 Preface to the second edition of the History of the Devil. This is a LibriVox recording, while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The History of the Devil by Daniel Defoe. Preface to the second edition. The second edition of this work, notwithstanding a large impression of the first, is a certificate from the world of its general acceptation. So we need not, according to the custom of editors, boast of it without evidence or tell a F B in its favor. The subject is singular, and it has been handled after a singular manner. The wise world has been pleased with it. The merry world has been diverted with it. And the ignorant world has been taught by it. None but the malicious part of the world has been offended at it. Who can wonder that, when the devil is not pleased, his friends should be angry? The strangest thing of it all is to hear Satan complain that the story is handled profanely. But who can think it strange that his advocates should be? What he was from the beginning. The author affirms and has good vouchers for it, in the opinions of such whose judgment passes with him for an authority, that the whole tenor of the work is solemn, calculated to promote serious religion, incapable of being improved in a religious manner. But he does not think that we are bound never to speak of the devil, but with an error of terror, as if we were always afraid of him. His evident, the devil as subtle and as frightful as he is, has acted the ridiculous and foolish part as much as most of God's creatures, and daily does so, and he cannot believe his any sin to expose him for a foolish devil as he is, or show the world that he may be laughed at. Those who think the subject not handled with gravity enough have all the room given them in the world to handle it better, and as the author professes he is far from thinking his peace is perfect, they ought not to be angry that he gives them leave to mend it. He has had the satisfaction to please some readers and to see good men approve it, and for the rest, as my Lord Rochester says in another case, he counts their censure fame. As for a certain reverend gentleman who is pleased gravely to dislike the work, he hopes rather for the author's sake than the devil's. He only says, let the performance be how it will, and the author what he will. It is apparent he has not yet preached away all this yours. It is enough to me, says the author, that the devil himself is not pleased with my work, and less with the design of it. Let the devil and all his fellow complainers stand on one side, in the honest, well-meaning charitable world, who approve my work on the other, and I'll count noses with Satan if he dares. End of preface to the second edition, part one, chapter one of the history of the devil. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The History of the Devil by Daniel Defoe, part one, chapter one. The History of the Devil, etc. Chapter one, being an introduction to the whole work. I doubt not, but the title of this book will amuse some of my reading friends a little at first. They will make a pause, perhaps, as they do at a witch's prayer, and be some time resolving whether they had best look into it or no, lest they should really raise the devil by reading his story. Even old women have told themselves so many frightful things with the devil, and have formed ideas in their minds, in so many horrible and monstrous shapes, that really, if it were enough to fright the devil himself, to meet himself in the dark, dressed up in several figures which imagination has formed for him and the minds of men, and as for themselves. I cannot think by any means that the devil would terrify them half so much if they were to converse face to face with him. It must certainly, therefore, be a most useful undertaking to give the true history of this tyrant of the air, this god of the world, this terror and diversion of mankind, which we call devil, to show what he is and what he is not, where he is and where he is not, when he is in us and when he is not. For I cannot doubt that the devil is really and bona fide in a great many of our honest, weak-edit friends when they themselves know nothing of the matter, nor is the work so difficult as some may imagine. The devil's history is not so hard to come at, as it seems to be. His original and the first rise of his family is upon record, and as for his conduct, he has acted indeed in the dark, as to meth it in many things, but in general, as cunning as he is, he has been fool enough to expose himself in some of the most considerable transactions of his life, and has not shown himself a politician at all. Our old friend Matt Cheville outdid him in many things, and I may in the process of this work give an account of several of the sons of Adam, and some societies of them too, who have outwitted the devil, nay, who have out-send the devil, and that I think may be called out-shooting him in his own bow. It may perhaps be expected of me in this history, that since I seem inclined to speak favorably of Satan, to do him justice and to write his story impartially, I should take some pains to tell you what religion he is of, and even this part may not be so much a jest as at first sight you may take it to be. For Satan has something of religion in him, I assure you. Nor is he such an unprofitable devil that way, as some may suppose him to be. For though in reverence to my brethren, I will not reckon him among the clergy. No, not so much as a gifted brother, yet I cannot deny, but that he often preaches, and if it not be profitably to his hearers, tis as much therefore as it is out of his design. It has indeed been suggested that he has taken orders, and that a certain pope, famous for being an extraordinary favorite of his, gave him both institution and induction, but as this is not upon record, and therefore we have no authentic document for the probation, I shall not affirm it for a truth, for I would not slander the devil. It is said also, and I am apt to believe it, that he was very familiar with that holy father, Pope Sylvester II, and some charge him with personating Pope Hildebrand on an extraordinary occasion, and himself sitting in the chair, apostolic, in a full congregation, and you may hear more of this hereafter, but as I do not meet with Pope Diabolus among the list, in all father Platina's life of the pope, so I am willing to leave it as I find it. But to speak to the point, and a nice point it is I acknowledge, namely, what religion the devil is of. My answer will indeed be general, yet not at all ambiguous, for I love to speak positively, and with undoubted evidence. First, he is a believer, and if in saying so it should follow that even the devil has more religion than some of our men of fame can at this time be charged with, I hope my Lord blank and his grace the blank of blank, and some of the upper class in the red hot club will not wear the coat. However well it may sit to their shapes or challenge the satyr as if it were pointed at them, because tis due to them, in a word whatever their lordships are I can assure them that the devil is no infidel. Second, he fears God. We have such abundant history of this in sacred history that if I were not at present in common with a few others, talking to an infidel sort of gentleman with whom those remote things called scriptures are not allowed in evidence, I might say it was sufficiently proved. But I doubt not in the process of this undertaking to show that the devil really fears God, and that after another manner than ever he feared St. Francis or St. Dunstan. And if that be proved as I take upon me to advance, I shall leave it