In the Persian
theology regarding the struggle of the great powers of good and
evil this idea was developed to its highest point. From these and
other ancient sources the Jews naturally received this addition
to their earlier view: the Mocker of the Garden of Eden became
Satan, with legions of evil angels at his command; and the theory
of diabolic causes of mental disease took a firm place in our
sacred books. Such cases in the Old Testament as the evil spirit
in Saul, which we now see to have been simply melancholy--and,
in the New Testament, the various accounts of the casting out of
devils, through which is refracted the beautiful and simple story
of that power by which Jesus of Nazareth soothed perturbed minds
by his presence or quelled outbursts of madness by his words,
give examples of this. In Greece, too, an idea akin to this found
lodgment both in the popular belief and in the philosophy of
Plato and Socrates; and though, as we have seen, the great
leaders in medical science had taught with more or less
distinctness that insanity is the result of physical disease,
there was a strong popular tendency to attribute the more
troublesome cases of it to hostile spiritual influence.
Pages:
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907