well, now,
Abba, we are informed, is from the Abaddon,
(Abad-don), which St. John tells us is the Hebrew
for Beelzebub, while Apollyon, (Latin, Apollo) is
the Greek (Eev. ix). Apollo is, however, the
Latin, for the impersonal Sun, Solar God. Abba
is Father, and Don is Lord in the Hebrew, and
according to the inspired John, the Bevelator, the
two together is Beelzebub. Abba-don-Father-
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 49
Lord-Beelzebub rather an imposing title for Ms
Snakeship.
We will now notice some of the titles in com-
mon to Christ and the Devil. Lucifer (suggestive
of Lucifer matches, of which it may be presumed
his Satanship was the patentee or inventor), if not
a common title for the "Evil One," is, at least a
very illustrious title. I think the old gentle-
man was formerly better known by this title than
at present. It is one of the numerous titles, how-
ever, by which he has always been known and
honored. Isaiah dubs his Eoyal Majesty as
"Lucifer, Son of the morning" (Isaiah xiv:12),
or as some translators have it, and ours so ex-
plain it in the margin Day Star. Then Lucifer
was "Son of the Day Star." Well, now, mark
the evidence. In Rev. xxii:16, it reads: "I
Jesus, am the bright and Morning Star." Then,
there is just the difference between Lucifer and
Jesus that there is between the Morning Star and
the Day Star which Bailey's Astronomy, and
Dupois' "Astronomy of the Ancients," show to
be none at all. They were one and the same Star.
And this identity in the name of Christ and Luci-
fer, as well as the reasonableness of designating
each a star, is rendered more apparent when we
recollect that both were considered the source of
light.
Christ was "a Light to Lighten the Gentiles"
50 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
(Luke ii:32). And Lucifer, or Satan, was by
transformation "an Angel of Light" (II Cor.
ix: 15), or as it is rendered, "a Star of Light"
the stars anciently being considered angels, or the
homes of angels, and were sometimes addressed
as angels. We have then Christ as the "Morn-
ing Star," "Light to Lighten," etc., and Satan or
Lucifer, "a Star of Light." Both are stars
and both are lights. God is another honorable
designation for both Christ and Satan. Christ is
"The God of Peace" (II Cor. xiii:ll), and Sa-
tan "The God of this world" (II Cor. iv:4).
And the appropriateness of the designation, and
validity of the title of the latter, I believe is not
disputed by the Christian world. Christ himself
seems to have conceded it; for when his Satan-
ship offered him "all the kingdoms of this world"
for one genuflection, or act of worship, he did not
dispute his title, contest his proprietorship, or call
in question the correctness of his boundless claim
to "all the kingdoms of this world." He seemed
disposed to "give the Devil his due," if not a
little more.
Again, was Christ honored with the title of a
"Prince 1 ?" So was the ruleir of the brimstone
kingdom. Christ was "The Prince of Peace"
Satan, "The Prince of Darkness," "The Prince
of the Power of the Air." But why was he
styled "The Prince of Darkness!" Do fire and
THE BIOGEAPHY OP SATAN 51
brimstone give no light? Certainly they do.
Then, would there not be as much propriety in
dubbing him "The Prince of Light," as an " An-
gel of Light?" However he is acknowledged to
be a "Prince" as well as Christ, and thus far
they are co-equal.
And did Christ receive the awe-imposing title
of "Son of God?" So did Satan receive a sim-
ilar title. For "Son of the Morning" is, when
properly rendered, "Son of the God who made
the morning who rules the morning, ' ' the God in
the sun. But, perhaps, the most common title,
or rather emblem for "that old serpent, the Dev-
il," as John the Saint styles him, is that of a ser-
pent. And serpent was a popular emblem
among the Jews for God also, if not a direct and
explicit title for the Deity. We are told (in Num.
xxi:9), that "Moses made a serpent of brass,
and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that
if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass he lived. ' ' Now we have the
most conclusive evidence that this serpent was de-
signed to represent Jehovah. In the first place,
its uniform use in nearly all countries to represent
the Deity or the Devil, would indicate that
Moses ' serpent was designed to represent one or
the other. And then, when Christ tells us that
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness as
a type of him (Christ), we are no longer left in
52 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
doubt as to which of the two (God or the Devil)
it was intended to represent, and constitute an
image of. No doubt remains of its being intended
as an image or emblem of Deity, especially when
we take into consideration the wonderful and
God-like healing power ascribed to it, equal to
that of the great idol, Dagon of the Babylonians,
than which it certainly was no less an idol.
Certainly it would be difficult to conceive of a
deeper vein of idolatry running through the
religion or mythological system of any nation,
than that practically manifested or implied in this
brazen serpent of Moses, or brazen image of God,
as we may truthfully style it. I think no greater
power was ever ascribed to any idol nor more
distinctly essential attributes of Deity. Then
observe, what a glaring and high handed infrac-
tion it involves of the first commandment: "Thou
shall not make unto thyself any graven image,
nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above or in the earth beneath, or in the waters
under the earth." Was not this brazen figure
a likeness of something both "in the earth
beneath," and "in the waters under the earth?"
Are not serpents numerous in both localities?
They were especially so at that time. I ask then
what does the setting up of the serpent image
by Moses lack of constituting idolatry, and
commandment breaking but the name?
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 53
The origin of this brazen serpent's business
among the Jews, however, is not hard to trace
out. The Egyptians, among whom they dwelt
for several hundred years, entertained a very
high respect, and we say for a portion of them,
veneration for serpents, as did other Pagan
nations, and made much use of them as emblems
in their religious worship ; as did also the Persians
among whom the Jews or Israelites long
sojourned. The system of serpent worship was
prevalent at that time in nearly every nation on
the earth that is, so far as to use and venerate
them as emblems of Q-od and his various
attributes. And the reasons which led to the
election of serpents for these purposes are also
easily explained. It was simply because its
peculiar form or construction and character made
it susceptible of applying a great variety of
emblems for most of the supposed leading
attributes of the Deity.
We will here endeavor to present a brief
explanation of the matter. In the first place, his
entire wholeness or unitary construction of body
being without limbs or external parts, suggested
the serpent as an appropriate emblem of the
unitary conception of the Godhead. And then his
movement without feet or legs, thus making no
noise, was suggestive of many noiseless, yet
stupendous achievements of the Deity constantly
54 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
going on throughout the Universe, as well as his
supposed power to change his location without
walking, without the use of feet and legs. And
especially did this represent, in imagination, that
beautiful, noiseless revolution of the planets,
in their orbits, yet all the time observable to the
devout worshiper these shining orbs being
venerable and sacred as the homes of the lesser
gods. And the innumerable, shining, dazzling
scales of the serpent, following, as he moved
silently onward those two brilliant, visual orbs
situated in the front of his head, were suggestive
of the sun and moon leading the starry host
through the heavens. By putting the end of his
tail in his mouth, he formed a circle which was
the chosen emblem of eternity. Mr. Higgins says,
"The serpent was the emblem of eternity and
immortality, and hence tempted the woman (in
paradise) to bring forth immortal offspring."
This was the doctrine taught in some of the very
ancient religions and mythologies, and revives
very forcibly the story of Adam and Eve, and
the serpent in Eden. The typical or emblematical
use of the serpent to represent immortality, was
suggested by the annual casting off the epidermis.
The annual shedding of the skin of the serpent,
which, however, always left him in possession of
a new external covering, led many to believe that
he never died, but was simply renewed or
THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN 55
"regenerated," and born again every year, while
all could see in the process an illustration of the
soul's casting off the body in the act of being born
into immortal life. Hence its use to represent
eternity and immortality. The hissing of the
serpent, it appears, was supposed or fancied to
resemble "the still small voice of God."
The Jewish prophet, Isaiah, seems to have
entertained this superstitious, Pagan idea when he
declared, "The Lord will hiss unto them from the
ends of the earth, and he will hiss for the fly of
Egypt." This sounds rather snakish as well as
heathenish. And Christ 's ' ' still small voice ' ' was
doubtless derived from this serpentine source as
a "still voice" and a "small voice" were ascribed
to the serpent.
And more than all, the wonderful attractions
or fascinating power of the serpent was
beautifully suggestive of "the drawing chords of
love," which God was supposed to exercise
towards all men. Christ declared, "If I be lifted
up (like Moses' serpent in the wilderness), I will
draw all men unto me." In like manner did
Moses' serpent draw men unto it, and all natural
serpents do likewise when men present themselves
within the sphere of their magical powers. And
by nearly every Oriental nation reported in
history, the serpent was supposed to possess
wonderful sanative powers. We are informed
56 THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN
that the Egyptians were strong in this conception ;
and of them in all probability, Moses (who was
" skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians,"
Acts vii:22), borrowed the leading idea of his
brazen serpent to heal the snake-bitten Israelites.
And we are told the Hindoos and Grecians, as a
portion of the Egyptian nation, were, from a very
early period of their history, in the habit of
carrying a pole, during their travels, with a
serpent entwined around it. It will be recollected
that Moses ' brass serpent was constructed upon a
pole. And the emblem of the healing God
Esculapius, according to Faber, was a serpent
around a pole.
The word seraphim, denoting an order of
angels in the Hebrew theocracy (see Isaiah vi : 2
6), and the word Serapis, the name of an Egyptian
God, both appear to be derived from a serpent,
and hence may be considered twin-brothers. And
it is a singular circumstance, and one which must
certainly be regarded as implying great vener-
ation for the reptile or snakish tribe, that Moses '
foster-mother (Thermuthis), according to Jose-
phus, was named for a serpent at least the
Egyptians had a serpent by that name. We are
told that the Hottentots from time immemorial
have believed that bruising the head of the serpent
with the heel will cure its bite, which calls to mind
the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's
THE BIOGRAPHY P SATAN 57
head, as speken tf in Genesis iii. We have
already elsewhere stated, that Eve is from Heiva,
Heva, or Eva, a serpent. And we may state here
that some of the early Christians partook of this
spirit of universal homage paid to snakes or
serpents. One of the earliest sects of Christian
faith noticed in history, was called Ophiates
(which is from Ophis, a serpent), on account of
the homage then paid to serpents.
We are also informed, that more than a
thousand years ago, Christians were in the habit
of carrying serpents with them in their travels in
the manner we have described some of the Pagan
nations as doing. And the walls of some of their
oldest churches may now be seen decorated with
the figures of serpents. So that even the
Christian religion seems to have been a little
snakish or serpentine in its character in earlier
history. After reminding the reader that the
serpent in the garden of Eden is by the Christian
world identified with Satan, while Moses ' serpent
was an emblem of Jehovah, so far at least as
appertained to his omnipotent healing energies
and divine guardianship we will remark that
other and older nations, or religions, than the
Jews and Christians made use of the serpent as
a mystical figure or representation of both good
and evil personified that is, both the Deity and
Devil; or, as some expressed it, he was both
58 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
creator and destroyer creating himself anew, it
was thought, every time he threw off his old
exterior covering, and exhibited a new one, while
his venomous bite destroyed whomsoever made
battle with him. And the venom in the fangs of
the serpent being fatal, like that deadly moral
poison instilled into the souls of mortals by the
great adversary and arch-enemy of the human
race, while his (the serpent's) resistless fascinat-
ing powers being supposed to resemble the wily
insinuations and seductive allurements of the
"Evil One," aptly and powerfully hinted the
propriety of using the former to represent the
latter in other words, the propriety of identify-
ing the Serpent and Satan together.
Hence the serpent became a Devil or the
Devil. Here then we have another example of the
same name being used in application to both God
and the Devil, evidencing still further the truth
of our proposition, that they were originally
comprehended in one being, as all the names and
titles of the Father, Son and Satan, which we
have thus far enumerated, most clearly indicate.
We have shown that the same names essentially,
and in some cases literally, were applied
indiscriminately to Jehovah, Jesus Christ and the
Devil, from which we must certainly readily infer
that they were originally considered one in
essence that is, were derived from the same
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 59
imperfect perception, and consequently unitary
conception of good and evil blended and
confounded together.
This view of the case is corroborated by
Christian testimony. The Eev. Mr. Pitrat (in
his "Pagan Origin of Partialists' Doctrines,"
p. 58), quotes the Grecian poet, Euripides, as
saying, "In no case is good separated from the
evil. There must be a mixture of one and of the
other." The author adds: "This opinion is of
immemorial antiquity, and has been held by
theologians, legislators, poets and philosophers."
Thus the opinion is indicated to have been of
general prevalency as well as of great antiquity,
that all good and evil (and of course, their
personified representatives, God and Satan), were
co-essentially, at least, inseparably one, as we
have indicated to have been the belief of "God's
holy people;" or to state the thing more
definitely, the Jews, and their Pagan ancestors, if
we recur to a very early date in human history,
had no Devil, but comprehended all conceptions
of good and evil in one being, so that when the
perception of good and evil as distinct elements
and characteristics began to be made, and a
distinctive line drawn between them, and as a
consequence a new author hunted up or conjured
up for the latter, his names and titles were
borrowed from that compound being, Jehovah,
60 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
who had hitherto been regarded as the common
source and creator of both good and evil. It was
not until man's moral perceptions had so far
matured as to fancy a distinct line of separation
or demarkation between virtue and vice, that a
Devil or personified evil genius was created in
man's imagination, as the Father, Creator, or
Author of the latter. And even at this period
their perceptions, or appreciation of a distinction
between moral and immoral actions, were so weak
and imperfect, that the new-fangled or newly
created author of the latter still passed for a God,
deserving homage, and not entirely devoid of
moral qualities. In fact, some nations regarded
him but little inferior to God (that is, the first
or original God), except with respect to power;
and even Christians at this day concede him to be
very nearly equal (if not in fact superior) in this
respect, as he out-generals God Almighty, and
captures nearly all his subjects, according to their
own showing, and the teaching of their own Bible.
So nearly equal at first was the great Evil Genius
to the God of infinite goodness, that he was by
some nations regarded as a twin-brother. We
will quote history in proof :
"With regard to evil spirits," says an author,
"the growth of ideas seems to have been very
gradual. In the beginning, there was no distinct
and defined separation between good and evil in
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 61
the minds of men. In Hindoo theology, the same
God destroyed and reproduced, and was not
supposed to be impelled by wicked motives in his
work of destruction any more than nature is. In
Egypt the two powers were divided, but the
malignant Typho was twin-brother of Osyrus the
Good.
And it should be treasured in memory here, as
will be observed from this quotation, that the first
distinction or classification of good and evil did
not appertain to moral actions of men, but was
restricted entirely to the physical nature, the
operations of the elements, etc. For a long period
the attention of mankind seems to have been
wholly directed to the phenomena of the physical
external world, and for a long time they rested
in the opinion that the same being, the same God
who had created, also destroyed the same being
who sent down the genial solar rays of vernal
spring, also sent the chilling, desolating blasts of
winter ; the same God who poured down the genial,
gentle showers to revive the drooping flowers,
the withered grass, and parched up dying cereals,
also darted forth the forked lightning and
blasting thunderbolt. But at length, as men's
observations grew broader, and their perceptions
became more distinct, their cogitations ripened
into conviction or conclusion that there was too
great a difference between the creative energies
62 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
and desolating or destroying effects of Nature to
"be the product of one and the same being. And
hence was originated the- prime Evil Genius or
Evil One, to stand as sponsor or author of the evil
actions, not of men, but of Nature not of the
moral world, but the natural world.