to judgment, who's the better Christian, the devil who believes and trembles, or a modern gentry of blank who believe neither God nor devil. Having thus brought the devil within the pale, I shall leave him among you for the present. Not but that I may examine in its order who has the best claim to his brotherhood, the papus or the Protestants, and among the latter the Lutherans or the Calvinists, and so descending to all the several denominations of churches, see who is less of the devil in them than who more, and whether less or more the devil has not a seat in every synagogue, a pew in every church, a place in every pulpit, and a vote in every synod, even from the Sanhedrin of the Jews to our friends at the Bull and Mouth, etc., from the greatest to the least. It will, I confess, come very much within the compass of this part of my discourse to give an account, or at least make an essay toward it, of the share the devil has had in the spreading religion in the world, and especially of dividing and subdividing opinions in religion, perhaps to eke it out and make it reach the Father, and also to show how far he is, or has made himself a missionary of the famous clan de propaganda fide. It is true, we find him heartily employed in almost every corner of the world, ad propagandum errorum, but that may require history by itself. As to his propagating religion, it is a little hard indeed at first sight to charge the devil with propagating religion, that is to say if we take it literally and in the gross, but if you take it as the Scots insisted to take the oath of fidelity, these with an explanation. It is plain Satan has very often had a share in the method, if not in the design of propagating the Christian faith. For example, I think I do no injury at all to the devil to say that he had a great hand in the old holy war, as it was ignorantly and enthusiastically called, stirring up the Christian princess and powers of Europe to run a maddening after the Turks and Saracens and make war with those innocent people above a thousand miles off, only because they entered into God's heritage when he had forsaken it, raised upon his ground when he had fairly turned it into a common and laid it open for the next comer, spending their nation's treasure and embarking their kings and people, I say, in a war above a thousand miles off, filling their heads with that religious madness, called in those days, holy zeal, to recover the Terra Sancta, the sepulchres of Christ and the saints, and as they called it falsely, the holy city, though true religion says it was the accursed city and not worth spending one drop of blood for. This religious bubble was certainly of Satan, who as he craftily drew them in, so like a true devil, he left them in the lurch when they came there, faced about to the Saracens, animated the immortal Saladin against them and managed so dexterously that he left the bonds of about thirteen or fourteen hundred thousand Christians there as a trophy of his infernal politics. And after the Christian world had run a la Santa Terra, or in English, a sauntering, about a hundred year, he dropped it to play another game less foolish, but ten times wicketer than that which went before it, namely turning the crusados of the Christians one against another, and as Yutibra said in another case, may them fight like mad or drunk for dame religion as for punk. Of this you have a complete account in the history of the pope's decrees against the count de Tolus and the wilderness and Alba Genesis, with the crusados and massacres which followed upon them, wherein to do the devil's politics and justice, he met with all the success he could desire. The zealots of that day executed his infernal orders most punctually, implanted religion in those countries in a glorious and triumphant manner upon the destruction of an infinite number of innocent people whose blood has fattened the soil for the growth of the Catholic faith in a manner very particular and to Satan's full satisfaction. I might to complete this part of his history, give you the detail of his progress in these first steps of his alliances with Rome and add a long list of massacres, wars, and expeditions in behalf of religion, which he has had the honor to have a visible hand in, such as the Parisian massacre, the Flemish war under the Duke de Alva, the Smithfield fires in the Marian days in England, and the massacres in Ireland, all which would effectively convince us that the devil has not been idle in his business. But I may meet with these again in my way, tis enough while I am upon the generals only to mention them thus in a summary way. I say tis enough to prove that the devil has really been as much concerned as anybody in the methods taken by some people for propagating the Christian religion in the world. Some have rashly, and I had almost said maliciously, charged the devil with the great triumphs of his friends, the Spaniards in America, and would place the conquest of Mexico and Peru to the credit of his account. But I cannot join with him in this at all. I must say, I believe the devil was innocent of that matter. My reason is because Satan was never such a fool as to spend his time, or his politics, or embark his allies to conquering nations who were already his own that would be Satan against the Bezelbub, making war upon himself, and at least doing nothing to the purpose. If they should charge him indeed with diluting Philip II of Spain into that preposterous attempt called the Armada, Anglici, the Spanish invasion, I should indeed more readily join with them. But whether he did it weakly in hope, which was indeed not likely, that it should secede or wickily to destroy that great fleet of the Spaniards and draw them within the reach of his own dominions, the elements, this being a question which authors differ exceedingly about, I shall leave it to decide itself. But the greatest piece of management, which we find the devil has concerned himself in of late, in the matter of religion seems to be that the mission into China, and here indeed Satan has acted his masterpiece, it was no doubt much for his service that the Chineses should have no insight into matters of religion, I mean that we call Christian, and therefore the opopry in the devil are not at so much variance as some may imagine, yet he did not think it safe to let the general system of Christianity be heard of among them in China, hence when the name of the Christian religion had but been received with some seeming approbation in the country of Japan, Satan immediately, as if alarmed at the thing, and dreading what the consequence of it might be, armed the Japanesees against it with such fury that they expelled it at once. It was much safer to his designs when, if the story be not a fiction, he put the Dutch witticism into the mouths of the state's commanders when they came to Japan, who having more wit than to own themselves Christian in such a place as that, when the question was put to them, answered negatively, that they were not, but they were of another religion called Hollander's. However it seems the diligent Jesuits outwitted the devil in China, and as I said above, overshot him in his own bow. For the mission being in danger by the devil, and the Chinese emperors joining together, of being wholly expelled there too, as they had been in Japan, they cunningly fell in with the ecclesiastics of the country, and joining the priestcraft of both religions together, they brought Jesus Christ and Confucius to be so reconcilable that the Chinese and the Roman idolatry appeared capable of a confederacy, of going on hand in hand together, and consequently