DEW

Devil is identical with that of the Evil Principle in the Gnostic and Manic he an philosophy, and in the oriental system of religion generally; excepting, indeed, that the scriptures always maintain the inferiority of the evil to the good; but it may also be reasonably inferred that it was held by the Jews anterior to their captivity in Babylon, and the contact into which they then came with the Magian superstitions. Although the serpent who tempted Eve in Paradise is not expre ly said to be this Satan or Devil, nor is he at all mentioned by name by Moses, yet the character of the Evil Principle is there vividly delineated; he is also characteristically mentioned in the Psalms, the Book of Job, and the Chronicles. DEVISE, or [s. 345]