"People cry out against the preposterous
absurdity of such representations as
the German inventions of the *Devil's
Elixir* and the *Bottle Imp*. Is it then
a fiction that we see? Or is it not a
palpable reality that atakes place every
day and every hour? Who is there that is
not haunted by some heated phantom
of his brain, some wizard spell, that
clings to him in spite of his will, and hurries
him on to absurdity or ruin? There is no
machinery or phantasmagoria of a melo-
drame, more extravagant than the
workings of the passions. Mr. Farley may
do his worst with scaly forms, with flames,
and dragon's wings: but after all, the true
demon is within us. How many, whose
senses are shocked at the outward
spectacle, and who turn away startled, or
disgusted might say, pointing to their
bosom, *'The moral is here!*

William Hazlitt
*Aphorisms on Man*
(LXVIII)

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