Magic Library

the Shastras and in the Zend-Avesta. The same is the case, as we saw in Vol. IV, Div. III, in the Koran, the origin of which belongs to the more recent era, etc.

How entirely different this is in the holy book of Christians, in — the New Testament, in which nothing of such things appears anywhere! —

Let us be understood correctly — the devil, evil spirits, the possessed, etc., are indeed mentioned in a hundred places therein, and in such a way that one clearly sees that the authors themselves believed in them, and even sorcery or magic is mentioned historically a few times therein.

Regarding the first point, namely the belief in the devil and demons, it was completely impossible at that time for Christianity to have outright denied the belief in the power and influence of the evil principle and the spiritual forces subordinate to it. It would have fought against the common sense not only of the Jews, but of all people and all nations of its time, encountered general contradiction, and — harmed its own cause. Moreover, to tell the truth, the Evangelists and Apostles themselves believed in the real existence of such a spirit realm, and to speak sincerely — do we, after two thousand years, have the right not to believe in it, as long as we still believe in spirits everywhere? The great merit of the New Testament is that it took from the belief in the devil and demons, in relation to the physical and spiritual world, its