of being very good friends. This was a masterpiece indeed, and as they say, almost frightened Satan out of his wits. But he being a ready manager, and particularly famous for serving himself so the rogueries of the priests, faced about immediately to the mission, and making a virtue of necessity clapped in with all possible alacrity with the proposal. So the Jesuits, and he formed a hodgepodge of religion made up of popery and Confucius together, and formally christening them by the name of religion, by which means the politic interest of the mission was preserved, and yet Satan lost not one inch of ground with the chineses, no, not by the planting the gospel itself, such as it was, among them. Nor has it been such disadvantage to him that this plan or scheme of a new modeled religion would not go down at Rome, and that the inquisition damned it with bell, booked, and candle. Distance of place served his new allies, the missionaries, in the stead of a protection from the inquisition, and now and then a rich present, well placed, found them friends in the congregation itself, and where any nuncio with his impudent zeal pretended to take such a long voyage to oppose them, Satan took care to get him sent back reinfecta, or inspired the millions to move him off the premises by methods of their own, that is to say being interpreted, to murder him. Thus the mission has in itself been truly devilish, and the devil has interested himself in the planting the Christian religion in China. The influence the devil has in the politics of mankind is another special part of his history, and would require, if it were possible, a very exact description. But here we shall necessarily be obliged to inquire so nicely into the arcana of circumstances, and unlock the cabinets of state in so many courts, canvas the councils of ministers and the conduct of princes so fully, and expose them so much that it may perhaps make a combustion among the great politicians abroad, and in doing that we may come so near home too, that though personal safety and credentials forbid our meddling with our own country, we may be taken in a double entendre and fall on pitied for it being only suspected of touching truths that are so tender, whether we are guilty or no. On these accounts I must meddle the less with that part, at least for the present. Being it that the devil has had a share in some of the late councils of Europe, influencing them this way or that to his own advantage, what is it to us? For example, what if he has had any concern in the late affair of Thorn, what need we put it upon him seeing his confederates, the Jesuits, with the assessorial tribune of Poland take it upon themselves? I shall leave that part to the issue of time. I wish it were as easy to persuade the world that he had no hand in bringing the injured Protestants to leave the justice due to the cries of Protestant blood to the arbitrement of a Popish power, who dare say that the devil must be in it, if justice should be obtained that way. I should rather say the devil is in it or else it would never be expected. It occurs next to inquire from the premises whether the devil has had more influence or less in the affairs of the world now than he had in the former ages, and this will depend upon comparing as we go along his methods and way of working in past times and the modern politics by which he acts in our days with the differing reception which he has met with among the men of such distant ages. But there is so much to inquire about the devil before we can bring his story down to our modern times that we must for the present let them drop and look a little back to the remoter parts of this history drawing his picture that people may know him when they meet him and see who and what he is and what he has been doing ever since he got leave to act in the high station he now appears in. In the meantime if I might obtain leave to present and humble petition to Satan it should be that he would according to modern usage oblige us all with writing the history of his own times to it as well as one that has gone before it be a devilish good one for as to the sincerity of their performance the authority of the particulars the justice of the characters etc if there were no better vouched no more consistent with themselves with charity with truth and with the honor of an historian then the last of that kind which came abroad among us it must be a reproach to the devil himself to be the author of it were satan to be brought under the least obligation to write truth in that the matters of fact which he should write might be depended upon he is certainly qualified by his knowledge of things to be a complete historian nor could the bishop himself who by the way has given us already the devil of a history come up to him Milton's pandemonium though an excellent dramatic performance would appear a mere trifling sing-song business beneath the dignity of chevy chase the devil could give us a true account of all the civil wars in heaven how and by whom and in what manner he lost the day there and was obliged to quit the field the fiction of his refusing to acknowledge and submit to the messiah upon his being declared generalissimo of the heavenly forces which satan expected himself as the eldest officer and is not being able to brook another to be put in over his head I say that fine spun thought of Mr Milton would appear to be strained too far and only served to convince us that he, Milton, knew nothing of the matter satan knows very well that the messiah was not declared to be the son of god with power till by and after the resurrects from the dead and that all power was then given him in heaven and earth and not before so that satan's rebellion must derive from other causes and upon other occasions as he himself can doubtless give us an account if he thinks fit and of which we shall speak further in this work what a fine history might this old gentleman write of the anti-dilufian world and of all the weighty affairs as well of state as of religion which happened during the 1500 years of the patriarchal administration who like him could give up a full and complete account of the deluge whether it was a mere vindictive a blast from heaven wrought by a supernatural power in the way of miracle or whether according to Mr. Burnett's theory it was a consequence following anti-season causes by the mere necessity of nature seen in constitution natural position and unavoidable working of things as by the theory published by that learned enthusiast it seems to be satan could easily account for all the difficulties of the theory and tell us whether as there was a natural necessity of the deluge there is not the light necessity and natural tendency to a conflagration at last would the devil exert himself as an historian for our improvement in diversion how glorious an account could he give us of Noah's voyage around the world in the famous arc he could resolve all the difficulties about the building it the furnishing it and the laying up provision in it for all the collection of kinds that he had made he could tell us whether all the creatures came volunteer to him to go into the arc or whether he went to hunting for several years before in order to bring them together he could give us a true relation how he weedled the people of the next world into the absurd ridiculous undertaking of building a babel how far that stupendous staircase which was an imagination to reach up to heaven was carried before it was interrupted and the builders confounded how their speech was altered how many tongues it was divided into or whether they were divided at all and how many