_ among the household gods and
at weddings and joyous times, and especially on the anniversary of the
birthday when genius and man began their united career, worship was paid
with song and dance to the divine image, adorned with garlands, and
propitiated with incense and libations of wine. The demon or genius was,
as it were, the man's companion soul, a second spiritual Ego. The
Egyptian astrologer warned Antonius to keep far from the young Octavius,
'For thy demon,' said he, 'is in fear of his.'"

The allusion by Lady Macbeth (i. 5), in the following passage, is to the
spirits of Revenge:

"Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty!"

In Nash's "Pierce Pennilesse" we find a description of these spirits and
of their office. "The second kind of devils which he most employeth are
those northern _Martii_, called the _Spirits of Revenge_, and the
authors of massacres and seed-men of mischief; for they have commission
to incense men to rapine, sacrilege, theft, murder, wrath, fury, and all
manner of cruelties; and they command certain of the southern spirits to
wait upon them, as also great Arioch, that is termed the Spirit of
Revenge." In another passage we are further told how "the spirits of the
aire will mixe themselves with thunder and lightning, and so infect the
clime where they raise any tempest, that suddenly great mortalitie shall
ensue of the inhabitants." "Aerial spirits or devils," according to
Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," "are such as keep quarter most part in
the aire, cause many tempests, thunder and lightnings, tear oakes, fire
steeples, houses, strike men and beasts," etc. Thus, in "King John"
(iii. 2), the Bastard remarks:

"Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot;
Some airy devil hovers in the sky,
And pours down mischief."

It was anciently supposed that all mines of gold, etc., were guarded by
evil spirits. Thus Falstaff, in "2 Henry IV." (iv. 3), speaks of
learning as "a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil." This superstition
still prevails, and has been made the subject of many a legend. Thus, it
is believed by the peasantry living near Largo-Law, Scotland, that a
rich mine of gold is concealed in the mountain. "A spectre once appeared
there, supposed to be the guardian of the mine, who, being accosted by a
neighboring shepherd, promised to tell hi