"It is impossible," says the Grecian philoso-
pher and historian, Plutarch, in his " Hermes,"
"that one sole being, either good or bad, can be
the author of all, for God can cause no evil."
And hence he tells us on the next page : "We
must admit two opposite causes, two contrary
powers, leaning the one to the right and the other
to the left. As the good can not produce evil,
then there is a principle causing evil as well as
as one causing good."
Thus reasoned the priest of Apollo and
philosopher of Greece.
""We see by this passage," adds the Rev. Mr.
Pitrat, "that the true origin of the two principles
(God and Satan) proceeds from the difficulty
which men in all times found in explaining by one
sole cause, good and evil in nature."
Besides the cases and examples which we have
just submitted, we might refer to the theories of
various ancient nations to show that the original
conception of a Devil or evil genius was that of a
God ruling over a portion of the empire of
Nature, or what was generally considered the
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 63
adverse antagonistic or evil portion of Nature.
In the ancient Chaldeo-Persian system, he held
dominion over all the aquatic portion of animals
and birds. In other countries his empire was
more restricted.
Speaking of the ancients in general, Plutarch
says: "They believed in two Gods of different
trades, if I may say so, who caused the one good
and the other evil. They called the first, God, by
excellence, and the second demon." Of the
Persians, he says: "They believed that the first
was of the nature of light, and the second that of
darkness."
This accords exactly with the modern Christian
theory.
"Among the Egyptians," he continues, "the
first was called Osyrus, and the second Typhon,
eternal foe to the first."
To show that the notion or doctrine of a
personal evil agent, the author and embodiment
of all evil, is not a tenet peculiar to Christianity,
but is of very ancient Heathen origin, and
prevailed very extensively in the world long
before the era of Christianity, or advent of Christ,
we will cite briefly a few other examples. Augus-
tine tells us: "The ancient Assyrians, as well
as the Persians, admitted two principles, whom
they honored as two Gods, the one good, and the
other bad."
64 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
The Rev. Mr. Pitrat says: "The inhabitants
of Tologomy (India), believe that two principles
govern the Universe, the one good, who is light,
and the other bad, who is darkness."
He further says: "The Peruvians (of South
America) revered Pacha-Carnac as being a good
God, and Cupai as being a bad God. The Oaribs
admitted two sorts of spirits, one benevolent, who
dwelt in Heaven and invited us to do good, the
other evil who hovered over us to lead us into
temptation. Those of Terra Firma think that
there is a God in heaven the sun. Besides, they
admit a bad principle, who is the author of all
evil."
The inhabitants of the kingdom of Pegu might
be referred to as holding similar notions. Also
the Portugese, who style the great evil genius,
Demon. The Hottentots call the good principle
"The Captain of Above," and the bad principle,
' ' The Captain of Below. ' ' The latter is known as
Touqua. The archdemon of the native of the
island of Formosa is Chang, and their supreme
God, Ishy. Among the inhabitants of the island
of Teneriffe, the Devil is known by the name of
Guyotta.
The people of Coterdea believe in two Gods
one white and good, the other black and evil.
Among the Scandinavians, the evil God is known
by the name of Locke, and is believed to make
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 65
perpetual war against the good God (Thor). In
Brazil, Ms Satanic Majesty passes by the name of
Aguyan, while among the Tartars of Katzchenzi
he is known as Tons. The Devil of the Manich-
eans is Hyle. The Esquimaux, says the Rev.
Mr. Pitrat, believe in a God supremely good,
whom they call Ukouna, and in another Ouikan,
who is the author of all evils, who causes the
tempests and who capsizes the boats verse 63.
He says also, "The Siamese sacrifice to an evil
spirit whom they consider as being the cause of
all the misfortunes of mankind," which is similar
to the idea of the Hottentots, who say that, "From
him all evils flow to this world." I will add here
that the Chaldeans had their evil stars (as well
as good ones), which they believed were controlled
by a Devil or evil spirits. And thus says Plutarch,
"The dogma of two principles (two Gods) was
admitted by nearly all nations." Thus we
perceive that the most ancient notions of a Devil
or Evil Genius was, First, That of a being
antagonistic to God, and yet himself a God, the
two possessing many similar characteristics and
on nearly an equal footing with respect to power
and jurisdiction, being in Persia "own brothers,"
twins. Second, The sphere of his operations was
at first restricted in most theogonies to physical
nature. Third, He was graciously devised to
save God from the stigma of being considered the
66 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
author of evil, a logical deduction from the
premises that a good and pure being could not
be the same, or author of that which was not
good or anything evil. A further research into
the great arcana of Nature would have taught
them that all evil, both moral and physical, is
simply a natural concomitant of the crude
germinal immature state of nature, which will
disappear as the world matures and ripens into
perfection. Fourth, It will be observed, that
nothing is said about the smoking pit or infernal
regions, as it had not at that time been discovered
or thought of. A Columbus had not as yet
sailed in that direction. The respective thrones
of the two omnipotent Gods was situated in the
stars or among the elements. The good (rod
some placed in the sun, while his rival antagonist
was consigned to the moon or some of the planets,
as all theological conceptions at that period were
connected with the starry heavens, more or less.
The distance of the two kingdoms apart is not
known. In Persia, they were situated so near
together that Mithra the Mediator, or, as Plutarch
calls him, the Inter-Mediator, being situated
between them, could transmit messages from one
to the other, and interfered or intermediated to
settle their difficulties and disputes, from which
circumstance he received the name of Mediator.
It will be recollected that the two kingdoms in
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 67
the Christian system were situated so near
together that Dives and Lazarus, or Dives and
Abraham conversed together, though it must have
required hallooing on the highest key to be heard
across the " impassable gulf" situated between
them.
That the Devil, Satan, or "the Old Serpent,"
was at first a co-equal God, and not invested with
the odious repulsive character with which we now
find him represented by the Christian world, we
find further evidence of in the ancient diagrams
used in physical astronomy. By examining the
astronomical charts, maps, and textbooks used in
our schools and colleges, it will be found that the
Serpent is pictured under the twofold aspect or
character of "A Good God," and "An Evil God."
In the first place, we find him represented under
the name of "The Hydra," extending through
and including three constellations, that of the
Crab, the Lion and the Virgin, thus representing
the three summer months, June, July and August.
And then we find another diagram of the Serpent
in another part of the heavens under the name of
"The Scorpion," beginning the winter season
inaugurating the dreaded inauspicious October,
the harbinger of cold and dreary evil Winter.
And thus he was used to represent or symbolize
both good and evil; which, when personified, were
God and the Demon. We can easily understand,
68 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
therefore, why Moses and the Israelites, as well
as the Egyptians and Hindoos, had both a good
Serpent and an evil Serpent the latter figuring
in Eden, the former constructed of brass and
displayed on a pole. And the statement or
theological proposition, that the Great Emperor,
''Charge d 'Affairs" of the smoky regions was
once considered a God, is still further confirmed
by the fact that he was formerly in several
religions a co-equal member of the Trinity, "hail
fellow well met ' 'in the triads of Gods. The third
member of the Trinity in India, Egypt, Persia,
and I believe Mexico, also, was a representation
and personification of evil in their most ancient
legends, which furnishes evidence indisputable,
that they stood in the relation and occupied the
position of Gods. We may legitimately conceive
that although the character of the two at first
stood nearly parallel with respect to moral
attributes, yet as time rolled on and developed
and matured the moral perception of the people
and capa'citated them to demark or discriminate
good and evil, they would, in imagination, see
the two Gods diverging morally wider and wider
apart and becoming more and more; hostile to
each other, until finally they would become, and
did become, directly, antipodes, and in deadly
array, strife, and opposition to each other in
nearly every conceivable respect, though in all
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 69
the change the Evil God did not lose his power
or sway. He still retained almost uncurtailed
omnipotent power with which he was at first
invested, though his tenure or jurisdiction was
gradually removed from the physical or natural
to the moral world, so that the seat of his empire
is now in the minds of men, and not among the
physical elements or planets as formerly. Such
has been the work of man's imagination.
CHAPTER VII
OEIGIN OF THE TEBMS " KINGDOM OF HEAVEN,"
"GATES OF HELL/' ALSO OF TRADITIONS OF THE
DRAGON CHASING THE WOMAN, THE WOMAN
CLOTHED WITH THE STJN, ETC.
The Christian theory, as we have briefly
stated on a previous occasion, so far from
restricting the power or empire of the Evil One,
grants him the lion's share, allowing him to carry
off the major portion of the human family,
having first permitted him to construct a broad
guage or "broad road" for the purpose), and
"many there be who go in thereat," while they
have the road leading to the other kingdom so
very narrow that "few there be who find it."
And thus they permit "the Prince of Darkness"
to carry off to his subterranean empire nearly
the whole retinue of souls which God had created
for the purpose of his own glory, and thus
thwart the main object of creation. We observe,
from the authorities quoted, that the perception
of physical evil, or natural evil, preceded that
of the perception and recognition of moral
evil; and that the physical evils first recognized,
were those produced by the violence of the
70
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 71
elements and the rotation of the seasons. Winter
was, with her cold bleak drapery and her wide-
spread desolation and destruction, in the estima-
tion or imagination of the ancients, the principle
and most prolific source of evil i.e., the God of
Winter. The principal inhabitants of the earth,
as heretofore intimated, having noticed that
during six months of the year the powers at work
in Nature were engaged in fructifying, vivifying,
beautifying, producing, etc., and that during the
other, six months some apparently adverse power
arrested, blasted, and destroyed those desirable
operations and their results, they hence imagined
two contrary hostile powers, engaged in perpetual
war against each other; and as the six Spring and
Summer months were attended with almost
perpetual sunshine, and the growth and produc-
tion of fruits and flowers, and culinary or edible
vegetables, things that were calculated to supply
their natural wants, they were regarded as
constituting, and became known as "the true
kingdom," or " kingdom of Heaven," while the
winter months were denominated "the kingdom of
Darkness."
The former was also called "the kingdom of
the Sun," or God who dwelt in the sun. This
imaginary entrance to the kingdom, which ft was
supposed opened to the sun as he left the tropic
of Cancer to travel back to the South, was called
72 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
"the gates of Heaven," while the fancied passage
through the other tropics constituted "the gates
of Hell." At the first stood the Lamb, the
zodiacal sign of Spring, to usher in the glorious
sun, or sun-God, as he drove up with his fiery
steed to the portals of Paradise in early Spring.
At the latter, stood the hideous Scorpion, Dragon,
or Devil, ready to drag everything accessible to
his clutches or power, down into his bottomless
pit, at one time hitching his tail over and pulling
down one-third of the stars. Hence you will dis-
cover, that the Devil is from above, and not from
below, though he descends below every six months
into Hades, as hereafter explained. You will find
by consulting your almanacs, that Aries, the Lamb
or Earn, is the zodiacal or astronomical sign for
March, the first Spring month. And the Scorpion
was (though the Eagle is now) the sign of
October, first Winter month (in the bisectional
division of the year) ; that is, by dividing the year
into two seasons of six months each, St. John
(Rev. xii) speaks of the Dragon having power to
hurt the five months, and astronomically speaking,
he does hurt the vegetable productions of the five
principal prolific months of the year, with a
vengeance. And St. John's monster, with the
seven heads and ten horns, may find a solution in
astronomy, or astrotheology, by assuming the
seven heads to be the seven Summer months (as
THE BIOGEAPHY OF SATAN 73
some nations divided the year in this way), and
duplicating the five Winter months for the horns.
And then, the story of the Dragon " pur suing the
woman to destroy her male child," finds an easy
explanation here. Turn to your almanacs, and
you will notice that the Dragon or Scorpion is in
pursuit of the woman, Virgin, sure enough, being
the next sign in order in the zodiac; or direct your
eyes to the heavens in a cloudless night, you will
observe that just after the old maid (a virgin with
a child in her arms, as the Persians show her)
rises above the horizon in the East, up comes the
old Scorpion called a serpent among the Persians ;
a Dragon in Phoenicia ; Draco among the Eomans,
which is the Latin for Dragon. Virgil calls him
Maximus Angis, the Great Snake. (See Greorgius
8). The great Dragon, according to astronomical
diagrams, is actually after the woman (Virgin)
and her child, and was for thousands of years
B.C., and until modern astronomers caught him,
and cast him into the bottomless pit, and substi-
tuted the eagle in his place.
How easy it is to imagine, when, by observing
in the almanac, that the Dragon or Scorpion (the
same thing) is the next sign after the Virgin,
that he is chasing her through the sky! And it
may be more than fancy to associate the woman
and Serpent here with the scene in Eden, wherein
a serpent is represented as tempting a woman
74 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
(Mother Eve) to masticate a pippin with her new
incisors and molars, which never before had been
used. And as we find a man also (Aquarius)
among the signs of the zodiac, this may be Father
Adam; for it is more agreeable, not to say
honorable, to fancy or conceive of our first parents
being formed among the stars, than in a mud-hole,
according "As the Lord said unto Moses." The
prophet Daniel speaks of a great contest between
a ram, and a goat (see chapter iv), and both of
these you will find represented in our zodiac and
apparently (to a fanciful imagination) chasing
each other through the heavens. And again, St.
John's marvelous figure of "a woman clothed
with the sun, the moon under her feet and a crown
of twelve stars upon her head" (Eev. xii), is
easily understood when viewed through an astro-
nomical mirror. More appropriately may the
astronomical virgin woman be said to be clothed
with the sun, than could be said of any other of
the twelve signs of the zodiac, judging from her
situation among the signs and her relative
position to the sun. There she stands, right in
the focus of the sun's rays in August, the hottest
month in the year, and thus is clothed with the sun
more brilliantly than that of any other sign. Of
course the moon is under her feet, while the twelve
months of the year, or the twelve signs of the
zodiac form her crown of twelve stars. Now
THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN 75
mark! we are not becoming "wise above what is
written, " for these things are all written, not
merely in your school-books, but in your almanacs,
copied from the skies.
The sun's crossing the equinoctial line in
March, was an event of great moment to some of
the ancient nations, as it ushered in the thousand
blessings of Spring and Summer. We cannot
wonder, therefore, that the cross became a sacred
emblem in nearly all the religions of the earth.
Now let it be noted here, that the scenes which
I have depicted as occurring in the starry heavens
are not mere fanciful pictures of my own
conjuring up, but are matters of actual record in
the histories or sacred books of Persia, Egypt,
India and Rome. Take for example the story, or
allegory, of a woman pursued by a Dragon,
Serpent or Devil, etc., (all one according to St.
John, the Eevelator and mystigogue) ; this is not
only found substantially related in several
mythological histories, but was in Persia
represented on the celestial globes. And Kircher,
Seldon, Eben, Manobius, and Scaliger, (Note ad
Manil, p. 341), furnish evidence of its being
referred to in astronomical works of several
nations.