subdivisions or dialects have been made since that by which very few of God's creatures except the brutes understand one another or care one farthing whether they do or know in all these things Satan who no doubt would make a very good chronologist could settle every epica correct every calendar and bring all our accounts of time to a general agreement as well the grecian olympiads the turkish higheera the chinese fictitious account of the world's duration as our blind julian and gregorian accounts which have put the world to this day into such confusion that we neither agree in our holy days or working days fast or feasts nor keep the same sabbaths in any part of the same globe this great antiquary could bring us to a certainty in all the difficulties of ancient story and tell us whether the tale of the siege of trey and the rape of hellen was a fable of homer or a history whether the fictions of the poets are formed from their own brain or found it in facts and whether letters were invented by cadmus the Phoenician who dictated immediately from heaven at mount Sinai nay he could tell us how and in what manner he weedled eve diluted adam put cain into a passion till he made him mirther his own brother and made noah who was above 500 years a preacher of righteousness turned sat in his old age dishonor all his ministry debouchy himself with wine and by getting drunk and exposing himself become the jest and laughing stock of his children and of all his posterity to this day and would satan according to the modern practice of the late rite reverend historian enter into the characters of the great men of his age how should we be diverted with the just history of adam in paradise and out of it his character and how he behaved at and after his expulsion how cain wandered in the land of nod what the mark was which god set upon him whose daughter his wife was and how big the city was he built there according to a certain poet of noble extraction how cain in the land of nod when the rascal was alone like an owl in an ivory Todd built a city as big as ron Rochester he could have certainly drawn ease picture told us every feature in her face and every inch in her shape whether she was a perfect beauty or no and whether with the fall she did grow crooked ugly ill-natured and as gold as the learned Valdemar suggests to be the effects of the curse descending to the character of the patriarchs in that age he might no doubt give us in particular the characters of bellis worshiped under the name of ball with Satan and Jupiter his successors who they were here and how they behaved with all the pharaohs of Egypt the abomelex of Canaan and the great monarchs of Assyria and Babylon hence also he is able to write the lives of all the heroes of the world from Alexander of Macedon to Lewis the 14th and from Augustus to the great King George nor could the bishop himself go beyond him for flattery any more than the devil himself could go beyond the bishop for falsehood I could enlarge with a particular satisfaction upon the many fine things which Satan rummaging his inexhaustible storehouse of slander could set down to blacken the characters of good men and load the best princess of the world would infamy and reproach but we shall never prevail with him my doubt to do mankind so much service as resolving all those difficulties would be for he has an indeligible grudge against us as he believes and perhaps is assured that men were at first created by his sovereign to the intent that after a certain state of probation in life such as them shall be approved are appointed to fill up those vacancies in the heavenly host which were made by the abdication and expulsion of him the devil and his angels so that man is appointed to come in satan's stead to make good the breach and enjoy all those ineffable joys and beatitudes which satan enjoyed before his fall no wonder then that the devil swells with envy and rage at mankind in general and at the best of them in particular nay the granting this point is giving an unanswerable reason why the devil practices with such unworried and indefatigable application upon the best men if possible to disappoint God Almighty's decree that he should not find enough among the whole race to be proper subjects of his clemency and qualified to succeed the devil and his host or fill up the places vacant by the fall it is true indeed the devil who we have reason to say is no fool ought to know better than to suppose that if he should seduce the whole race of mankind and make them as bad as himself he could by that success of his wickedness thwart or disappoint the determined purposes of heaven but that those who are appointed to inherit the thrones which he and his followers abdicated and were deposed from shall certainly be preserved in spite of his devices for that inheritance and shall have the possession secured to them notwithstanding all the devil and all the host of hell can do to prevent it but however he knows the certainty of this and that when he endeavors the seducing the chosen servants of the most high he fights against God himself struggles with irresistible grace and makes war with infinite power undermining the church of God and that faith in him which is fortified with the eternal promises of Jesus Christ that the gates of hell that is to say the devil and all his power shall not prevail against them I say however he knows the impossibility that there is that he should obtain his needs yet so blind is his rage to infatuate his wisdom that he cannot refrain breaking himself to pieces against this mountain in splitting against the rock but to leave the serious part which is a little too solemn for the account of this rebel seeing we are not to expect he will write his own history for our information in diversion I shall see if I cannot write it for him in order to do this I shall extract the substance of his whole story from the beginning to our own times which I shall collect out of what is come to hand whether by revelation or inspiration that's nothing to him I shall take care to improve my intelligence as we may make my account of him authentic and in a word such as the devil himself shall not be able to contradict in writing this uncouth story I shall be freed from the censors of the critics in a more than ordinary manner upon one account especially these that my story shall be so just and so well grounded and after all the good things I shall say of satan will be so little to his satisfaction that the devil himself will not be able to say I dealt with the devil in writing it I may perhaps give you some account where I had my intelligence and how all the arcana of his management have come to my hands but pardon me gentlemen this would be to portray conversation and to discover my agents and you know statesmen are very careful to preserve the correspondences they keep in the enemy's country lest they expose their friends to the resentment of the power whose counsels they betray besides the learned tell us that ministers of state make an excellent plea of they're not betraying their intelligence against all party inquiries and to the great sums of money pretended to be paid for secret service and whether the secret service was to bribe people to betray things abroad or at home whether the money was paid to somebody or to nobody employed to establish correspondences abroad or to establish families and amass treasure at home in a word whether it was to serve their country or serve themselves it has been the same thing in the same plea has been their protection likewise in the important affair which I'm upon just hope you will not desire me to portray