n, and
only appeared upon earth in cases of the greatest emergency, or when
compelled to do so by conjuration. To the class of lesser devils
belonged the bad angel which, together with a good one, was supposed to
be assigned to every person at birth, to follow him through life--the
one to tempt, the other to guard from temptation;[1] so that a struggle
similar to that recorded between Michael and Satan for the body of Moses
was raging for the soul of every existing human being. This was not a
mere theory, but a vital active belief, as the beautiful well-known
lines at the commencement of the eighth canto of the second book of "The
Faerie Queene," and the use made of these opposing spirits in Marlowe's
"Dr. Faustus," and in "The Virgin Martyr," by Massinger and Dekker,
conclusively show.

[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 506.]

37. Another classification, which seems to retain a reminiscence of the
origin of devils from pagan deities, is effected by reference to the
localities supposed to be inhabited by the different classes of evil
spirits. According to this arrangement we get six classes:--

(1.) Devils of the fire, who wander in the region near the moon.

(2.) Devils of the air, who hover round the earth.

(3.) Devils of the earth; to whom the fairies are allied.

(4.) Devils of the water.

(5.) Submundane devils.[1]

(6.) Lucifugi.

These devils' power and desire to injure mankind appear to have
increased with the proximity of their location to the earth's centre;
but this classification had nothing like the hold upon the popular mind
that the former grouping had, and may consequently be dismissed with
this mention.

[Footnote 1: Cf. I Hen. VI. V. iii. 10; 2 Hen. VI. I. ii. 77;
Coriolanus, IV. v. 97.]

38. The greater devils, or the most important of them, had
distinguishing names--strange, uncouth names; some of them telling of a
heathenish origin; others inexplicable and almost unpronounceable--as
Ashtaroth, Bael, Belial, Zephar, Cerberus, Phoenix, Balam (why he?), and
Haagenti, Leraie, Marchosias, Gusoin, Glasya Labolas. Scot enumerates
seventy-nine, the above amongst them, and he does not by any means
exhaust the number. As each arch-devil had twenty, thirty, or forty
legions of inferior spirits under his command, and a legion was composed
of six hundred and sixty-six devils, it is not surprising that the
latter did not obtain distinguishing names until they made their
appearance upon earth, when they freque