It will be recollected that St. John describes
the woman as being clothed with the sun and
chased by a Dragon or Serpent (for both terms
76 THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN
are used, see Eevelations xii), which seeks to
devour her child, and pours out a flood of water
after her as she flees into the wilderness to save
her child. In the Grecian version of the story
Latona, being about to be confined, flies into a
desert isle to save her child from Python, the
Serpent or Dragon ; while the Persians, according
to Scaliger, had the virgin woman represented
on their astronomical globes or planispheres with
a child in her arms, holding two "ears of corn"
(wheat) in her hand, and with wings spread in
the act of flying from her pursuer, as represented
by St. John and the Eygptian version of the same
story. And the child of this virgin in the Persian
legend was born on the 25th of December, and it
has been long since the people of that country
first celebrated the 25th of December as the birth-
day of Oxus the Savior and child of this virgin.
The pursuer spoken of in this story is with the
Persians, Ahrimanes, the God of darkness, and
is the Typhon of the Egyptians, the Lucifer of
the Greeks, the Python of the Eomans, the Obi
of the Africans, the Manitou of the American
Indians, the Dragon of St. John, and the Serpent
or Dragon of the North Pole. And he actually
begins to raise his head above the horizon, accord-
ing to Burritt's "Geography of the Heavens,"
immediately after the rising of the virgin the
sign in the zodiac for August. The Egyptian
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 77
version fills out the scene and represents the river
Orion in the act of pouring out its waters just as
the virgin appears above the horizon, which is
the river St. John tells us the Dragon poured out
after the woman and her child, to drown and wash
them away.
Now all these figures are. represented in
Burritt's Astronomy, used in all our schools.
Plutarch tells us that the Egyptians painted their
Serpents or Dragons red, which reminds us of St.
John's language, "The great red Dragon." (See
Bevelations xii). Theon says there is no sign in
the zodiac on which so much fable has been found-
ed as that of the virgin. The ancients, including
several nations (Persia, India, etc.), chose the fig-
ure of the virgin to represent the fruitfulness of
the earth; and as the sun commenced rising at the
25th of December toward Spring, the season of
fruitfulness and plenty, it was said, therefore,
figuratively, to bring forth a new-born child.
Now, as it can be shown, and is conceded, that the
Pagan version of this is older than the Christian
version, we may venture to suggest that St. John
was not the author of the first edition of it.
CHAPTER VIII
HELL FIEST INSTITUTED IN THE SKIES ITS OEIGIN"
AND DESCENT FBOM ABOVE
Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true,
that even the Christian fabled Hell may be found
(like most others of their venerated and Pagan-
derived myths and mysteries) among the stars,
though they generally point the other way, or in
the other direction, when they wish to indicate
its locality, not reflecting that Dives and Lazarus
would not have conversed together while one was
in Heaven and the other in Hell, unless these
two 1 places had occupied contiguous localities- at
least, been situated near together, and this was as
likely above as below. The word astronomers use
to indicate the sun in its highest point of ascension
is perihelion. Now you may notice there is a
Hell in this word (peri-7&e-ion) : at least it can be
traced to Hell, or Hell to it. H elion, the last part
of this word, was pronounced by the Greeks
Elios, and is synonymous with Acheron, which is
generally translated Hell. So that we have
"peri," which means around, about, and
"helion," Hell that is, the sun roundabout Hell.
We can not think it strange, therefore, that Hell
78
THE BIOGEAPHY OF SATAN 79
is a pretty warm place. And let me admonish the
reader not to be alarmed if we should find good
old Elias in Hell, the same who appeared with
Moses at Christ's transfiguration. For it is a
fact that Elias (the Greeks using the aspirate
instead of the H) is about synonymous, as I have
already stated, with the Greek Acheron, which is
rendered Hell by translators. Hence it follows
that Elias means Hell, if not Hell-fire, which will
account for his face shining with such lustre at
the transfiguration.
And Hades, or Ades (for the Greek alphabet
has no H) may be traced with still less difficulty
to the sun for its origin. And Ades, it is well-
known, frequently occurs in the Greek New
Testament for Hell, and is so rendered in English,
Well, now, Ades analyzed is Ad, an Ammorian
name for God or God-sun, and es the fire; and
hence means "the God-fire," "sun-fire." It was
the belief of some of the ancie,nt nations (the
Greeks, for instance) that Heaven and Hell were
nearly contiguous, being separated only by an
impassable gulf, and both, as some believe, are
located in the sun, though more,' generally the
former only was located there.
CHAPTER IX
ORIGIN OF THE TRADITION RESPECTING "THE
BOTTOMLESS PIT"
The ''bottomless pit" had a different origin
from that of Hades, or Hell. Its geographical
position was a fancied one beyond the South Pole.
This location grew out of the persuasion of some
of the ancients, that their dreaded and devastat-
ing winters came from that quarter, and hence
"the Evil (rod, who produced the winters (known
as "Winter God"), had his seat of empire there.
A circumstance which facilitated or contributed to
this superstition was that of its being beyond the
purview or reach of the natural vision. And as
it was apparently situated below them, and they
could not conceive of its having any bottom, they
hence called it the "bottomless pit. ' ' Winter was
supposed to come from the South, because it was
observed to come upon them as the sun receded
southward, which some imagined had some agency
in sending the winter. And the sun going down
below the horizon out of sight in the Arctic
regions so as to result in darkness, was supposed
or fancied to die, but it was born again or arose
from the dead when it reappeared in Spring or
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 81
arose again above the horizon. And as it
approached the " gates of Spring," "the Lamb of
God," or the Lamb of March gathered up "the
sins of the world," or the sins of the "Winter,
and bore them away. And thus was realized,
astronomically, not only "the Lamb of God taking
away the sins of the world," but also the death
and resurrection of the Son of God, or the sun-
God, more properly. While the South Pole was
the great "bottomless pit," the fancied abode of
demons and devils, and also the synonym of
everything evil, the North Pole as the supposed
residence of "the Good God," was called "the
Mountain of the Lord" as nearly every nation
had its "Mountain of the Lord" or "Holy
Mountain."
CHAPTER X
OBIGIN OF THE BELIEF IN A "LAKE OF FIRE AND
BEIMSTONE"
The fact has been disclosed by the feregoing
historical exegesis or sketch of Satanic biography
that the capers and diabolical operations of the
Devils, Demons and evil genii of the Oriental
nations, were at first confined to the skies or
starry heavens. But it is important to observe
that in the course of time their sphere of
operations was transferred to the earth, and
finally to "the underground world" beneath the
earth, long prior to the dawn of the Christian
era. According to the mythological era
of Oriental Egypt, when the Great Dragon,
Serpent, or Devil, Python or Typhon was
conquered by the archangel of Apollo, and hurled
down headlong from the battlements of Heaven
(and thus became a fallen angel), he was thrown,
body, hoofs and horns into lake Sibon, or Sirbonis,
situated at the foot of Mount Casius. This lake
was chosen as the place of consignment for the
great Arch-Demon or Arch-Enemy of the human
race, because it had become a haunt for the most
weird and wild imagination, and a focus for the
82
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 83
most disagreeable and detestable association of
ideas that ever nestled in the brain of a
superstitious people. Hence it became universally
execrated. Bearing these facts in mind, let us
observe that when the Nile overflowed its banks,
as it did semi-annually, and spread over the
country for many miles around, it reached this
lake Sirbonis, and submerged it with its putrid
waters. And, as it receded into its channel by
the subsidence of the current, it deposited in the
lake a great amount of debris, putrefying vegeta-
tion, and nauseating substances of various kinds.
And it is a matter of fact or fable, that upon its
stagnant waters, there accumulated a scum
bearing a strong analogy in taste, color and smell,
to that of brimstone or sulphur. In fact, some
authors speak of it as being veritably and truly
brimstone in solution i.e., sulphur. Travelers
and historians tell us that when the sun shone
upon this brilliant mirror-like floating substance,
it presented the appearance of being on fire, and
from that circumstance was called "the lake of
fire and brimstone," while the steam, gas, vapor
or miasma created and eliminated by the action of
the sun upon the deposits of mud and slime around
the margin of the lake, ascending upward, formed
the imaginary smoke of the imaginary place (as
it is fabled to be) Of endless torment, which from
time immemorial has been the source of fear, fable
84 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
and fiction, to the ignorant, credulous and
superstitious people of various countries, and
which now causes the pious Christian to "work
out his salvation with fear and trembling. ' ' This
lake being situated in a warm climate, became the
habitation of various kinds of aquatic or amphib-
ious monsters and noxious vermin, which the
imagination and credulity of an age of super-
stitious fear could easily transform into "imps of
darkness," or evil genii and frightful hobgoblins,
while the hideous noises issuing unceasingly from
the mouths of the numerous denizens of this
"frightful waste of waters," augmented and
heightened by the glare of the host of Jack-'o-
lanterns, Will-'o-wisps, and other nocturnal lights
pecular to the moist or humid atmosphere of warm
climates, finished the imaginary picture of a
Demon's home and a Devil's Hell. And as the
inundation of the river, together with the over-
flow of the lake, often produced a great amount of
damage, destroying cattle and other domestic
animals, dwellings, etc., it was very easy and very
natural for the childish superstition which held
supreme sway three thousand five hundred years
ago, to believe that the great giant foe of human
bliss and human beatitude, the imaginary Typhon
had something to do in producing these
calamitous and direful events ; more especially as
it was assumed as an axiom indisputable, that the
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 85
"righteous Apollo, the God of the skies," was too
transcendantly good, too merciful and too benig-
nant to his creatures, to have any agency in such
business. And here it may be mentioned that it
was currently reported that human beings
residing in the vicinity of the lake were occas-
ionally borne away in the clutches of the hydra-
headed Typhon "to parts unknown," to be
disposed of in accordance with his diabolical
designs and infernal purposes, and that the smell
of brimstone encountered upon their receding
pathway, disclosed unmistakably the damnable
fate of these luckless human victims. This
tradition brings to mind the story of the Hibernian
who, while in America hearing the funeral of a
priest spoken of, remarked, "we do not go to the
trouble of burying priests and pickpockets in our
country." "What do you do with them when
they die?" inquired a bystander. "Well, when
they give up the ghost, we lay out the defunct
bodies in an open room, and the next morning they
are gone, and nothing more is observable but a
strong scent of brimstone in the room, and the
mark of diabolical footsteps on the floor. This
is all we know about the matter."
We have, then, fully disclosed in the foregoing
sketch of Satanic history the origin of the tradi-
tion, nearly four thousand years old, of a "lake
of fire and brimstone," with its imaginary
86 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
potentate it being originally nothing more or
less than lake Sirbonis with its fancy hatched
ruler, the redoubtable long-tailed, double-headed
Typhon. "He who hath ears to hear let him
hear," and no longer tremble with fear when he
encounters the smell of brimstone. The tradition
respecting ' ' The worm that never dies ' ' (Mark ix :
44), had its origin likewise in Egypt, and started
from the circumstance of a gnawing, stinging
worm which infests that country (a fire-eater
by tradition), being never known to die, simply
because, as later researches show, it burrows down
into the soil before it dies ; hence, not being seen
after its death, it was supposed to be immortal.
It was found within the precincts of the "fiery
lake," and was supposed to be one of the infernal
agents in the employ of his Satanic Majesty, the
horny, iron-hoofed Typhon.
CHAPTER XI
WHEBE IS HELL? ANCIENT TEADITIONS BESPECTING
ITS CHAEACTEE AND LOCATION
St. John tells us (see Rev. xxi: 10) he saw the
New Jerusalem descend from God out of Heaven,
and as we have shown by previous historical
disclosures in this work, that Hell also descended
from above ; it being a much older institution than
the New Jerusalem, we suggest the propriety of
styling it ' ' the Old Jerusalem. ' ' We have followed
it in its descent to the earth. We will now trace
it to its present locality, "the under-ground
world, ' ' whither it was removed several thousand
years ago. Various and multifarious were the
notions among the ancients with respect to the
substantial whereabouts of the fabled Hell the
after-death depository for wicked souls. Some
fancied its location in the sun, others referred
its geographical position to the moon; others
again imagined its unquenchable fires raged in the
bowels of the earth, but the opinion finally became
somewhat prevalent that it was hung or planted
under the earth. Mr. Higgins' remarks relative
to the ancient tradition with respect to its locality,
that "the lower or southern hemisphere which is
88 THE BIOGEAPHY OF SATAN
hid in darkness in winter, and which is always
attended with darkness, decay, disease and death,
and every kind of discomfort, became imaginarily
controlled by, and consequently the abode of evil
beings, now known as demons, devils, etc., and the
abode itself as Hell, while the upper hemisphere
was the abode of celestial beings, as gods, angels,
etc." And no less various were the notions "with
respect to its character, than with respect to its
locality. Mr. Higgins shows that many believed
it to be a place of "utter darkness," and a very
cold place. This was perhaps before its combus-
tible faggots had been lighted up or set on fire'.
The name for Hell among the ancient Celts was
llfin, which means "cold climate," which shows
that they also regarded it as a cold country. The
ancient Gauls and Britons, Goths and Germans,
taught that Hell was a place of "dreadful dark-
ness," and was infested with venomous reptiles,
ferocious beasts and wicked spirits. The
Egyptian astrologers taught that Hell was a
"bottomless pit," the damned inmates being
suspended on hooks fixed in the side of the pit,
though many of the natives of that country held
to a "lake of fire and brimstone." The ancient
Buddhist and Mexicans believed in a Hell of
"unquenchable fire prepared for the Devil and his
angels." Here it may be remarked that the
inhabitants of cold countries taught that Hell was
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 89
a hot place a place of " glowing, melting heat,"
while on the other hand, the inhabitants of warm
climates taught that the place of consignment for
the wicked was "as cold as a mountain of ice."
So that all who were captured and carried away to
Pluto's realms by old "Plug Ugly," underwent
a change of climate, whether they hailed from the
torrid or frigid zone.
CHAPTER XII
ORIGIN" OP THE NOTION OF MAN'S EVIL THOUGHTS
BEING PEOMPTED BY A DEVIL SATANIC AGENCY
HAVING BEEN EESTEICTED TO THE PHENOMENA
OF THE EXTEENAL WOELD
Here we wish it distinctly noted as an impor-
tant historical fact, that the conception of a Devil
and a Hell long existed before the remotest idea
was entertained that either had anything to do
with or any connection with punishment in a
future life. Both had a fabled existence in the
external world among the physical elements long
before the Devil was made an agent of punish-
ment, or Hell a place of punishment for the
wicked after death in the imaginations of the
people. Indeed, we are credibly informed, the
Manicheans long believed Hell to be the blissful
abode of the righteous. The first conception of
evil and malevolent beings, as we have just
intimated, restricted their sphere of operations to
the physical world, to the violent storms and
destructive elements, and all the unpropitious
events of nature. In their utter ignorance of
natural causes, a superstitious age would naturally
assign such things to imaginary beings. But no
90
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 91
thought se'ems to have been entertained, that the
malicious denizens of the "evil world" had
anything to do with the thoughts or actions of
men not even the most wicked and vicious; for
the reason that man's moral perceptions were not
at that period sufficiently developed to observe any
distinction between good and bad actions. The
nature and effects of immoral actions had not
been as yet discovered; everything, as in the
Jewish Bible, was ascribed to God. Their percep-
tion of any distinction or line of demarkation
between virtue and vice ran too low (if they pos-
sessed any) to incite even the thought that any
action or line of conduct that any man could
pursue, could be sufficiently bad or criminal to
require any punishment to be sent after him, and
inflicted on him after he left this world. Nor had
the priesthood as yet acquired sufficient
ascendency over the people to lead them to invent
a Hell to punish delinquent pew-renters or tithe
payers, as we shall hereafter show it to be an
institution of their getting up. As man's moral
perceptions grew and expanded and ripened into
the conviction that some actions were good and
some bad to such a degree of difference as to
require a separate and distinct source for their
origin, he began to look around him to find a way
of accounting for each class of actions separately.