my correspondence for you know satan is naturally cruel and malicious and who knows what he might do to show his resentment at least it might endanger a stop of our intelligence for the future and yet before I have done I shall make it very clear that however my information may be secret and difficult that yet I came very honestly by it and shall make a very good use of it for it is a great mistake in those who think then and acquaintance with the affairs of the devil may not be made very useful to us all they that know no evil can know no good and as the learned tell us that a stone taken out of the head of a toad is a good antidote against poison so a competent knowledge of the devil in all his ways may be the best help to make us defy the devil and all his works end of part one chapter one the history of the devil etc part one chapter two of the history of the devil this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the history of the devil by Daniel Defoe part one chapter two of the word devil as it is a proper name to the devil and any or all his hosts angels etc it is a question not yet determined by the learned whether the word devil be a singular that is to say the name of a person standing by himself or a noun of multitude if it be a singular and so must be used personally only as a proper name it consequently implies one imperial devil moniker king of the whole clan of hell justly distinguished by the term the devil whereas the scots call him the muckle horn deal or as others in a wilder dialect the devil of hell that is to say the devil of a devil or better still as the scripture expresses it by way of emphasis the great red dragon the devil and satan but if we take this word to be as above a noun of multitude and so to be used ambodexter as occasion presents singular or plural then the devil signifies satan by himself or satan with all his legions at his heels as you please more or less and this way of understanding the word as it may be very convenient for my purpose in the account I am now to give of the infernal powers so it is not altogether improper in the nature of the thing it is thus expressed in scripture where the person possessed Matthew 4 24 is first said to be possessed of the devil singular and our savior asks him as speaking to a single person what is thy name and is answered in the plural and singular together my name is legion for we are many no will it be any wrong to the devil supposing him a single person seeing entitling him to the conduct of all his inferior agents is what he will take rather for an addition to his infernal glory than a diminution or lessening of him in the extent of his fame having this article with the devil for liberty of speech I shall talk of him sometimes in the singular as a person and sometimes in the plural as a host of devils or of infernal spirits just as occasion requires and as the history of his affairs makes necessary but before I enter upon any part of his history the nature of the thing calls me back and my lord be blank of blank in his late famous orations in defense of liberty summons me to prove that there is such a thing or such a person as the devil and in short unless I can give some evidence of his existence as my lord blank said very well I am talking of nobody d blank me sir says a graceless comrade if his to a great man your grace will go to the devil d blank in ye sir says the d blank then I shall go nowhere I wonder where you intend to go nay to the d blank l to I doubt says graceless for I am almost as wicked as my lord duke duke thou art a silly empty dog says the and if there is such a place as a hell though I believe nothing of it is a place for fools such as thou art grace I wonder then what heaven the great wits go to such as my lord duke I don't care to go there let it be where it will they are a tiresome kind of people there's no bearing them they'll make a hell wherever they come duke for the whole thy fools tongue I tell thee if there is any such place as we call nowhere that's all the heaven or hell that I know of or believe anything about grace very good my lord so that heaven is nowhere and hell is nowhere and the devil is nobody according to my lord duke duke yes sir and what then grace and you are to go nowhere when you die are you duke yes you dog don't you know what that incomparable noble genius my lord rochester sings upon the subject I believe it unfainedly after death nothing is and nothing death grace you believe it my lord you mean you would faint believe it if you could but since you put that great genius my lord rochester upon me let me play him back upon your grace I'm sure you have read his fine poem upon nothing in one of the stanzas of which is this beautiful thought and to be part of the the wicked wisely pray duke you are a foolish dog grace and my lord duke is a wise infidel duke why is it not wiser to believe no devil than to be always terrified at him grace but shall I toss another poet upon you my lord if it should so fall out as who can tell but there may be a god a heaven and hell mankind had best consider well for fear to should be too late when their mistakes appear duke d blank m your foolish poet that's not my lord rochester grace but how must I be damned if there is no devil is not your grace a little inconsistent there my lord rochester would not have said that and please your grace do know you dog I'm not inconsistent at all and if I had the ordering of you I'd make you sensible of it I'd make you think yourself damned for want of a devil grace that's like one of your grace's paradoxes such as when you swore by god that you did not believe there was any such thing as a god or devil so you swear by nothing and damn me to nowhere duke you are a critical dog who taught you to believe these solemn trifles who taught you to say there is a god grace may I had a better school master than my lord duke duke why who was your school master pray grace the devil and a pleasure grace duke the devil the devil he did what you're going to quote scripture are you pretty don't tell me of scripture I know what you mean the devils believe and tremble why then I have the whip hand of the devil for I hate trembling and I'm delivered from it effectually for I never believed anything of it and therefore I don't tremble grace and there indeed I'm a wicker creature than the devil or even than my lord duke for I believe in yet don't tremble neither duke nay if you are come to your penitentials I've done with you grace and I think I must have done with my lord duke for the same reason duke I pray do I'll go and enjoy myself I won't throw away the pleasure of my life I know the consequence of it grace and I'll go and reform myself else I know the consequence too this short dialogue happened between two men of quality and both men of wit too and the effect was that the lord brought the reality of the devil into the question and the debate brought the profligate to be a penitent so in short the devil was made a preacher of repentance the truth is god and the devil however opposite in their nature and remote from one another in their place of abiding seemed to stand pretty much upon a level in our faith for as to our believing the reality of their existence he that denies one generally denies both and he that believes one necessarily believes both very few if any of those who believe there is a god and acknowledge the debt of homage which mankind owes to the supreme governor of the world doubt the existence of the devil except here and there one whom we call practical atheists and is the character of an atheist if there is such a creature on earth that like my lord duke