These are the same with Larvæ, which the Antients imagined to wander round the World, to frighten good People, and plague the bad. All these were imagin’d to be the Ghosts of the Dead: They pray’d to the Good for Protection, and sacrificed to the Evil to pacify their Rage: For this reason they had their Lemuria or Lemuralia at Rome, where on the 9th of May, a Feast was solemnized in honour of the Lemures, and to pacify the Manes of the Dead, especially those who died without Burial, to prevent their giving disturbance to the Living.
The first Men that were deified, or made Gods, are supposed to be the Heads of Families, Founders of Empires, and Benefactors of Provinces——who, after their decease, were highly reverenced. Noah and his Sons seem to be the first and chief animated Deities of the Pagans, under the Names of Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto; hence Demons, another Name given to Spirits, which were supposed to appear to Mortals, with intention to do them Good or Hurt.
The first Notion of Demons, ’tis said, sprung from Chaldea, thence it spread among the Persians, Egyptians.... Pythagoras and Thales were the first that introduced Demons into Greece, where Plato fell in with the Notion, which he explains thus, viz.
... By Demons, he understood Spirits inferior to Gods, and yet superior to Men, which inhabiting the middle Region of the Air, kept up the Communication between the Gods and Men, carrying up the Prayers and Offerings of Men to the Gods, and bringing down the Will of the Gods to Men. He allow’d of none but good ones, tho’ his Disciples (finding themselves unable to account for the Origin of Evil) adopted another kind of Demons, who were Enemies to Man[[373]].
[373]. Gale’s Court of the Gentiles, part I. chap. viii.
The Apocryphal Book of Enoch abounds with the Names of Angels and Devils; but that Book is not of any great Antiquity, tho’ the Prophecy be: it does not appear to have been known by the antient Jews. St. Jude is the first that cited it. The Authority which this spurious Book of Enoch has received from some of the Antients, is the reason of our meeting with several of its Opinions, scatter’d in their Writings. Ibid.
LACTANTIUS, one of the most eloquent Authors of his time, (and therefore called the Christian Cicero) was of Opinion there were two sorts of Demons, celestial and terrestrial[[374]]: The celestial are the fallen Angels, who having been seduced by the Prince of Devils, engaged themselves in impure Amours; the terrestrial are they who issued from the former, as Children from their Parents: These last, who are neither Men nor Angels, but a Medium between the two Natures; were not plunged into Hell, neither were their Fathers admitted into Heaven: The terrestrial Angels are impure Spirits, and Authors of all the Evils committed on Earth[[375]].
[374]. Chambers’s Cyclopæd. Calmet’s Hist. Dict. vol. i. p. 434.
[375]. Lactantius, lib. ii. cap. 14. Lugd. Bat. 1652.
Many of the Antients have allotted to every Man an Evil Angel, who is continually laying Snares for him, and inclining him to Evil, as his Good Angel does to what is Good. The Jews have still the same Sentiments at this day. Another Father thinks, that every Vice has its Evil Angel, presiding over it; as the Demon of Avarice, the Demon of Pride, of Uncleanness[[376]]....