And as the heavens above and the great imaginary
92 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
abyss below the earth, were already peopled with
imaginary beings of different and opposite char-
acters, it was easy it was natural to begin to
associate these beings with the actions of men,
and to conclude that all good actions were incited
by good beings or by "the good God," as they
styled the Supreme Being,and all evil and immoral
actions by the "evil Gi-od," "the master mischief-
maker." And the conception in this respect seems
to have been at first wholly anthropomorphic and
unspiritual, or sensuous at least local and
circumscribed. The Devil, it was thought, could
not influence the actions of men unless bodily
present with them. He was not then, as now,
omnipresent, and invested with the omnipotent
power to tempt or seduce millions at a time,
though scattered all over the globe at an
immeasurable distance both from him and from
each other. The Hindoos, Buddhists, Burmese,
and some of the Chinese taught that the maleficent
beings called devils or demons entered body,
head and heels, into the minds of men, and from
there rolled out their evil thoughts and prompted
them to vicious actions. Most of the ancient
religious teachers of the Oriental schools taught
that "old king Satan" was supplied with a
numerous train or retinue of inferior sub-devils,
who acted as sub-agents in the work of decoying
souls and leading them into perdition. The
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 93
Hindoo Bible (the Shaster), more than three
thousand years old, teaches this doctrine, and tells
us that the demi-devils (or Devs, as it styles them,
lacking but one syllable of making the Christian's
Devil), were completely under the control of the
master demon or devil-in-chief, and entered the
minds of men at his bidding ; but that they could
be ejected at any time by exorcisms and prayers
of the priests, especially if the patients' pockets
were well lined with " filthy lucre," which often
seemed to operate as a powerful charm in the
way of dispelling the diabolical intruders from
"the inner man," and henceforth keeping them at
a respectable distance.
Now, the foregoing notions of the Orientalists
seem to be fully recognized and acknowledged
by Christ and his Apostles as a part of the
Christian ' ' plan of salvation. " No less than nine
times is Christ represented as " casting out
devils," and on several occasions as having a
familiar chat with them. At one time he is said
to have ousted seven at a clip. They were tumbled
nolens volens, pell mell, out of a respectable
Christian lady whom we would naturally have
supposed was too high-minded to entertain such
"low company."
CHAPTER XIII
THE CHRISTIAN 'g DEVIL WHENCE IMPORTED OR
BORROWED
We have stated, in a previous chapter, that
the primitive Jews did not teach the doctrine of
future endless punishment they evidently knew
nothing of the doctrine until after their exile to
Babylon, as we do not find the doctrine taught in
any of their writings penned previous to that era.
The first traces of it are found in the "lesser"
or later prophets, now termed Apocryphal, and
the Talmuds, or Mischna, written but a few
centuries prior to the Christian era. And from
these sources, in all probability, the founders of
the Christian religion derived, in part, their doc-
trines and traditions on this subject. Though we
find the after-death primitive doctrines of the New
Testament are an admixture of Babylonian or
Chaldaic, Egyptian and Syrian traditions on this
subject, and all conform approximately to the still
more ancient Buddhists' doctrine of future
rewards and punishments. The Egyptian Devil
was a huge monster, panoplied with horns, and
"shod" with hoofs, a formidable tail of unmem-
tionable, if not immeasurable length, which we
94
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 95
suppose served as a kind of rudder as he "flew
his giddy rounds amongst the sons and daughters
of men," thougn it appears he doffed his tail for
the convenience of inserting his legs into a pair
of breeches, that he might join the respectable
society which he accompanied as they went to
attend a picnic at the house of Job, in Chaldea.
We frequently hear instances spoken of "of a
descent from the sublime to the ridiculous;" but
here is a case of the ascent from the ridiculous
to the sublime, presented in the account of Satan's
becoming a "hail fellow well met" with the sons
of Grod, as they journeyed to make an important
negotiation with that "servant of the Lord," Job.
He must have felt honored and exalted in the
highest degree by such a peculiar favor being
vouchsafed to his majesty.
We have stated in effect that the founders of
the Christian religion (perhaps while yet Jews)
obtained their model for a Devil from the Baby-
lonians during their bondage in the country. It
is well to remark, however, that Christians have
invested his long-tailed majesty also with some of
the characteristics of the Egyptian Devil, as we
find in the illustrated works of the early Chris-
tians he is represented with horns, hoofs, and a
rear appendage of lawless dimensions. We will
conclude our answer to the question, "Where did
the Christian world obtain their Devil?" by
96 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
presenting an extract from an able writer
on the subject, who tells us "The ancient Egyp-
tians had a Devil called Typhon, afterward
engrafted into the Greek mythology, as the
author of Evil. The later Jews, who became fol-
lowers of Christ and the founders of the Christian
system, admired the idea of having such a fearful
ugly Devil (as he had horns, hoofs and a tail), and
hence engrafted his monstrous physical pro-
portions on to the idea of a Devil they
had obtained in Babylon. At the same time they
gave him the malignant and ferocious character of
Beelzebub, the Devil of Syria." And thus the
question is explicitly answered.
CHAPTEE XIV
THE VARIOUS AFTER-DEATH PUNITIVE TEEMS OF
THE NEW TESTAMENT, OF ORIENTAL ORIGIN
It only now remains to be shown that the
writers of the Christian New Testament must
have copied from the ancient Pagans, as they have
all their variously modified forms or modes of
future endless post mortem punishment. In fact,
the whole train of ideas and doctrines, apparently,
both of a Devil and Hell, which we find incorpora-
ted in the Christian Scriptures as a part, seem-
ingly, of the Gospel plan of salvation, are found
likewise in the Pagan systems of mythology long
antedating the inception of the, Christian religion.
The Bible of the Christian speaks of
A Hell of darkness (Matt, viii : 22, and Jude
xii) ; a Hell of light at least of fire, which must
emit light (Matt. v:22); a Hell in which both
body and soul are destroyed (Matt, x: 28) ; a Hell
in which the soul is eternally punished (Matt,
xxv: 46); a limited Hell (Kev. xx:13, and 2d
Peter ii:4) ; an endless Hell (Matt, xviii: 8) ; an
upper (impliedly) and a lower Hell (Psalms
Ixxxvi: 13) ; a Hell, or lake of fire, and brimstone
(Rev. xivrlO); a bottomless Hell or pit (Rev.
97
98 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
ix: 1) ; the keys of Hell (Eev. xx: 1) ; the chains
of Hell, or the chains in Hell (2d Peter ii: 4) ; the
Gates of Hell, etc. (Matt, xvi: 18).
Now, an examination of Mythological history
will show that these ideas or conceptions, are of
Pagan origin, together with the various Scripture
notions and myths appertaining to a Devil or
devils, such as :
His being the author of evil; his leading or
destroying or punishing them;; his taking up his
abode in the minds or souls of men, with his
troop or train of inferior second class Devils or
evil spirits; the saviors and saints casting them
out of the temples of the "inner man;" their
change of residence from the souls of men to the
souls and stomachs of swine and other animals;
also, the various metamorphoses or changes of the
Devil-in-Chief, by which he sometimes appears as
a crawling or creeping serpent ; then as a roaring
lion; at other times as a flying dragon; and
occasionally as an " angel of light," etc., etc.
Some of these notions or conceptions have
already been traced to Pagan origin. The origin
of others will be indicated as we proceed to speak
of the several Pagan doctrines or myths apper-
taining to future endless punishment, as compared
with those found in the Christian Scriptures.
The Rev. Mr. Pitrat, in his work before
mentioned, tells us, (p. 177) :
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 99
"The Pagans believed that in their Hell there
were two principal abodes (an upper and a lower
Hell), the one expiatory, in which the common
wicked were detained and tortured until they had
expiated their faults, and been purified enough to
be admitted into the Elysium (Heaven) and the
other the filthiest, the darkest, and the deepest
cavern, where great criminals were burnt and
excruciated endlessly, and without any ,hope,
cessation or relief in their torments."
The same author adds :
"According to Plato (400 B.C.), the dead who
have been guilty of murder, sacrilege, and other
enormous crimes, shall be endlessly miserable
in Tartarus (Hell). Those whose crimes have
not been so great, shall be detained therein for a
year" (p. 211).
In the above extracts we have the Christian
Bible doctrine of an "upper and a lower Hell,"
a "purgatory," an "endless Hell," "a fiery
Hell," etc. Again, our author says:
"The Pagans believed that there was a gate to
their Hell, at which (in Eoman mythology) the
frightful Tissiphon watched day and night,
'seeking whom he might devour,' and that Lucifer
held the keys of the gates of Hell" (p. 175).
Here are disclosed several other Christian
ideas of Hell :
100 THE BIOGEAPHY OF SATAN
"The Pagans believed that the deepest dark-
ness reigned in their Hell" (p. 178).
Here is the Christian's Hell of "outer
darkness." Speaking of Tartarus, our author
says :
"There are incessantly heard the rattle of
chains dragged by wretched victims, their groans,
and the strokes of the lashes that tear their flesh"
(p. 134).
Here are the chains spoken of in II Peter ii: 4.
The Hindoo Vedas (written before Moses,
according to Mr. Dow) informs us that :
"Yama (the judge, or "judge of quick and
dead") delivers over the trembling wicked souls
to evil spirits, in order* to' expose them to be
lacerated by demons, or gnawed by fiery worms,
or plunged into pits of flame."
Here we have presented "the bottomless pit,"
where "the worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched." We might continue to trace out the
parallel in every minute particular. But to
present a full history or description of the
numerous doctrines, notions, conceptions or
myths, of the ancient superstitious Pagans
relative to the after-death punishment of the
wicked in Hell, Hades, Tartarus, Infernus,
Gehenna, Tophet, Sheol, or the Fiery Pit, with
the various operations and machinations of
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 101
Devils, Demons, Dragons, Serpents, Satans,
Furies, Evil Spirits, or Wicked Grenii, which were
in vogue, and currently believed in thousands of
years ago, when the deepest, darkest, and direst
superstitions enveloped the human mind a con-
siderable portion of which we find copied into or
rehearsed in the Christian Scriptures such an
exposition would require a large volume. We
will conclude this branch of our subject by two
quotations from different poets, one Pagan, and
the other Christian, and observe the similitude of
their train of ideas in attempting to depict the
underground world. Hear the poet Virgil, 60 B.O :
"At Hell's dread mouth a thousand monsters wait,
Grief weeps and vengeance bellows in the gate:
Fierce, formidable fiends the portals keep,
With pain, death, and death's half-brother, sleep.;
Here stretched on iron beds the furies roar,
And close by, Lerna's hissing monster stands,
Briarens, * * * * and all around
Fierce harpies scream and direful gorgons frowned;
Here rolls the roaring, flaming tide of Hell,
And thundering rocks the fiery torrents swell."
Now let us observe how successfully the
Christian Pollock has taken lessons in the Pagan
school of infernal ideas, and how exactly he makes
the Christian theory of Hell accord with that of
the ancient heathen :
"Beneath I saw a lake of burning fire,
Tossing with tides of dark tempestuous wrath,
And now wild shouts and wailing dire,
102 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
And shrieking infants swell the dreadful choir.
Here sits in bloody robes the fury fell,
By night and day to watch the gates of Hell.
Here you begin terrific groans to hear,
And sounding lashes rise upon the ear.
On every side the damned their fetters grate,
And curse 'mid clanking chains their wretched fate."
I leave the reader to compare the effusions
of the ancient heathen bard "with those of the
Christian, two thousand years later, and to
determine for himself which is the most Paganish
01 fiendish. The proposition which sustains or
maintains the striking resemblance in the post
mortem punishment theory of the ancient heathen
nations and those of the Christian Bible, written
at a later period, is sustained by even Christian
writers, of which we will present one proof.
The well-known popular (English) Christian
clergyman, Mr. McKnight, in speaking of Christ's
parable of the rich man and Lazarus, says :
"It must be acknowledged that our Lord's
descriptions are not drawn from' the writings of
the Old Testament, but have a remarkable affinity
to the description which the Grecian poets have
given. They, as well as our Lord, represent the
abodes of the blessed as lying contiguous to the
regions of the damned, and separated only by a
great impassable river, or deep gulf situated in
such a condition that the ghosts could talk from
one to another from its opposite banks. The
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 103
parable says the souls of wicked men are
tormented in flames. The Grecian mythologist
tells us they lie in Plegethon, the river of fire,
where they suffered torments."
"He who hath ears to hear let him hear" how
a Christian divine thus affirms to the truth of our
proposition, that the Christian's Hell is a tran-
script from Pagan tradition of heathen mythology.
CHAPTER XV
THE DOCTEINE OF FUTUEE PUNISHMENT OF HEATHEN
AND PEIESTLY OBIGIN, INVENTED BY PAGAN PBIESTS
The conception of future punishment, or
rather the thought of turning it to practical
account in the way of influencing the actions and
conduct of men, seems to have been first sug-
gested to the officiating priests of ancient Egypt
by the peculiar circumstances attending their
mode of interring the dead. "We are told that a
certain cemetery belonging to one of the principal
cities of Egypt, being situated at a considerable
distance from the town, required the river Styx
to be crossed in order to reach it; and before it
could be crossed, the ferryman (Charon) must be
satisfied by the payment of his fee. But in
numerous cases the surviving relatives were too
poor to raise it, and the fee had to be paid by the
public, or if not thus paid, the body of the defunct
was thrown into the ditch to be devoured by dogs
and vermin, or cast into the river Acheron, which
means Hell at least Christian writers so
interpret and translate it. Thus, this river was
made the receptacle of the bodies of those who, on
account of their vices, were excluded (so the
104
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 105
multitude were taught) from the common
obsequies of the dead and the favors of Heaven,
or rather its Supreme Ruler Jove, while the
righteous, if poor, were always honored with a
decent burial at the public expense. To decide
whether the defunct had led a life sufficiently
virtuous to deserve an honorable interment, men
were chosen, called "Episcopes," from the Greek
epi (over) and skopeo, to see or look and thus
literally means to see over or oversee. And thus
originated the term and the sacradotal for
Episcopacy now found in the Methodist and other
churches. For the accommodation of the instituted
order of priesthood, towers or buildings were
erected which are now known as temples and
churches. And this dates the origin of the priest-
hood and their officiating tabernacles or edifices
temples and churches. As here suggested, these
Episcopes or priests were invested with the
prerogative of deciding who, from their acceptable
conduct through life, deserved to be decently
consigned to the tomb, when that conduct was
measured by, and conformed to, a standard which
the priests themselves had instituted. And
observing that this moral discrimination with
respect to the election of subjects for decent
interment, exerted, a powerful influence upon the
morals and conduct of the people, it hence at once
suggested to their minds the thought of carrying
106 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
the principle or overt policy a step further,
promising the credulous populace not only an
honorable disposal of their bodily remains after
death, but unending felicity in the world to come
(as a reward for well-doing), which country
lay beyond the river Styx. And thus this river
became the highway, or "the strait and narrow
way" to paradise beyond the grave. The grave-
yard, or cemetery, through which they passed,
and in which the bodies were deposited, was called
the Elysian fields, which was regarded as a place
of blissful sojournment, to be occupied transiently,
preparatory to their entrance into the abodes of
superlative felicity; while Tartarus, beyond the
river Acheron, was the place of consignment for
the wicked or those who were not faithful in
complying with the requisitions of the priests.