he believes neither god or devil as the belief of both these stands upon a level and that god and the devil seem to have an equal share in our faith so the evidence of their existence seems to stand upon a level too in many things and as they are known by their works in the same particular cases so they are discovered after the same manner of demonstration nay in some respects is equally criminal to deny the reality of them both only with this difference that to believe the existence of a god is a debt to nature and to believe the existence of the devil is like a debt to reason one is a demonstration from the reality of visible causes and the other a deduction from the like reality of their effects one demonstration of the existence of god is from the universal well-guided consent of all nations to worship and adore a supreme power one demonstration of the existence of the devil is from the avowed ill-guided consent of some nations who knowing no other god make a god of the devil for want of a better it may be true that those nations have no other ideas of the devil than as of a superior power if they thought him a supreme power it would have other effects on them and they would submit to and worship him with a different kind of fear but is plain they have right notions of him as a devil or evil spirit because the best reason and in some places the only reason they give for worshiping him is that he may do them no hurt having no notions at all if he is having any power much less than the inclination to do them good so that indeed they make a mere devil of him at the same time that they bow to him as to a god all the ages of paganism in the world have had this notion of the devil indeed in some parts of the world they had also some deities which they honored above him as being supposed to be beneficent kind and inclined as well as capable to give them good things for this reason the more polite heathens such as the grecians and the romans have their lorries or household gods whom they paid a particular respect to as being their protectors from hobgoblins ghosts of the dead evil spirits frightful appearances evil geniuses and other noxious beings from the invisible world or to put it into the language of the day we live in from the devil in whatever shape or appearance he might come to them and from whatever might hurt them and what was all this but setting up devils against devils supplicating one devil under the notion of a good spirit to drive out and protect them from another whom they called a bad spirit the white devil against the black devil this proceeds from the natural notions mankind necessarily entertains of things to come superior or inferior God and the devil fill up all futurity in our thoughts and is impossible for us to form any images in our minds of an immortality and an invisible world but under the notions of perfect felicity or extreme misery now as these two respect the eternal state of man after life they are respectively the object of our reverence and affection or of our horror and aversion but notwithstanding they are placed thus in a diametrical opposition in our affections and passions they are on an evident level as to the certainty of their existence and as i said above bear an equal share in our faith it being then as certain that there is a devil and as that there is a god i must from this time forward admit no more doubt of his existence nor take any more pains to convince you of it but speaking of him as a reality and being proceed to inquire who he is and from whence in order to enter directly into the detail of his history now not to enter into all the metaphysical trumpery of his schools nor wholly to confine myself to the language of the pulpit where we are told that to think of God and of the devil we must endeavor first to form ideas of those things which illustrate the description of rewards and punishments in the one the eternal presence of the highest good and as a necessary attendant the most perfect consummate durable bliss and felicity springing from the presence of that being in whom all possible beatitude is inexpressibly present and that in the highest perfection on the contrary to conceive of a sublime fallen archangel attended with an innumerable host of degenerate rebel serifs or angels cast out of heaven together all guilty of inexpressible rebellion at all suffering from that time and to suffer forever the eternal vengeance of the almighty in an inconceivable manner that his presence though blessed in itself is to them the most complete article of terror that they are in themselves perfectly miserable and to be with whom forever adds an inexpressible misery to any state as well as place and fills the minds of those who are to be or expect to be banished to them with inconceivable horror and amazement but when you have gone over all this and a great deal more of the like though less intelligible language which the passions of men collect to muse one another with you have said nothing if you omit the main article namely the personality of the devil until you add to all the rest some description of the company with whom all this is to be suffered these the devil and his angels now who is this devil and his angels are what share they have either actively or passively in the eternal miseries of a future state how far they are agents in or partners with the sufferings of the place is a difficulty yet not fully discovered by the most learned nor do I believe his made less of difficulty by their meddling with it but to come to the person and original of the devil or as I said before of devils I allow him to come of an ancient family for he is from heaven and more truly than the Romans could say of their idolized Numa he is of the race of the gods that Satan is a fallen angel a rebel Sarah cast out for his rebellion is the general opinion and does not my business to dispute things universally received as he was tried condemned and the sentence of expulsion executed on him in heaven he is in this world like a transported felon never to return his crime whatever particular aggravations it might have to certain amounted to high treason against his lord and governor who was also his maker against whom he rose in rebellion took up arms and in a word raised a heart in a natural war in his dominions but being overcome in battle and made prisoner he and all his host whose numbers were infinite all glorious angels like himself lost at once their beauty and glory with their innocence and commenced devils being transformed by crime into monsters and frightful objects such as to describe human fancies obliged to draw pictures and descriptions in such forms as are most hateful and frightful to the imagination these notions I doubt not gave birth to all the beauties images and sublime expressions in Mr. Milton's majestic poem where though he has played the poet in a most luxuriant manner he is sinned against Satan most egregiously and done the devil a manifest injury in a great many particulars as I shall show in his place and as I shall be obliged to do Satan justice when I come to that part of his history Mr. Milton's admirers must pardon me if I let them see that though I admire Mr. Milton as a poet yet that he was greatly out in matters of history and especially the history of the devil in short that he has charged Satan falsely in several particulars and so he has Adam and Eve too but that I shall leave till I come to the history of the royal family of Eden which I resolve to present you with when the devil and I have done with one another but not to run down Mr. Milton neither whose poetry or his judgment cannot be reproached without