Wilhelm Hauff, the author of this book, ranks honourably among the members of the Romantic School in Germany. As the work of a man of only twenty-two years, just out of the university, the book is a credit to its author. It must be admitted, however, that it was not altogether original with him. The idea was taken from E. Th. A. Hoffmann,--Devil-Hoffmann, as he was called by his contemporaries,--who in his short-story “Der Teufel in Berlin” also has the devil travel incognito in Germany; and the title was borrowed from Jean Paul Richter, who also claimed to edit _Selections from the Devil’s Papers_ (_Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren, 1789_). There were others, too, who claimed to have been honoured by his Satanic Majesty to edit his “journal.” J. R. Beard, a Unitarian minister, published in 1872 an _Autobiography of Satan_. Another autobiography of Satan is said to have been found among the posthumous works of Leonid Andréev, author of that original diabolical work _Anathema, a tragedy_ (Engl. tr. 1910). This book has just appeared in English under the title _Satan’s Diary_. Frédéric Soulié’s _Les Mémoires du Diable_ (1837/8) consist of memoirs not of the devil himself, but of other people, which the Count de Luizzi, the human partner to the diabolical pact, is very anxious to know. Hauff’s book consists of a series of papers, which are but loosely connected. In certain passages we hear nothing of the autobiographer. The Suavian writer apparently could digest the Diabolical only in homeopathic doses. His Satan, moreover, is a very youthful and quite harmless devil. He is nothing but a personified echo of the author’s student-days. The book by Hauff is perhaps the most popular personification of the devil in German literature. The passage presented here shows the phantastic element of the book at its best. The short introductory synopsis will give an idea of its satirical aspect. The humorous aspect has pretty nearly been lost in translation. Professor Brander Matthews has aptly said: “The German humour is like the simple Italian wines--it will not stand export.” Of all the peoples, the Germans seem to have had the most kindly feelings towards the devil. This is because they knew him better. To judge from the many bridges and cathedrals, which the demon, according to legends, has built in Germany, he must have been a frequent visitor to that country. In Frankfort, where with his own hands our author received the memoirs from the autobiographer, there is a gilded cock above the bridge in memory of the bargain the bridge-builder once made with Satan to give him the first living thing that should cross the river. The day the bridge was finished, a cock fluttered from a woman’s market-basket and ran over the bridge. A claw-like hand reached down and claimed the prize.