The entrance to this post mortem prison
(Tartarus) was guarded by the mastiff Oerebus
(a dog with a hundred heads). Into this
Tartarus the priests warned the credulous,
ignorant and superstitious populace they must
be thrust as a penalty for any delinquency or
neglect of duty they might be guilty of not to
be punished eternally however, for endless
punishment was not yet invented or thought of.
They were only to be consigned to this fiery
underground prison for a period proportionate
to their crimes. And this fact was elaborated into
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 107
fiction, and thus originated the doctrine of future
punishment in Egypt; and out of this grew the
doctrine of endless punishment or "eternal
damnation," as the priests lengthened the period
of punishment from time to time as the public
utility or their own cause and craft seemed to
suggest the necessity for it, until it was finally
made to reach to all eternity, and the culprit was
told that he must "roll on a sea of fire," and kick,
and flounder, and splash the melted brimstone
during the endless ages of eternity. And thus we
observe that:
A research into Oriental or ancient sacred
history, reveals as an important fact, or, if you
please, reduces the same to an important fact,
that the natural apprehension or suspicion of all
those philosophic minds, who, having long since
investigated the nature of the priestcraft, set
down the doctrine of future endless punishment
as the work of designing priests. Mythological
history is exuberant with the evidence that the
traditional scheme of punishment for human be-
ings or human souls in another world for actions
committed in this, was invented by the priesthood
as one of their auxiliary means of promoting
the interests of their craft. And, according to
Grecian writers, the agents of Government, or
administrators of law, joined with the priests,
and likewise adopted the system as a more
108 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
effectual manner of controlling the populace, and
keeping them in subjection to the Government.
To state the thing in brief, priests and poli-
ticians "colleagued together," and invented the
Devil and his domicile as scare-crows to frighten
the ignorant superstitious masses into quiet,
submissive allegiance to the ecclesiastical
tribunals, namely, "the powers that be." That
I do not misrepresent when I aver that the Devil
and Hell-fire doctrines were concocted by design-
ing priests and pettifoggers, to serve as bugbears
to frighten their credulous and childish subjects
into acquiescent submission to their assumed
authority to prove it. We have some very ancient
authority, to prove it. We have some ancient
testimonies on this subject from Egypt, India and
Greece. We will first call up Strabo, known as
' * The Geographer of Greece.' 7 He declares that :
" Plato (a Grecian priest) and the Brahmins,
invented fables concerning the future punish-
ments of Hell."
And he appears to justify the invention for he
says :
"The multitude are restrained from vice by
the punishments the gods are said to inflict upon
offenders, and by those terrors and threatenings
which certain dreadful words and monstrous
forms imprint upon their minds. . . . These
things the legislators used as scare-crows to
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 109
terrify the childish multitude. They can not be
governed by philosophical reasonings. They are
not led by such means to piety, holiness and virtue,
but this must be done by superstition, or the fear
of the gods.
It is impossible to conduct women and the
gross multitude, and to. render them holy, pious
and upright, by the precepts of reason and
philosophy. The fiery torches and snakes of the
furies and spears of the gods, and the whole
ancient mythology are all fables employed as
bugbears to overawe the credulous and simple"
(Geo. Book) . Mr. Robinson remarks on the above
(see Hist, of India), that these ideas, afterward
adopted in Europe, are precisely the same which
the ancient Brahmins had adopted in India for
the government of the great body of the people.
Polybius, the historian (born 200 years B.O.),
declares in like manner :
"Since the multitude is ever fickle, full of
lawless desires, irrational passions and violence,
there is no other way to keep them in order but
by the fear of the invisible world on which
account our ancestors, it seems to me, acted
wisely when they contrived to bring into popular
belief the notions of the gods, and of the infernal
regions.
"Hell is useless to sages, but necessary to the
"blind and brutal populace. ' '
110 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
So the whole secret is out, that the soul-roast-
ing doctrine of the ancient Pagans, copied into
the Christian Scriptures, and transmitted through
Christian credulity and superstition down to the
present day, was not designed for sensible and
intelligent people, "but to frighten fools with.
And those good Christians, who in this
enlightened day and age of the world, still hold
to this ancient superstition or myth, should not
'complain if we rank them with this class, seeing
that it is historically demonstrated that no other
class of people were expected to believe it but
fools. For this is the testimony not of one or two
writers only, but of all who wrote on the subject
thousands of years ago in Egypt, India and
Greece, and they were many. They all concur with
Strabo and Polybius in representing the doctrines
of Devils, and post mortem punishment, as having
been fabricated for the special benefit of the low,
ignorant and superstitious populace. If space
would allow it, I might quote in proof from
Cicero, Dyonisius, Seneca, Socrates, Virgil, Livy,
Plutarch, and Zimseus. The last named writer
(Zimseus or Timaeus) says, in figurative
illustration :
"For as we somtimes cure the body with
unwholesome remedies, when such as are most
wholesome produce no effect, so we restrain those
minds with false relations which will not "be
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 111
persuaded by the truth. There is, therefore, a
necessity for instilling the dread of those foreign
torments reserved to the criminals in Tartarus,
and also, by the other fictions, which Homer (900
B.C.) has found in the ancient sacred opinions. "
As Homer's time was several hundred years
before Christ, this declaration makes the doctrine
of future punishment of very ancient existence.
This poet, whom some chronologists place 900
B.C.; is here represented as finding the doctrine
in the then "ancient sacred opinions.*'
I will quote but two other Boman and Grecian
writers, Seneca and Cicero. The former tells us
that :
"Those things made the infernal regions
terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of
flaming fire, and the judgment seat, are all a
fable with which the poets amuse themselves, and
by them agitate us with vain fears."
Cicero ranks the doctrine of future punish-
ment with "silly fables," and Plutarch places it
with "fabulous stories." I will quote from one
author relative to the prevalence of this super-
stition in India three thousand two hundred years
ago, to show how it was looked upon by the more
intelligent classes of society, even in that remote
age and country. Colonel Dow, in his "Disserta-
tion on India," say's :
"The more learned Brahmins affirm that the
112 THE BIOGEAPHY OF SATAN
Hell which is mentioned in the Vedas was only
intended as a bugbear to enforce upon their minds
the duties of morality. For that Hell is no more
than a consciousness of evil, and those bad conse-
quences which invaribly follow wicked deeds."
Very sensible thoughts indeed to issue from
the minds of heathens more than three thousand
two hundred years ago ; for the Missionary, Rev.
D. 0. Allen, places the compilation of the Vedas
at 1400 B.C., while other writers assign it a much
earlier date.
I will close my historical citations by brief
quotations from two Christian writers. The
Eev. Mr. Pitrat, in his "Pagan Origin of
Papalists' Doctrines," says:
"Indeed, there is no sort of torment that was
not invented by legislators, mystagogues, poets
and philosophers, to frighten the people under
the false assumption of making them better, but
the truth is, it was rather to keep them down in
subjection" (p. 138).
The Eev. Mr. Thayer says :
"Of course, in order to secure obedience, they
were obliged to invent divine punishments for
disobedience of what they gravely asserted to be
divine laws."
It will be observed, then that we have the most
positive evidence, the most demonstrative histor-
ical proof, to establish this three-fold proposition:
THE BIOGEAPHY OF SATAN 113
1. That the doctrine of future endless
torment, the after-death penal retribution, was
extensively preached and promulgated in the
Pagan world long prior to the era of the
inauguration of Christianity.
2. That it was invented or hatched up by
designing priests and law-makers, as a " raw-
head and bloody-bones/' to frighten those who
might be simple or silly enough to believe it into
loyal submission to their aspiring power that
the credulous, ignorant and superstitious masses
or classes of society might thus become the pliant
tools, the stepping-stones to the selfish ambition
of the demagogues of both Church and State.
3. The learned or intelligent classes of-
society never believed the doctrine, nor was it
expected that they would, as it was not designed
for them. And hence those who now subscribe
to this doctrine as being a literal reality, although
they may be called Christians, cannot in a strict
sense be called Sensible and intelligent people.
"He who hath ears to hear let him hear," and
with reference to future punishment, banish all
fears.
"We deem it proper to remark here, that we
have omitted a direct reference to the authorities
for many of the historical facts exhibited in the
preceding pages of this work, simply because we
found it would burden the work, and swell it to
114 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
an inconvenient size. But in proof of our most
important statements, we have in most cases given
the name and page of the author. If the reader,
however, will consult the following works, with
those already named, he will find nearly all the
facts contained in this book, and many others of
a similar character, viz: Baily, Dupins, Bryant,
Faber, Taylor, Theon, Kirker, Staffer, Boyer,
Scalinger, Seldon, Macrobius, Virgil, Nonnus,
Hyde, Creden, Higgins, etc.
CHAPTER XVI
EXPLANATION OF HELL, HADES, TABTAKTJS, INFEBNUS,
GEHENNA, AND TOPHET
The word Hell is the genitive case of the
Anglo-Saxon word hole, and was used with
reference to the imaginary future home of the
wicked, as being in a hole somewhere in the earth
perhaps ' 'Symm.es' Hole."
The word Tartarus is from Tartary, being
first used with reference to an imaginary abyss
supposed to be located in Independent Tartary,
and was the fancied abode of the wicked after
death. It was believed to be "a dreadfully cold
place; and Hesiod speaks of it as being a "deep
dark place."
The word infernus means inferior, under,
'below, and was used to designate the fiery world
"under or below the earth." Hence comes
infernal.
Gehenna, used twelve times in the Greek, and
always translated Hell, is from the two Greek
words ge or gen, "The earth," and Hinnom, the
name of the place where "The Lord's Holy
People" were in the habit of sacrificing doves,
pigeons, etc., and sometimes their own children.
116 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Hence, it simply means, "the land," or rather
"The Valley of Hinnom."
Tophet is from Toph, a "drum'' (see Jer. 7:
31), beaten during the sacrifice of children (by
the Lord's chosen people " as we have already
stated), in order to drown their cries and shrieks.
It was afterwards used to designate a depository
for the carcasses of dead animals and other filth.
And from these circumstances it came to repre-
sent the imaginary place for the punishment and
torment of the wicked.
The word Hades has been explained in a'
previous chapter.
CHAPTER XVII
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THEEB QUESTIONS FOR
BELIEVERS IN POST MORTEM PUNISHMENT
There is both a logical view and a moral view
of the doctrine of future endless punishment
which we have not space to present here. We
will, therefore, conclude this essay on the
"Biography of Satan,"" with a series of brief
questions, designed in lieu of an elaborate dis-
quisition on these points, and covering the ground
to present a compendious and comprehensive view
of the whole subject of post mortem punishment :
1. Who created the Devil, and when, and also
what is now his age?
2. What is his type or race, Malay, Mongolian,
African or Caucasian?
3. Of what kinds of material was he originally
composed, constituted, or created?
4. Assuming that he was made of nothing
(the materials of which the whole universe was
created, according to Webster), must we not hence
conclude, that he is still, and must ever continue
to be, nothing, in view of the philosophical axiom,
that everything must, possess the qualities of the
materials of which it was originally composed?
117
118 THE BIOGRAPHY OP SATAN
5. If, however, His Infernal Majesty was not
created by God, are we not then compelled to set
him down as self -created or self -existent?
6. And if so, does it not then follow that we
have two omnipotent, omnipresent and Almighty
Beings?
7. And if two, we would ask, how many
Almighty and Infinite Beings can exist at a time?
8. Or can we admii the existence of more than
one in any other sense than that implied in the
Otaheitan tradition, that "a Devil or God can
dwell within a God as a snake within a snake?"
9. Or if God was the first Omnipresent Being,
and filled all space by what process was room
found for another omnipresent being?
10. And here the correlative query arises,
also, is the " Grand Adversary of Souls" depend-
ent on, or is he independent of, God?
11. If dependent on God, are we not
logically compelled to consider God responsible
for all his wicked, nefarious and diabolical deeds?
12. But if independent of God, how will we
dispose of the philosophical absurdity of two
Infinite, Almighty and Omnipotent Beings hold-
ing at the same time the reins of universal
government?
13. Or if his Satanship is not omnipotent,
how does he manage to "decoy millions of souls
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 119
to endless ruin," when "God wills that all should
be saved V 1
14. And if not self -existent does it not follow
that God must have created him?
15. And if God did thus bring into existence
"the Great Prime Mover of Evil," then is not
God himself the author of Evil, inasmuch as with-
out a Devil (according to Orthodox showing),
there could have been no evil?
16. Who then is responsible for the existence
of evil, God or the Devil?
17. Or how can God hate evil and yet allow
the Devil to exist, when he possesses omnipotent
power, and hence is able to destroy him?
18. And if the Devil is a "fallen angel," as
Christians teach, who tempted him and caused
him to fall?
19. Or how could he be tempted, when as yet
there was no "Wicked One" to tempt him?
20. Or would God have created him if he had
known that he would turn out to be so naughty,
nefarious and diabolical?
21. And if he did not know it, how could he
be omniscient or be the All-Wise-God?
22. And how could this primarily perfect
archangel fall in heaven where everything is and
must be perf wi infallibly perfect ?
23. And if (as' we are notified in "Holy
Writ") "it came to pass" once upon a time, there
120 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAJST
was "war in Heaven," may not such bloody con-
flict occur again and consequently all Grarrisonian
non-resistants be compelled to leave, or have their
feelings and principles outraged by the exhibition
of carnage and blood, they being in principle
opposed to wars and fighting?
24. Or shall we conclude they will prefer not
to enter such a blood-stained paradise, but in
preference " travel the broad road that leads to
destruction?"
25. And what security have we that the next
"war in Heaven" among "the spirits of the just
made perfect," will not result in a victory in
favor of "Old Nick" and his rebel host, and the
Old Dragon thus to drag himself on to the Emer-
ald throne, and bring all the Celestials under,
and henceforth wield his demoniac power over
the whole Heavenly host?
