And it is here that tradition has laid the tragedy of the mighty
perversion of the imagination of man; the monstrous birth and death
of abominable things. I say such things in no mood of spiritual pride;
such things are hideous not because they are distant but because
they are near to us; in all our brains, certainly in mine,
were buried things as bad as any buried under that bitter sea,
and if He did not come to do battle with them, even in the darkness
of the brain of man, I know not why He came. Certainly it
was not only to talk about flowers or to talk about Socialism.
The more truly we can see life as a fairy-tale, the more clearly the tale
resolves itself into war with the Dragon who is wasting fairyland.
I will not enter on the theology behind the symbol; but I
am sure it was of this that all the symbols were symbolic.
I remember distinguished men among the liberal theologians,
who found it more difficult to believe in one devil than in many.
They admitted in the New Testament an attestation to evil spirits,
but not to a general enemy of mankind. As some are said
to want the drama of Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark,
they would have the drama of Hell without the Prince of Darkness.
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