Why, the prompt, apt, and natural answer will be, he is a Devil. NORTH. And pray what is a Devil? TALBOYS. Iago. NORTH. Don't reason in a circle, sir. TALBOYS. I'd rather reason in a circle, sir, than not reason at all. I like reasoning in a circle--it is pleasant pastime in a cold, raw morning--far preferable to ascending Cruachan; for you are never far from home, and when tired can leap out at your own pleasure, and take some reasoning in a straight line. NORTH. You are always so pleasant, Talboys, circular or ziz-zag. Whence is the malice in the heart of a Devil? TALBOYS. I want data, sir. Milton has given some historical elucidation of it; but the People reason less, and are no philosophers. NORTH. Hate in a devil is like Love in an Angel--uncaused, or self-causing; it is his natural function--his Essence, his Being. Herein the seraph is a seraph--the fiend is a fiend. TALBOYS. "Evil! be Thou my good! By Thee at least Divided Empire with Heaven's King I hold, By Thee, and more perhaps than half will reign." Reason--Motive--Cause. NORTH. Prospero calls Caliban a devil--a born Devil. TALBOYS. Also, a demi-Devil--as Othello calls Iago. NORTH. The Philosopher knows--_in humanity_--of no born devil. He follows, or tries to follow, the causes which have turned the imperfect nature into the worst. The popular sense takes things as it finds them, and acknowledges "born devils," Iago being one, and "of the prime." The _totality_ of monster in the moral world seems to that unphilosophical, sincere, and much-to-the-purpose intuition, expressed under the image of _a nativity_. The popular sense recognises a temper of man which elects evil for evil's sake--which inflicts pain, because it likes to see pain suffered--which destroys, because it revels in misery. TALBOYS. Coleridge calls Iago's "a motiveless malignity." He hated Othello for not promoting him, but Cassio. That seems to me the real, tangible motive--a haunting, goading, fretting preference--an affront--an insult--a curbing of power--wounding him where alone he is sensitive--in self-esteem and pride. See his contempt for Cassio as a book-warrior--and "for a fair life"--simply like our notion of a "milksop." Why Othello, who so prizes him for his honesty as to call him ever "honest Iago," keeps him down, I have not a guess-- NORTH. Haven't you? And pray what right have you to interfere with the practice of promotion in the army of the Venetian State? TALBOYS. I cannot approve of this particular instance--it looks like favouritism. Othello fancied Cassio--Cassio was the genteeler young fellow of the two--the better-born--Iago had risen from the ranks--and was a stout soldier-- NORTH. You don't take your character of Cassio, from Iago? TALBOYS.