"Oh! Mr. Cathcart.... Well, I must say that his theory fits in with
what Father Mahon says. But, you know, theology doesn't say that this
or that particular thing is the devil, or has actually happened in any
given instance--only that, if it really does happen, it is the devil.
Well, this is Mr. Cathcart's idea. It's a long story: you mustn't
mind.
"First, he believes in the devil in quite an extraordinary way.... Oh!
yes, I know we do too; but it's so very real indeed with him. He
believes that the air is simply thick with them, all doing their very
utmost to get hold of human beings. Yes, I suppose we do believe that
too; but I expect that since there are such a quantity of things--like
bad dreams--that we used to think were the devil, and now only turn
out to be indigestion, that we're rather too skeptical. Well, Mr.
Cathcart believes both in indigestion, so to speak, _and_ the devil.
He believes that those evil spirits are at us all the time, trying to
get in at any crack they can find--that in one person they produce
lunacy--I must say it seems to me rather odd the way in which lunatics
so very often become horribly blasphemous and things like that--and in
another just shattered nerves, and so on.
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