26. Can anything exceed the injustice of
allowing the Devil to "transform himself into an
angel of light," seeing that it is impossible to
distinguish him from a celestial being while in
this character, and hence impossible to know when
to "resist" him, as the Bible enjoins?
27. Assuming that his Satanship had a begin-
ning, may we ask what was the modus opemndi
employed to make known his infernal existence,
whether it was by the current mode of making
known important truths, that of divine revelation
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 121
by and through the Holy Ghost, or whether he
drew up with his fiery steed at the bar of the
world in propia persona, and thus announced his
diabolical existence?
28. Why is "Holy Writ" silent on this
important matter?
29. And when (may we be allowed to ask) was
the Great Bottomless Pit first discovered or
loroughi to light?
30. And how was it brought to light? Did it
turn up on a voyage of discovery for a "North-
western Passage," or "Polar Inlet?"
31. And we would like to ask, by what right
and title does His Infernal Majesty hold his fiery
pit or brimstone dominions. Does he possess it
in fee simple, or by the right of "squatter
sovereignty?"
32. .And do we not discover the strongest
proof of the matchless skill and wisdom of the
Divine Architect in constructing the demoniacal
pit without a bottom, seeing that without such a
wise arrangement it must long ere this have been
full to overflowing?
33. Though it may be asked, what in the
absence of a bottom prevents the impish inmates
from falling through?
34. Whether they are hung on hooks, provided
for the purpose, in the sides of the pit?
35. Or whether, being fledged (as Milton tells
122 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
us) they are required to "keep on the wing?"^
36. And were not the Great Bottomless Pit
minus a bottom (seeing that thousands are daily
dropping into it according to Orthodox preaching,
and have been for six thousand years), may we
not suggest that those in the bottom must ere this
have been totally smothered to death?
37. And if (as Buffom calculates) two
hundred persons die every minute, and one
hundred and fifty of these are precipitated into
Pandemonium, we would like to ask, how many
Imps, Demons, or Demi-Devils, must be inces-
santly employed in carrying off the sinful,
reprobate souls, and tumbling them overboard in-
to Tartarus, their new fiery home, where there
is to be "gnashing of teeth" (or gums if no teeth),
forever and ever?
38. Or if not carried, how are they conveyed
or conducted into Hades'?
39. Do they ride, walk, crawl, fly or hop?
40. And are they coaxed to go, hired, led,
pulled, or dragged?
41. And as the Bible speaks of the incumbent
ruler of the nether kingdom in the singular num-
ber as Satan, "The Devil," etc., we would like to
ask how one "Unwearied Adversary" can pos-
sibly attend to every son and daughter of Adam,
amounting to 1,000,000,000 souls (as all are
tempted, we are taught), in the way of decoying
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 123
them into endless perdition, if he is not
omnipresent!
42. Would he not have to'move in his "giddy
ronnds" with the celerity of the telegraph to
make calls but once per annum upon each son and
daughter of Adam leaving him scarcely time as
he hauls up to the humble domicile or gorgeous
palace of each, to bow and scrape, with a "How
do you do, sir ? " " Glad to see you. ' '
43. Or are we to assume, in order to dispose
of this difficulty, that as "nothing is impossible
with God," so nothing is impossible with the
Devill
44. Or if the difficulty is attempted to be
surmounted by supposing and assuming that his
Satanic honor is supplied with a numerous retinue
of subaltern imps or pigmy demons (subordinate
or second-class officers) to aid him in his male-
ficent enterprise, we ask whether he would not,
in that case, have to engross all his time in drill-
ing, training, and posting these auxiliary or
subsidiary functionaries in their new vocation
of soul-catching?
45. And whether this would leave him any
time to eat and sleep, or even to rest upon the
Sabbath?
46. We would likewise query, whether, in
high latitudes or in northern climates (say the
icy Polar regions), if any of the hobgoblin board
124 THE BIOGKAPHY OF SATAN
of soul-catching demons should venture out from
their intensely caloric fiery dominions while the
thermometer is perhaps ranging at 50 or 75
degrees below zero stiffened limbs, a bad cold,
and mayhap still more serious, if not fatal, con-
sequences might not ensue?
47. And should we not calculate on the
danger of some reprobate souls, foreordained to
destruction, making their escape into paradise on
these occasions of their demon pursuers being
inevitably retarded in their operations by the
weather 1 ?
48. Ought not God to be very thankful to old
Harry Haulaway for taking the punishment of
the wicked off his hands, since he has declared
"the wicked shall not go unpunished," and hence
would have to punish them himself if the Devil
did not!
49. And since we learn that God has decreed
that "the wicked shall be punished in Hell," and
the Devil is his agent in performing the needful
work, must we not therefore consider his Snakish
Majesty as a truly faithful servant of the Lord,
and a co-worker with him!
50. Or if the punishment of the wicked is to
be set down as the Devil's doings exclusively, and
yet God assents to it by permitting him to exist
and achieve his hellish work, then he is not acting
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 125
in conformity with God's will, and hence perform-
ing his duty?
51. And does it not thence follow, also, that
it is God, and not the Devil, who punishes the
wicked the latter being only an agent?
52. On the other hand, if we assume that God
is really opposed to the Devil's operations and
machinations, then does it not follow that his
diabolical Majesty holds the supreme sway and
compels God Almighty to hold a subordinate rank
under him, and to be a kind of secondary
Omnipotence?
53. And does not this follow from another
assumption, viz: that the Devil's "broad road"
into which so many "go in thereat," is much
more thronged than the "narrow way that
leadeth unto life?"
54. And may we not ask, if it was not labor
lost to make "a house of many mansions," seeing
so few tenants find their way to it, or are allowed
to enter it?
55. May we not also consider the Christian
"plan of salvation" a kind of lottery system or
scheme, in which God and the Devil are the ticket
holders the wicked constituting the ballots?
56. And is it not the teachings of "Holy
Writ" that his Infernal or Satanic Omnipotence
drew Mother Eve as the first prize?
57. And since that " hit of good luck, J ' lias he
126 THE, BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
not drawn the major portion of the small fry-^a
much larger share than the Creator himself?
58. If the Devil, after the curtailment of his
ubiquity or of his infinite power (as taught in
Eev. vi:8), and after God had declared "All
souls are mine," still managed to decoy most of
them into his fiery domicile, how many souls do we
suppose he would have left for God, if his power
had not been curtailed?,
59. If most "God's heritage" travel "the
broad road which leadeth unto destruction," as
"the Holy Scriptures" inform us then are we
not to suppose there are "rooms to let" in "the
house of many mansions?"
60. Is it not strange, that if the wicked are to
be punished eternally in Hell, as declared (in
Matt, xxv : 46), that God should speak of the
destruction of Hell in Hosea xii : 14 (i.e., sheol,
the Greek for Hell) ?
61. How can the wicked be punished after
they are destroyed, as taught in Matt, xxi: 41?
62. Or how long can they continue to exist
after being destroyed?
63. How can the souls of the wicked burn for-
ever (see Matt xviii:8), without being consumed,
since it is the nature of fire to reduce all
combustible substances to ashes?
64. "Would it not be a great acquisition in
chemical art to find a substance that would tfcus
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 127
burn forever without being consumed, especially
if it could be used for culinary purposes in
countries where fuel is scarce?
65. Do we not make God a thousand times
worse and more fiendish than the wickedest of his
creatures when we talk of his punishing any being
for ever I
66. And do we not invest him with an
inhuman, brutal and savage character, which the
most blood-thirsty tyrant who ever drenched the
earth in human blood, would spurn to own?
67. For where in all history can the name of
a demon-hearted villain be found who would burn
an enemy even a week, not to mention an eternity?
68. Then, which is the worst to believe, such
a libel on the character of God, or to believe the
writer mistaken who assigns him such a character,
even though said writer may claim to be inspired?
69. Is not Leigh Hunt right, when he says:
"If an angel were to tell me to believe in eternal
punishment, I would not do it, for it would better
become me to believe the angel a delusion than
God monstrous, as we make him by considering
him the author of eternal punishment?"
70. How could a Being who is perfectly good
and kind-hearted, punish one of Ms creatures
without mentally, if not physically, punishing
himself and thus himself suffer eternal misery
and torment by such an act?
128 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
71. And is it not the climax of absurdity thus
to assume that God would or could punish himself
in this manner?
72. Or could a God with one spark of
sympathy, justice, or mercy, punish a being
(especially one of his own children) a year, a
month, or even a day, to say nothing of eternity!
73. Would there be any sense in punishing a
being for any other purpose than to reform him,
or make an example for others'?
74. Would it not be impossible for post
mortem punishment to serve either of these ends?
75. Could a just God punish one of his
creatures for acting out the impulses of that
nature which he himself had endowed him with,
and does not every human being do this!
76. When God (according to the Bible) saw
that the greater portion of mankind were going
to destruction, and creation proved a failure, why
did he not knock the whole thing into "pi," and
try it over again, or give it up for a bad job?
77. Is it not strange, that an Almighty and
Omnipotent God, who "wills that all men should
be saved," could not hit on some plan by which
all could be saved?
78. Did God foresee man's proclivity to dam-
nation or destruction?
79. If not, how could he be omniscient, or a
God at all?
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 129
80. But presuming that lie did foresee it, and
was unable to see this fatal tendency to ruin,
should he not have refrained from bringing him
into existence?
81. Must we not consider it a cruel act
to bring him into existence under such
circumstances?
82. Could any being possessing a spark of
feeling or sensibility, whether he be God or man,
be happy for a moment with the consciousness
that one single soul was suffering the woeful tor-
ments of Hell?
83. Could any man ever smile if he really
believed that he had a friend or relative suffering,
or doomed to suffer, unending misery in a lake of
fire?
84. Or could he avoid hating a God after
knowing that he had consigned his wife or child
to the excruciating agonies of unquenchable fire?
85. Or could a man consistently be a father
while holding such a doctrine as this?
86. For how could any man of feeling or prin-
ciple consent to bring children into existence with
the liability and even probability of the greater
portion of them being lost, as he must presume
they will be if "few are saved," as the Bible
teaches?
87. We might ask, how can God punish any
soul eternally, when it is positively declared in
130 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Ms ' ' Word, " " The Lord will not cast off forever"
(Lam. iii:31).
88. Can there be any justice or sense in
punishing all men alike in the world of woe,
when there is such a vast difference in the nature
of crime a world-wide difference tfrere is, for
example, between stealing a penny and killing a
man?
89. Indeed, are we not warranted in conclud-
ing that it would be morally impossible for a
G-od of justice to inflict infinite punishment upon
a mere finite being for any crime whatever, as it
would be impossible for eternal consequences to
grow out of any finite action either good or bad,
without overthrowing the last principle of moral
equity and common justice, and even common
sense!
90. And do we not make God egregiously
inconsistent after he has commanded us to love
our enemies, to represent him as punishing his
eternally, especially as he can (according to Phil.
iii:21) "change their vile hearts at any time?"
91. In what sense can Jesus Christ be the
"Savior of all men," as taught in Tim. iv:10,
when we are told that they are not all saved, but
the greater portion lost?
92. And what good does a belief in Hell or
future punishment do when nearly all the crime
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 131
committed in the world is perpetrated by
believers in endless misery?
93. Indeed, does not the belief in a Devil or
Hell rather furnish a license for crime, by putting
the evil day of punishment so far off that the
sinner can calculate on a hundred chances of
dodging it?
94. Can a man, with any sense of truth, be said
to be virtuous, who refrains from evil or crime
merely from fear of the Devil or a Hell?
95. If so, may not a dog be said to be
virtuous when he refrains from depredations
among poultry, observing the. threatening aspect
of his master's cane suspended over his head?
96. May not the Christian's Devil be properly
denominated the Orthodox Bull Dog or " Scare-
crow General to the Kingdom Come," seeing that
he is employed to drive or scare free agents into
Heaven?
97. Can a man truly be said to be free in any
sense when chased into Heaven as a 1 refugee from
an all-devouring enemy, or when he turns his face
Heavenward because pursued by a fire-vindictive,
ferocious Devil?
98. Being thus frightened into Paradise, can
he receive the answer, "Well done?"
99. Must we not conclude that a Christian
possesses pretty strong proclivities to damnation,
seeing it requires two omnipotent powers to save
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Mm that of the All-loving and coaxing Father
going before and saying "Come unto me all ye
ends of the earth," and be saved; and that of
the Devil-driving pressure of the " Unwearied
Adversary," who pursues him day and night,
roaring on his track like a lion?
100. Seeing, then, that notwithstanding two
omnipotent powers are set to work upon the
Christian to get him into Heaven (one in front
and the other in the rear), yet but few reach the
kingdom but few are saved (the elect only), are
we not hence to conclude that a Christian is
pretty hard to save?
101. Especially, as he has two passports to
Heaven, besides the fear of the Devil one is the
forgiveness of sins the other is the atonement
which cancels them?
102. May we not reasonably conclude, that if
God wished to punish his children, he could do
it without the aid of fire, or Devils, or Serpents?
103. As we are told, the Serpent caused the
sin of our first parents, must we not conclude his
creation was a blunder, and that Omniscience
would not have created him at all if he had known
he would have turned out to be so diabolical and
devilish, but rather have let him remain "without
form and void," especially as he must have had
but little of the raw material (of nothing) left to
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 133
make him of, after making so many worlds of
this material?
104. And if the ' ' ruin of the race ' ' was caused
(as we are told) by the Serpent presenting Mother
Eve with an apple, we ask if he should not be
pardoned, in view of the fact, that he must have
been pretty much of a gentleman and pretty well
brought up thus to offer the fruit to others, and
the lady first of all, before helping himself?
105. And as this fruit was calculated to
"make wise unto salvation," and the Serpent
"became wiser than any beast of the field" (see
Gen. iii:l) must we not hence conclude he did
ultimately help himself pretty freely to the
luscious fruit?
106. And, as we are told, GUI' primeval
parents "got their eyes open" and came "to know
good from evil" by eating the forbidden fruit
(see Gen. iii: 22), may we not ask how long they
would have had to "go it blind," had they not
stolen some of the sacred and forbidden fruit?
107. And are we not compelled to conclude
that it was a very necessary and a very righteous
act of stealing and sinning, seeing that if they
had not pilfered some of the tempting pippins,
they would never have known good from evil?
108. Are we not therefore indebted to the
"Father of lies" (his.Serpentship), for the most
important truth ever disclosed to mankind, that
134 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
of "the knowledge of good and evil," seeing that
he instigated the act which led to this knowledge?
109. If eating the forbidden fruit was calcu-
lated to make Adam and Eve "wise as the gods,"
"ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil,"
(Gen. iii : 5), would they not have been the veriest
fools to refuse to eat, especially as it was so
luscious and inviting to the taste?
110. Which told the truth, Moses ' imaginary
God or the Devil, alias the Serpent, when the
former told Adam "In the day thou eatest there-
of thou shalt surely die" (Gen. ii:14), while the
"Father of lies," or talking Serpent, declared,
"Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. iii:4), seeing
that "Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years
and begat sons and daughters'?"
