The Crowd of Demons in the Air

But the air that stretches between heaven and earth is always filled with a thick crowd of spirits, which do not fly about in it quietly or idly; and so it is most fortunate that divine providence has withdrawn them from human sight. For through fear of their attacks, or horror at the shapes into which they change and turn themselves at will, men would either be driven out of their wits by unbearable dread and faint away, unable to look on such things with bodily eyes, or else they would grow worse and worse every day, corrupted by their constant example and by imitating them. And so there would arise a kind of dangerous familiarity and deadly dealings between men and the unclean powers of the air. As it is, the crimes now committed among men are hidden by walls and enclosures, or by distance and space, or by some shame and embarrassment. But if men could always look on these spirits openly, they would be driven to a greater pitch of madness, since there would not be a single moment in which they would see them stop their wickedness. For no bodily weariness, no business to attend to, and no care for their daily food, as in our case, forces them sometimes, even against their will, to stop carrying out what they have begun.