Black magic is so practical

Here Chesterton makes a spot-on observation about black magic and various forms of demon worship (the darker side of paganism).

Whether it be because the Fall has really brought men nearer to less desirable neighbors in the spiritual world, or whether it is merely that the mood of men eager or greedy finds it easier to imagine evil, I believe that the black magic of witchcraft has been much more practical and much less poetical than the white magic of mythology. I fancy the garden of the witch has been kept much more carefully than the woodland of the nymph. I fancy the evil field has even been more fruitful than the good. To start with, some impulse, perhaps a sort of desperate impulse, drove men to the darker powers when dealing with practical problems. There was a sort of secret and perverse feeling that the darker powers would really do things; that they had no nonsense about them.

G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, p.131

At some point, selling your soul to the devil to become a great guitar player and rock star actually makes sense, where as praying to God to give you those skills… well you know… he just doesn’t seem to work on that level.