111. Indeed, does not God (according to
Moses) himself most explicitly admit that his
lying Snakeship was right, and he (Omnipotence)
wrong when he announced to the trinity or family
of gods, "behold the man is become as one of us,
to know good and evil ' ' (Gen. iii : 22) ?
112. How then can the Serpent-Devil be
justly charged with deceiving our first parents,
when God himself thus admits he told them the
truth?
113. If the Serpent of Genesis is the Devil of
Christendom, the great prime central wheel of
Orthodoxy, the same which Brigham Young
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 135
declares is after sinners with a "sharp stick, " to
whip them into Heaven, and which he also
declares makes more saints than all other means
combined (the power of God not excepted), then
why was nothing said about roasting or broiling
our primitive parents in "the kingdom prepared
for the Devil and his angels," for their high-
handed infractions of the divine commands?
114. Could not the great and dire calamity
and curse which befell the human race, through
the malicious agency of a Serpent (according to
Orthodoxy), have been easily and most effectually
avoided by simply making the fence, which
enclosed the golden garden, snakeproof, so as to
keep his Long-tailed Majesty out, or else by plac-
ing the angel with the flaming sword at the gate
before the fall of man instead of after, so as to
" bruise his head" or decapitate him on his un-
warrantable attempts to enter?
115. As the Serpent after the fall-curse was
doomed to crawl ("upon thy belly shalt thou go,"
Gen. iii : 14) the question arises, how did he travel
previous to the fall. On which did he walk, his
head or his tail, or did he hop or fly?
116. Is the Christian bard right, who declares,
"God made the Devil, and the Devil made sin,
So God Almighty made a hole to put the Devil In?"
117. In order to become fully "wise unto
136 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
salvation," should we not be informed in what
language the Serpent talked to Mother Eve?
"Was it a living or dead language?
118. Must we not suppose that Mother Eve
was surprised to hear a serpent talk, or shall we
conclude she was familiar with such oddities?
119. Did the Serpent, otherwise Satan (for
proof they are both one, see Eev. xii), furnish
the first instance of walking without feet or legs,
or had the curse expired and his legs grown out
when he came from " walking to and fro in the
earth, ' ' to pay his respects to old Job, and honor
him with a visit?
120. How could it be a curse upon the Serpent
to be doomed to crawl, when serpents and lizards
that now crawl fare as well as toads that hop, or
animals that walk?
121. Or is it more of a curse for snakes or
serpents to crawl than the hundreds of other
species ol reptiles which travel in this wayf
122. If the Serpent-Devil lost all his legs by
an. act of pure kindness in handing around the
pippins instead of ill-manneredly monopolizing
them all himself, had he not some cause to
complain for being rendered legless, and may this
not be the reason he is now "the Grand
Adversary" of Moses' God?
123. What headway could the Serpent have
made eating dust ("Dust thou shalt eat all the
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 137
days of thy life ' ' Gen. iii : 14) ? Must it not have
been a pretty tedious operation with his long-
forked, spindle-shanked tongue, and did he grow
lean or fat on such nutriment, and was mud, we
may ask, a substitute for dust in wet weather?
124. "Was the Devil a free agent before the
fall or crawl? If not, how could he be the subject
of a curse?
125. Is it true that there is now more enmity
between the seed of the woman and the Serpent
(see Gen. iii: 15) than at present exists between
mankind and hyenas, rats and polecats?
126. How much enmity exists between the
Hindoo juggler and his snake which entwines
around his neck and crawls through his bosom?
127. As father Adam was doomed to eat
the ground, " cursed is the ground for thy sake,
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life" (Gren. iii : 10), we ask if man had not become
mortal, and short-lived by the curse, but all his
future progency had continued to live here for-
ever, how long would it have been before the race
would have multiplied to a sufficent extent to have
eaten up all the ground, consumed the whole earth,
and left not a molehill to stand upon?
128. Which may we suppose ate the most
ground or dust, father Adam or the Snake?
129. And why does not man continue to eat
the ground now?
138 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
130. May we not conclude that it is because
he got his eyes opened by the curse, that he now
possesses too much sense and intelligence to eat
the ground, "as the Lord said unto Moses ?"
131. As we are told that the Devil on a certain
occasion set Christ on a pinnacle of the temple,
may we be allowed to be so curious as to inquire
how the operation was performed whether he
was carried like Habakuk by the hair of his head,
and whether he made any resistance to the
operation?
132. Must we not conclude that the Devil was
a pretty able lawyer, from the skill and knowledge
which he displayed in his arguments with Christ!
133. And also well read in the Bible, as he
quoted Scripture quite flippantly?
134. And is it not rather dishonorable to the
character of an omnipotent and omnipresent
God to represent him (as Christ is represented)
as following Satan about like a haltered sheep or
an old associate?
135. Were the Evangelists, who relate so
many cases of Christ casting out devils, aware
that it was an old heathen superstition of various
countries?
136. "When the devils entered the swine on
Christ's permission as related (Luke viii:32),
which end, stem or stern, served as "the porch
of entry" (as Erin expresses the idea) f
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 139
137. And had the hogs been sold while the
devils were ensconsed in their "inner man,"
what discount should have been made to the buyer
for tare (tear) so as to come at the net weight?
138. And should such diabolical occurrence
take place now-a-days, would it not render the
pork speculation rather, a precarious business?
139. How high above this globular earth must
Jesus and the Devil have; been elevated to enable
him to see "all the kingdoms of this world,"
including those on the under side?
140. Why is it that superstition could always
find a devil anywhere, while science could find
him nowhere?
141. And why is it that in countries where
there are no priests, Devils are and ever have
been as scarce as June-bugs in December?
142. Does not this circumstance demonstrate
that the priest and the Devil are a kind of Siamese
twins, inseparably connected and each indispensa-
ble to the other?
143. And is. not the cause of this intimate
relationship disclosed by the fact, that the Devil
superstition tends to keep the wheels of priest-
craft in motion, furnishes the oil, greases the
gudgeons, and more than all, keeps the priest's
pockets replenished with "filthy lucre?"
144. Is it not a historical fact, that Strabo,
Polybius, Zimmgeus, and various other Pagan
140 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
writers, who lived long bef ore* Christ, spoke of a
Devil and a Hell as being the invention of priests
and law-makers, concocted wholly and solely for
the purpose of scaring the credulous, ignorant and
superstitious populace into obsequious subjection
to "the powers that be" i.e., priests and
potentates'?
145. And why does not the Christian Bible
revelations reveal the important fact, that its
Devil and hell-fire doctrines are those of Pagan
origin, and mere heathen superstition?
146. As then, the ancient Pagan philosophers
show, that the notion of a Devil and a Hell were
fabricated to frighten fools with, does it not thence
follow that all who now believe in this superstition
should be ranked in this class ?
147. Which is the most merciful and reason-
able being, the Christian's God which they tell
us punishes to all eternity, or the heathen Devil
of Siam, which only punishes a thousand years,
according to the Siamese?
148. And must we not consider the Persian's
God, too, as more reasonable and merciful than the
Christian's God, inasmuch as he promises to let
"Old Splitfoot," or Plug Ugly himself, ascend
from Limbo to Paradise in the course of fourteen
thousand years and his whole rebel host with him?
149. And which should we consider the best
and most reasonable being, the Bible God, who
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 141
told Abraham to murder his son Isaac, or the
Devil who told him not to do it?
150. Is it not strange that men can ascribe to
God a character which they know angels would
spurn, and they themselves would blush to own?
151. Has not the principal effect of preaching
the Hell-fire superstition been to make numerous
Hells on earth, without saving any from an
imaginary Hell hereafter, as it has made
thousands miserable with foolish fears ?
152. And has not the practice of representing
God as damning a portion of the race had the
evil effect also of causing men to damn each other,
and is thus the principal source the primary
fountain of all profane swearing with which all
Christendom is now cursed and demoralized from
one end to the other?
153. Is it not true that from "God damn
you," in the Bible and the pulpit, comes the "God
damn you" heard from a thousand lips daily in
the streets!
154. Is it not true, also, that the doctrine of
endless punishment is only calculated to operate
upon the "weak spots" of the weakest people in
other words, the weakest portion of their natures,
and thus is only a bugbear for weak-minded
grown-up children?
155. Why is not the Devil now frequently seen
and encountered as in the days of Martin Luther,
142 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
who threw Ms inkstand at Ms "devoted head,"
and who seriously relates several disputes and
combats he had with him; and many professed
to see Mm daily?
156. Is it not because his Snakish honor is
afraid of the daylight of science and infidelity?
157. And may we not reasonably calculate,
that the " march of science and infidelity" will
soon drive him and his demon host back into the
dark ramparts of superstition, for another
thousand years?
158. And may we not assume that society will
prosper as well morally without a Devil, after his
Majesty has given up the ghost, the priesthood*
only excepted?
159. And is not the Scriptural fact, that
neither Paul nor John make any mention of a
Hell, some evidence that it is not an indispensible
institution?
160. Or, if it were, should we; not be informed
which Hell sinners are put into first the fiery
Hell spoken of in Matt. v:22, or the Hell of
"outer darkness" (see Matt. viii:12), where
there is to be "wailing and gnashing of teeth?"
161. In conclusion, we would ask, if there
were a Hell, whether it is not probable that some
ingenious Yankee imp would soon construct an
underground railroad and run off or let out all
the fiery prisoners?
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 143
162. Or may we not reasonably conjecture
that the angels in Heaven, while bending over the
battlements of Paradise, and gazing into the awful
pit below, would be moved to shed tears enough
to put out the fires of Hell, and thus permit the
subjects of perdition to ascend to the regions of
heavenly bliss ?
163. And finally, as several of the Christian
sects have, since the dawn of science and civiliza-
tion, cast the Devil out of their Bibles (i.e., deny
his being recognized there) may we not reasonably
hope that the time is not far distant when all
sensible men can stand alone in the path of moral
rectitude without the aid of such old, obsolete
baby-jumpers to frighten them, into piety and
Paradise, as the Devil and Hell-fire superstitions
are?
The foregoing queries are not intended to
cast ridicule on the Christian Bible, or any of its
believers, but simply to present the absurdities of
the doctrine of future endless punishment in its
true and strongest light.
APPENDIX
THE WAR IET HEAVEN
"And there was war in Heaven: Michael and
his angels fought against the Dragon, and the
Dragon fought and his angels" (Eev. xii:7).
There is scarcely an Oriental nation whose
religion has been commemorated in history, but
that has preserved in its traditions the story of
a celestial battle or "war in Heaven," similar to
that referred to in the above text. Titan, accord-
ing to the Eoman legends, rebelled against
Jupiter, and thereby stirred up a war in Heaven.
But Jupiter prevailed and cast him and his rebel
host over the battlements of Heaven (as Michael
and his angels did the Dragon), and imprisoned
them under mountains, where they
"From 1 our sacred Hill (Holy Mountain) with fury thrown,
Deep in the dark Tartarian gulf shall ever groan."
And it was the belief of the superstitious classes
that it was the attempt of this infernal host to
rise and liberate themselves which produced all
the earthquakes and volcanoes. And the battle
of the Titans ('children of Heaven) against the
gods of Olympus in the other world, is found in
mythological traditions of ancient Greece. And
then we have in Egyptian traditions the story of
144
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 145
Typhon (the Devil) rebelling and making war
against Oshiret or Osyrus, who cut him to pieces.
The Chinese relate a battle between the inhabit-
ants of the clouds and the stars the Lamb ("the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the
world"), headed the starry host and conquered.
With the Persians, who seem to have the original
copy or edition of the story, the scene was an
astronomical one. A war broke out between the
summer God and winter God, which was simply
a contest between the seasons of summer and
winter that is, between heat and cold. The
winter God was hurled out of Paradise and
became a fallen angel. Each had a retinue of
subordinate angels, as in St. John's case. And
here we will call attention to a curious circum-
sta&#& in the choice of names which St. John
selected for the principal combatants in his
account of the celestial combat. Michael is his
good angel, and Dragon his bad or wicked angel.
Now let it be noted here, that the last syllable of
Michael is el, which is the Hebrew name for God
(the genitive, case being Eloi), "Eloi lama
sabacthani" is a prayer to God in the Hebrew
language. And On, the last syllable for Dragon,
is the Egyptian name for God. Hence, it is
simply the Hebrew God El in battle array against
the Egyptian God On. And of course St. John
would represent that the Hebrew God or angel
146 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
God, Michael, conquered. On was also a name for
God among the Babylonians. And it is a curious
circumstance, that whenever the Hebrew and the
Hebrew-descended Christians (hating as they did
the Egyptians and Babylonians, because they had
conquered and enslaved their ancestors), had
occasion to refer to or speak of the God of either
of these nations, they would employ some oditms
even devilish title as the Drag-on, Typh-on,
Dag-on, Abad-on, Appolly-on, Pyth-on. Some
of these were very honorable, lofty and
sacred titles or names for God among the
ancient Babylonians and Egyptians. But the
Jews and Christians have dragged down
their Gods and converted them into Devils;
or rather, they have stolen their sacred title
for God, and rendered it odious by applying
it to the Devil; as Typh-on, Dag-on, The Drag-on,
etc. While, on the other hand, they defied some
of their own angels and ancient worthies by
attaching to their names, either at the commence-
ment or termination, the Hebrew title for God-eZ,
as Gabri-el, Isra-el, El-isha, El-ijah, etc. They
were thus God-ified or deified. In view of these
facts, it is not to be wondered at that St. John
should speak of Babylon (Babyl-on) as being "the
mother of harlots and abomination" (Eev. xvi : 5),
and rank Egypt with Sodom (Sod-om, on and om
being the same) and Gomorah; and the Bible
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 147
writers should use the name of both Egypt and
Babylon as synonymous for everything hateful,
disdainful, odious, or wicked. It was but the
natural, practical or wicked out-working of their
pent-up feelings of revenge. And thus the great
enigma of the " Mystery of Babylon" is solved.
Reader, please reflect upon these things.
ANGELS FALLING AND BECOMING THEEBBY CONVERTED
INTO DEVILS AND DEAGONS
The belief has obtained wide acceptance in the
Christian world, that the Devil alias the Dragon,
is "a fallen angel." And St. John speaks of the
Dragon falling (from his angelship) and being
cast into the bottomless pit (see Eev. xx : 1). And
how did old Captain Dragon (Captain of the
infernal goats) fall, let us enquire? Why, he
simply fell into the hands of Christendom who
assumed the license to metamorphose him from a
God to a Devil. They Drag-ed him from the
throne of God in the Babylonian and Egyptian
heavens, armed with horns, hoofs, and tail, and
converted him into a Devil a fallen angel,
Dragon, and cast him into the "bottomless pit,"
in retaliation for the bondage endured at
the hands of these nations in times past. And as
this Dragon came down from Heaven, according
to the Mystic and Apocalyptic St. John, his tail
becoming entangled among the starry worlds, tore
148 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
one-third of them loose from their orbits and
precipitated them down upon our little planet.
