PREFACE.

Three friars, according to legend, once hid themselves near the orgies of a Witch Sabbath A legendary midnight meeting of those thought to practice witchcraft to worship the Devil so that they might count the devils. However, the leader of these devils discovered the friars and said, "Reverend brothers, our army is so vast that if all the rocks and glaciers of the Alps were divided equally among us, not one of us would have even a pound's weight." This encounter took place in just a single Alpine valley.

Anyone who has caught even a glimpse of the world's Walpurgis Night A traditional German festival on the night of April 30, associated with witches and spirits; used here metaphorically for the history of demonology, as revealed through mythology and folklore, must agree that this polite devil was not exaggerating. Any attempt to categorize the evil spirits that have haunted humanity would be like trying to count the shadows cast upon the earth by the rising sun. This conviction has grown stronger for me at every step of my research into this subject.

In 1859, I contributed a pamphlet titled "The Natural History of the Devil" to a series called the American Tracts for the Times. The greatest value of that essay was likely for my own development, as its preparation revealed to me how deeply interesting and important this chosen subject truly was. Further research in this same direction, conducted after I moved to Europe, showed me how limited my understanding had been regarding the vast scope of the field I had entered. In 1872, while I was preparing a series of lectures for the Royal The author is likely referring to the Royal Institution in London