injury to our own all those bright ideas of his which make his poetry so justly valued whether they are capable of proof as to the fact are notwithstanding confirmations of my hypothesis and are taken from a supposition of the personality of the devil placing him at the head of the infernal host as a sovereign elevated spirit and monarch of hell and as such it is that I undertake to write his history by the word hell I do not suppose or at least not determine that his residence or that of the whole army of devils is yet in the same local hell to which the divines tell us he shall be at last chained down or at least that he is yet confined to it for we shall find he is at present a prisoner at large of both which circumstances of Satan shall take occasion to speak in its course but when I call the devil the monarch of hell I am to be understood as suits to the present purpose that he is the sovereign of all the race of hell that is to say of all the devils or spirits of the infernal clan that their numbers quality and powers be what they will upon this supposed personality and superiority of Satan or as I call it the sovereignty and government of one devil above all the rest I say upon this notion are formed all the systems of the dark side of futurity that we can form in our minds and so general is the opinion of it that it will hardly bear to be opposed by any other argument at least that will bear to be reasoned upon all the notions of a parody of devils or making a common wealth among the black devan seem to be enthusiastic and visionary but with no consistency or certainty and is so generally exploded that we must not venture so much as to debate the point taking it then as the generality of mankind do that there is a grand devil a superior of the whole black race that they all fell together with their general satan at the head of them that though he satan could not maintain his high station in heaven yet that he did continue his dignity among the rest who are called his servants in scripture his angels that he has a kind of dominion or authority over the rest and that they were all how many millions so ever in number had his command employed by him in all his hellish designs and in all his wicked contrivances for the destruction of man and for the setting up of his own kingdom in the world supposing then that there is such a superior master devil over all the rest it remains that we inquire into his character and something of his history in which though we cannot perhaps produce such authentic documents as in the story of other great monarchs tyrants and furious of the world yet I shall endeavor to speak some things which the experience of mankind may be apt to confirm and which the devil himself will hardly be able to contradict it being then granted that there is such a thing or person call him which we will as a master devil that he is thus superior to all the rest in power and in authority and that all the other evil spirits are his angels or ministers or officers to execute his commands and are employed in his business it remains to inquire once he came how he got hither into this world what that business is which he is employed about what his present state is and where and to what part of the creation of God he is limited and restrained what the liberties are he takes or is allowed to take in what manner he works and how his instruments are likewise allowed to work what he has done ever since he is commenced devil what he is now doing and what he may yet do before his last and closer confinement as also what he cannot do and how far we may or may not be said to be exposed to him or have or have not reason to be afraid of him these and whatever else occurs in the history and conduct of this arch devil and his agents that may be useful for information caution or diversion you may expect in the process of this work i know it has been questioned by some with more faith than fear how it consists with a complete victory of the devil which they say was it first obtained by the heavenly powers over satan and his apostate army in heaven that when he was cast out of his holy place and dashed down into the abyss of eternal darkness as into a place of punishment a condemned whole or place of confinement to be reserved there to the judgment of the great day i say how it consists with that entire victory to let him loose again or and give him liberty like a thief that has broken prison to range about god's creation and there to continue his rebellion commit new ravages and acts of hostility against god make new efforts of dethroning the almighty creator and in particular to fall upon the weakest of his creatures man how satan being so entirely vanquished he should be permitted to recover any of his wicked powers and violent room to do mischief to mankind may they go farther and suggest bold things against the wisdom of heaven in exposing mankind we can comparison of the immense extent of the devil's power to so manifest an overthrow to so unequal a fight in which he is sure if alone in the conflict to be worsted to leave him such a dreadful enemy to engage with and so ill furnished with weapons to assist him these objections i shall give as good an answer to as the case will admit in this course the must adjourn them for the present that the devil is not yet a close prisoner we have evidence enough to confirm i will not suggest that like our nougat thieves to bring little devils and great devils together he is let out by connivance and has some little latitudes and advantages of for mischief by that means returning at certain seasons to his confinement again this might hold where not that the comparison must suggest that the power which has cast him down could be deluded and the underkeepers or jailers under whose charge he was in custody could wink at his excursions and the lord of the place know nothing of the matter but this once farther explanation into part one chapter two part one chapter three of history of the devil this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by rick vena the history of the devil by daniel defoe part one chapter three of the original of the devil who he is and what he was before his expulsion out of heaven and in what state he was from that time to the creation of man to come to a regular inquiry into satan's affairs his needful we should go back to his original as far as history and the opinion of the learned world will give us leave it is agreed by all writers as well sacred as profane that this creature we now call a devil was originally an angel of light a glorious seraph perhaps the choicest of all the glorious seraphs see how milton describes his original glory satan so call him now his former name is heard no more in heaven he of the first if not the first archangel great in power in favor and preeminence leave five full 140 and again the same author and upon the same subject brighter once amidst the host of angels than that star the stars among leave seven full 189 the glorious figure which satan is supposed to make among the thrones and dominions in heaven is such as we might suppose the highest angel in that exalted train could make and some think as above that he was the chief of the archangels hence that notion and not ill founded namely that the first cause of his disgrace and on which ensued his rebellion was occasioned upon gods proclaiming his son generalissimo and with himself supreme ruler in heaven giving the dominion of all his works of creation as well already finished as not then begun to him which post of honor say they satan expected to be conferred on himself as next in honor majesty and power to god the