The Three Devils: Luther's, Milton's, and Goethe's

The Luther, Milton, and Goethe: these are very strange names to bring together. It strikes us, however, that the effect may not be uninteresting if we connect the names of those three great men, as having each represented to us the Principle of Evil, and each represented him in a different way. Each of the three has left on record his conception of a great accursed being, incessantly working in human affairs, and whose function it is to produce evil. There is nothing more striking about Luther than the amazing sincerity of his belief in the existence of such an evil being, the great general enemy of mankind, and whose specific object, in Luther's time, it was to resist Luther's movement, and, if possible, cut his soul out of God's mercy. What was Luther's exact conception of this being is to be gathered from his life and writings. Again, we have Milton's Satan. Lastly, we have Goethe's Mephistopheles. The difficulties which Milton had to overcome in writing his Paradise Lost were immense.