“Certain days,” adds Howitt, “are laid down in the calendar of the Church as most favorable for the practice of exorcism; and, if the devils are difficult to drive, a fume of sulphur, assafœtida, bear’s gall, and rue is recommended, which, it was presumed, would outstench even devils.” This is the Church, and this the priesthood, which, in the nineteenth century, pays 5,000 priests to teach the people of the United States the infidelity of science and the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome! We have already noticed the confession of an eminent prelate that the elimination of Satan from theology would be fatal to the perpetuity of the Church. But this is only partially true. The Prince of Sin would be gone, but sin itself would survive. If the Devil were annihilated, the _Articles of Faith_ and the _Bible_ would remain. In short there would still be a pretended divine revelation, and the necessity for self-assumed inspired interpreters. We must, therefore, consider the authenticity of the _Bible_ itself. We must study its pages, and see if they, indeed, contain the commands of the Deity, or but a compendium of ancient traditions and hoary myths. We must try to interpret them for ourselves--if possible. As to its pretended interpreters, the only possible assimilation we can find for them in the _Bible_ is to compare them with the man described by the wise King Solomon in his _Proverbs_, with the perpetrator of these “six things ... yea _seven_ ... which doth the Lord hate,” and which are an abomination unto Him, to wit: “A _proud_ look, a _lying_ tongue, and hands that shed _innocent blood_; an heart _that deviseth wicked imaginations_, feet that be swift in running to mischief; a _false witness_ that speaketh lies, and _he that soweth discord among brethren_” (_Proverbs_ vi. 16, 17, 18, 19). Of which of these accusations are the long line of men who have left the imprint of their feet in the Vatican guiltless? “When the demons,” says Augustine, “_insinuate_ themselves in the creatures, they begin by conforming themselves _to the will of every one_.... In order to attract men, they begin by seducing them, by simulating obedience.... _How could one know, had he not been taught by the demons themselves_, what they like or what they hate; _the name which attracts, or that which forces them into obedience_; all this art, in short, of _magic_, the whole science of the magicians?”[93]