supreme this opinion is followed by mr milton too as appears in the following lines where he makes all the angels attending all a general summons and god the father making the following declaration to them quote here all ye angels prodigy of light thrones dominions princestums virtues powers here my decree which unrevoked shall stand this day i have begot whom i declare my only son and on this hill him have anointed whom you now behold at my right hand your head i him a point and myself have sworn to him shall bow all knees in heaven and shall confess him lord under his great vice gerent reign abide united as one individual soul forever happy him who disobeys me disobeys breaks union and that day cast out from god and blessed vision falls into utter darkness deep engulfed his place ordained without redemption without end end quote satan affronted at the appearance of a new essence or being in heaven called the son of god for god says mr milton though erroneously declared himself at that time saying this day have i begotten him and that he should be set up above all the former powers of heaven of whom satan as above was the chief and expecting if any higher post could be granted it might be his due i say affronted at this he resolved quote with all his legions to dislodge and leave unworshiped unobaid the throne supreme contemptuous end quote paradise lost leave five full 140 but mr milton is grossly erroneous in ascribing those words this day have i begotten thee to that declaration of the father before satan fell and consequently to a time before the creation whereas it is by interpreters agreed to be understood of the incarnation of the son of god or at least of the resurrection see pool upon acts 1333 in a word satan with drew with all his followers male content and chagrin resolved to disobey this new command and not yield obedience to the son but mr milton agrees in that opinion that the number of angels which rebelled with satan was infinite and suggests in one place that they were the greatest half of all the angelic body or seraphic host quote but satan with his power and host innumerable as the stars of night or stars of morning due drops which the sun imperils on every leaf and every flower end quote eeb leave five full 142 be their number as it is numberless millions and legions of millions that is no part of my present inquiry satan the leader guide and superior as he was author of the celestial rebellion is still the great head and master devil as before under his authority they still act not obeying but carrying on the same insurrection against God which they begun in heaven making war still against heaven in the person of his image and creature man and though vanquished by the thunder of the son of God and cast down had long from heaven they have yet re-assumed or rather not lost either the will or the power of doing evil this fall of the angels with the war in heaven which preceded it is finally described by ovid in his war of the titans against jupiter casting mountain upon mountain and hill upon hill pelion upon ossa in order to scale the adamantine walls and break open the gates of heaven till jupiter struck them with his thunderbolts and overwhelmed them in the abyss vide ovid in metam new translation leave one page 19 quote nor were the gods themselves secure on high for now the giants strove to storm the sky the lawless brood with bold attempt invade the gods and mountains upon mountains laid but now the bolt enraged the father took olympus from her deep foundations shook their structure knotted at the mighty stroke and ossa's shattered top or pelion broke there in their own ungodly ruins slain end quote then again speaking of jupiter resolving in council to destroy mankind by a deluge and giving the reasons of it to the heavenly host say thus speaking of the demigods alluding to good men below quote think you that they in safety can remain when i myself who or immortals reign who send the lightning and heaven's empire sway the stern lycan practiced to betray end quote eeb page 10 since then so much poetic liberty is taken with the devil relating to his most early state and the time before his fall give me leave to make an excursion of the like kind relating to his history immediately after the fall until the creation of man an interval which i think much of the devil's story is to be seen in and which mr. melton has taken little notice of at least it does not seem completely filled up after which i shall return to honest prose again and pursue the duty of an historian satan with hideous ruin thus suppressed expelled the seat of blessedness and rest looked back and saw the high eternal mound where all his rebel host their outlet found restored impregnable the breach made up and garrisons of angels ranged atop in front a hundred thousand thunders roll and lightnings tempered to transfix a soul terror of devils satan and his host now to themselves as well as station lost unable to support the hated site expand seraphic wings and swift as light seek for new safety in eternal night and a remotest gulfs of dark they land here vengeance gives them leave to make their stand not that two steps and measures they pretend councils and schemes their station to defend but broken this concerted and dismayed by guilt and fright to guilt and fright betrayed rage and confusion every spirit possessed and shame and horror swelled in every breast transforming envy to their essential burns and the bright angel to a frightful devil turns thus hell began the fire of conscious rage no years can quench no length of time assuage material fire with its intensest flame compared with this can scarce deserve a name how should it up to immaterials rise when we're all flame we shall all fire despise this fire outrageous and its heat intense turns all the pain of loss to pain of sense the folding flames concave and inward roll act upon spirit and penetrate the soul not force of devils can its new powers repel where air it burns it finds or makes a hell for satan flaming with unquenched desire forms his own hell and kindles his own fire vanquished not humbled not in will brought low but as his powers decline his passions grow the malice viper like takes vent within gnaws its own bowels and bursts in its own sin impatient of the change he scorns to bow and never impotent in power till now ardent with hate and with revenge distract a will to new attempts but none to act yet all seraphic and in just degree suited to spirits high sense of misery derived from loss which nothing can repair and room for nothing left but mere despair here's finished hell what fiercer fire can burn enough 10 000 worlds to overturn hell's but the frenzy of defeated pride seraphic treason's strong impetuous tide where vile ambition disappointed first to its own rage and boundless hatred cursed the hates fanned up to fury that to flame for fire and fury are in kind the same these burn unquenchable in every face and the word endless constitutes the place oh state of being where beings the only grief and the chief tortures to be damned to life oh life the only thing they have to hate the finished torment of a future state complete in all the parts of endless misery and worse 10 000 times than not to be could but the damned the immortal law repeal and devils die there'd be an end of hell could they that thing called being annihilate there'd be no sorrows in a future state the wretch whose crimes had shut him out on high could be revenged on god himself and die joe's wife was in the right and always we might end by death all human misery might have it in our choice to be or not to be and part one chapter three