("We suggest that he must have been nearly all
tail, or rather that the story is all a tale). No
wonder that the " kingdom of Heaven suffered
violence" (see Eev.). However, astronomically
speaking, it is literally true; for according
to Burritt's " Geography o the Heavens," the
astronomical Dragon spreads over a large portion
of the canopy, embracing at least five large con-
stellations. And as to his falling, it is even so,
for the Dragon (now the sign for October) under
the name of Scorpio, has fallen. Being once away
up in the harvest month (August) by the proces-
sion of the equinoxes, he fell lower and lower, until
he sunk clear below the southern horizon into the
"bottomless pit," or pit of darkness. The con-
ception of "fallen angels" is neither new
nor orignal to the Christian Bible. The Hindoo
Bible, at least three thousand years old
(the Vedas), gives in its third chapter a somewhat
detailed account of the fall of angels, while the
fourth chapter describes their mode of punish-
ment, which consisted in being hurled down from
their lofty positions in Paradise (because they
rebelled against Heaven (i.e., "the trinity in
unity," Brahma, Vishnu and Diva) and were
precipitated into Ondera, ("the deep, dark pit"),
there to remain until "the Intercessor," called,
THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN 149
also, "The Lamb of God," the second person in
the Trinity, would plead for them and have them
delivered; having first, however, to serve out their
"thousand years' probation," which reminds us
of St. John's Dragon being "bound for a thousand
years" (see Rev. xii:2). The Persian tradition
of fallen angels found in their Bible (the Zend-
Avesta), is somewhat similar excepting that out
of thirty different orders of angels, they had but
one to fall, who thereby became a "Peris" a
Devil.
INDEX
Adam chased out of the garden, but no fiery pit punishment
named, 32.
After-death penalty, 6.
After-death primitive doctrines of the New Testament, 94.
After-death punishment invented by designing priests, 113.
After-death punishment, Pious Christians unable to explain
doctrine of, 16.
After-death punishment source of painful unhappiness to
millions of the human race, 19.
After-death punitive terms of New Testament, of Oriental
origin, 97.
After-life punishment omitted from Jewish creed, 42.
Ancient religions and mythologies, Doctrines taught in, 54.
Ancient traditions respecting Hell, 87.
Ancients believed in two Gods; one good and the other
evil, 63.
Assyrians and Persians honored two Gods; one good, the
other bad, 63.
Battle of Titans against gods of Olympus, 144.
Belief in a "Lake of Fire and Brimstone," Origin of, 82.
Belief in Devil obsession, 20.
Belief ^that Hell was a place of "utter darkness" and Very
cold, 88.
Bishop Warburton, English Church historian, 40.
Blasphemous caricatures upon a just God, 24.
Bottomless Pit the supposed abode of demons and devils, 81.
Brahmins affirm that the Hell in the Vedas was only a
bug-bear, 111.
Brass serpent made by Moses a glaring infraction of the
first commandment, 52.
Cain not threatened with burning or frying for killing his
brother, 32.
Capers and diabolical operations of devils ancl evil genii, 82.
Chaldean and Phoenician title for God, 46,
151
152 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Christ a "light to lighten the Gentiles," 49.
Christ, "casting out devils" nine times, has familiar chat
with some of them, 93.
Christ tells that Moses lifted up the Serpent as a type of
him (Christ), 51.
Christ, "The God of Peace," 50.
Christian clergyman's mental explosion, 13.
Christian divine affirms the truth of the Statement that the
Christian Hell is taken from Pagan tradition, 103.
Christian "plan of salvation" a kind of lottery system, 125.
Christian Pollock takes lessons in the Pagan school of
infernal ideas, 101.
Christian theory, The, allows the Evil One the lion's share
of power or empire, 70.
Christian belief that the Devil was a "fallen angel," 147.
Christian's Devil, whence imported or borrowed, 94.
Cicero ranks future punishment with silly fables, 111.
Clarke, Dr. Adam, 30.
Cross, The, a sacred emblem in nearly all religions, 75.
Cupai, the Peruvian bad God, 64.
Daniel speaks of a great contest between a ram and a
goat, 74.
Dawning of era of the Gospel Dispensation, 34.
Demon's home and a Devil's Hell, Imaginary picture of,
84.
Devil an able lawyer, from the skill and knowledge dis-
played in arguments with Christ, 138.
Devil at first considered a God, 45.
Devil could not influence men unless bodily present, 92.
Devil, in the island of Teneriffe, is known as Guyotta, 64.
Devil is from above, and not from below, 72.
Devil needed to scare people on the right track, 28.
Devil not thought of in original Creation, 27.
Devil obsession, Belief in, 20.
Devils in the Old Testament mean "Men and women as
traducers," 41.
Distinction between moral and immoral actions, 60.
Distinction (first) of good and evil did not apply to men's
moral action, 61.
Dives and Lazarus, 67,
INDEX 153
Divine punishment, for disobedience of divine laws, 112.
Doctrine of after-death penalty has caused slaughter of mil-
lions of human race, 20.
Doctrine of after-death punishment fastens disgraceful libel
upon man, 20.
Doctrine of a personal evil agent not a tenet of Christianity,
63.
Doctrine of endless damnation, 6.
Doctrine of endless punishment, Effects of the, 19.
Doctrine of endless torment preached in the Pagan world
long before the Christian era, 113.
Doctrine of future endless punishment the work of design-
ing priests, 107.
Doctrine of future punishment invented by Pagan priests,
104.
Doctrine of future punishment was not a part of ancient
Jewish creed, 42.
Dragon another title for the Devil, 47.
Dragon, The, has power to hurt the five vegetable pro-
ducing months, 72.
"Doomed, damned souls," Fate of the, 12.
Early Jews did not teach doctrines of a Devil and a Hell,
36.
Edward, Eev. J., 22.
'Effects of the doctrine of endless punishment, 19.
Egyptian Devil a huge monster, with horns, hoofs and a
formidable tail, 94.
Egyptian name for God, 47.
Egyptian veneration for serpents, 53.
Elect (the) in heaven not sorry for damned in hell, 22.
Endless damnation, Doctrine of, 6.
Endless hell not taught in Old Testament, 29.
"Everlasting fire," a doctrine scouted by the Christian
Church, 44.
Evil and immoral actions ascribed to the "Evil God, the
master mischief-maker," 91.
Evil One sponsor of the evil actions of Nature, 62.
Evil God, The, did not lose his omnipotent power, 69.
Explanation of Hell, Hades, Tartarus, Gehenna and Tophet,
115,
154 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Fate of the "doomed, damned souls," 12.
Father, title applied to both God and the Devil, 48.
"Fear hath Torment," 11.
Ferryman Charon exacts a fee for conveying the 'dead across
the river Styx, 104.
First conception of a Devil, 28.
First transgression of man, 31.
Fiery underground prison, The wicked consigned to it for
a period proportionate to their crimes, 106.
Geographical position of the Bottomless Pit, 80.
God destroyed aoid reproduced, In Hindoo theology, 61.
God and the Devil originally twin-brothers, 45.
God the author of evil, 29.
God, not the Devil, author of evil, 42.
God the "father of lies," 44.
God-like healing power ascribed to Moses' Serpent, 52.
Gospel plan of salvation copied from ancient Pagan myth-
ology, 97.
Great blunder to omit Devil's creation at the beginning, 28.
Great Dragon, The, hurled headlong from the battlements
of Heaven, 82.
Great Emperor of the smoky regions once considered a God,
68.
Growth of ideas regarding evil spirits, Gradual, 60.
Hades or Hell had different origin than the Bottomless
Pit, 80.
Hades traced to the sun for its origin, 79.
Hall, Kev. Robert, 22.
Hebrews had no conception of a place of endless torment,
41. i Bi
Hell among the ancient Celts was called Ilfin a cold clim-
ate, 88.
Hell infested with venomous reptiles, ferocious beasts and
wicked spirits, 88.
Hell first instituted in the skies, 78.
Hell o'f darkness, A, and a Hell of light, 97.
Hell-scaring system of frightening people into piety, 34.
Hell useless to sages, but necessary to the blind and brutal
populace, 109.
Higgins' remarks concerning the location of Hell, 87.
INDEX 155
Hindoo Bible account of the fall of the angels, 148.
Hindoo Bible teaches doctrine of decoying souls into perdi-
tion, 93.
Hindoos, Burmese and Chinese believed that devils entered
into the minds of men, 92.
How can God hate evil and allow the Devil to exist? 119.
How cm Jesus Christ be the "Savior of all men?" 130.
How can the wicked be punished after they are destroyed?
126.
Infernus, used to designate the fiery world "under or be-
low the earth," 115.
Inhabitants of the "Lake of Fire and Brimstone," 84.
Injustice of allowing the Devil to transform himself into
an "angel of light," 120.
Intelligent classes of society never believed the doctrine of
endless punishment, 113.
Isaiah dubs the Devil as "Lucifer, Son of the UTorning,"
49.
Jehovah pours threats, curses and wrathful imprecations
upon the people, 33.
Jehovah's direful vengeance, 12.
Jewish followers of Christ adopted; the idea of a Devil,
and gave him the title "Beelzebub, the Devil of Syria,"
96.
Jewish Scriptures, No allusion to a Devil in the, 29.
Jews and Christians converted their Gods into Devils, 146.
Jews believed evil spirits infested minds of men, 36.
Jews knew no doctrine of endless punishment until after
their exile to Babylon, 94.
Job states that the Lord creates evil as well as good, 43.
Jupiter casts rebels over battlements of Heaven, 144.
Latona flies into the desert to save her child from Python,
76.
"Lake of Fire and Brimstone," description of, 83.
Limited Hell and an endless Hell, 97.
Line of separation between virtue and vice, 60.
Lucifer, executor of God's wrath, 12.
Manicheans believed Hell to be a blissful abode of the right-
eous, 90.
Man's evil thoughts, Origin of the notion, of, 90.
THE BIOGRAPiT OF SATAN
Man's moral perceptions grow and expand, 91.
Mayer, Prof., of Dutch Reformed Church, 40.
Milman, Mr., Christian Church historian, 40.
Mithra the Mediator, 66.
Model for the Christian Devil borrowed from the Babylon-
ians, 95.
Mosaic Dispensation 'dealt in temporal rewards and punish-
ments, 40.
Moses makes a serpent of brass designed to represent Je-
hovah, 51.
Moses' serpent intended as an emblem of Deity, 52.
Names and titles applied to the Devil were also applied by
the Jews to God, 29.
Natural evil preceded the recognition of moral evil, 70,
Noah a preacher of righeousness, not of endless damna-
tion, 33.
Origin of evil and the Devil, 25.
Origin of the term for Episcopacy in Methodists and
other churches, 105.
Origin of "the worm that never dies," 86.
Original conception of a Devil or evil genius, 62.
Original meaning of the word Hell, 37.
Pacha-Carnac, the Peruvian good God, 64.
Pagan-derived myths and mysteries, 78.
Pagan Origin of Partialists' Doctrines, 59.
Pagan origin of the Scripture myths appertaining to the
Devil, 98.
Paley, Dr., defender of the Christian faith, 40.
Peculiar circumstances attending mode of interring the dead,
by the Egyptian priests, 104.
Pious Christians unable to explain origin of doctrine of
after-death punishment, 16.
Plutarch, Grecian philosopher and historian, 62.
Plutarch says the Egyptians painted their serpents or
'dragons red, 77.
Postmortem penalty converts Christians into cowards, 21.
Post-mortem punishment cause of war of the Crusades, 21.
Post-mortem punishment invests Deity with dishonorable
character, 20.
Post-mortem punishment cause of Spanish Inquisition, 21.
INDEX 157
Priesthood did not have sufficient power to invent a Hell
to punish delinquent pew-renters, 91.
Prime evil agent not known in the early ages, 35.
Prince of Darkness, The, permitted to carry off nearly all
the souls God created for his own glory, 70.
Proof that early Jews had no conception of the existence
of a Devil, 29.
Prophet Jeremiah says that God lied, 43.
Questions for believers in post-mortem punishment, 117.
Eesemblance in the after-death punishment of ancient na-
tions and the Christian Bible, 102.
Eesistless fascinating powers of the serpent, 58.
Eev. Pitrat's "Pagan Origin of Papalists' Doctrines," 112.
Eiver Styx "the strait and narrow way" to paradise be-
yond the grave, 106.
Satan not invested with the odious character now repre-
sented by Christians, 67.
Satan restricted to phenomena of the external world, 90.
Satan the founder of wisdom, 48.
Satan, "The Prince of Darkness," 50.
Scaring sinners into saints, 15.
Serapis, name of an Egyptian God, 56.
Seraphim, an order of angels, in Hebrew theocracy, 56.
Serpent a popular emblem among the Jews for God, 51.
Serpent is not a Devil, 30.
Serpent of Genesis the Devil of Christendom, 134.
Serpent ~ supposed by Oriental nations to possess wonder-
ful sanative powers, 55.
Serpent the emblem of eternity and immortality, 54.
Society not improved morally by introducing the Devil into
the world, 34.
Soul-roasting doctrine of ancient Pagans copied into the
Christian Scriptures, 110.
St. John and the great Eed Dragon, 47.
Strabo declares that Plato, Grecian priest, and the Brahmins
invented fables concerning- future punishments, 108.
Superstitious doctrines, 7.
Tail of the Egyptian Devil served as a rudder as he
"flew his giddy rounds," 95.
158 THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN
Ta'rtarus, an imaginary abyss supposed to be located m
Tartary, 115.
Tartarus, beyond the river Acheron, the place of consign-
ment for the wicked, 106.
Temples and churches erected for the accommodation of the
priesthood, 105.
Thermuthis, Moses' foster-mother, named for a serpent, 56.
Tissiphon, guardian of the gates of Cerebus, 38.
Tissiphon the frightful watched the gate to the Pagan Hell
day and night, 99.
Titles common to Christ and the Devil, 49.
Tophet, a drum beater during the sacrifice of children, 116.
Tradition respecting the *,Bottomless Pit," Origin of, 80.
Typho, the malignant, twin-brother of Osyrus, 61.
Typhon (Devil) making war against Osyrus, 145.
Various notions among the ancients respecting the location
of Hell, 87.
War between the summer God and the winter God, 145.
War in Heaven, 144.
Was the Devil a Mongolian, African or Caucasian? 117.
Watson, Bishop, defender of the Christian faith against
Paine's Age of Reason, 41.
What kind of materials was the Devil composed of or cre-
ated? 117.
What modus operandi was employed to make the Devil di-
vulge his existence? 120.
What right or title has His Infernal Majesty to hold his
fiery pit? 121.
Where did the Christian world obtain their Devil? 95.
Where was the Devil when the whole world v/as drowned
for its wickedness, Noah and family only excepted? 33.
WTio created the Devil, and what is now his age? 117.
Wicked Devil not taught in the .Old Testament, 29.
"Winter God hurled out of Paradise, 145.
Yama, Judge of "quick and dead," delivers wicked souls
to evil spirits, 106.
The biography of
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
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SWIFT AH.
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