 Part 2 Chapter 9 of the History of the Devil. This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Farah Iftikar The History of the Devil by Daniel Defoe Part 2 Chapter 9 Of the tools the Devil works with, which is wizards or warlocks, conjurers, magicians, divines, astrologers, interpreters of dreams, tallars of fortunes, and above all the rest, his particular modern privy counsellors called wits and fools. Though as I have advanced in the foregoing chapter, the Devil has very much changed hands in his modern management of the world, and that, instead of the rabble and long train of implements reckoned up above, he now walks about in bows, beauties, wits and fools. Yet I must not admit to tell you that he has not dismissed his former regiments, but like officers in time of peace, he keeps them all in half pay or like extraordinary men at the custom house. They are kept at a call to be ready to fill up vacancies or to employ when he is more than ordinarily full of business, and therefore it may not be amiss to give some brief account of them from Satan's own memoirs, their performance being no inconsiderable part of his history. Nor will it be an unprofitable digression to go back a little to the primitive institution of all these orders. For they are very ancient and I assure you it requires great knowledge of antiquity to give a particular of their original. I shall be very brief in it. In order then to this inquiry, you must know that it was not for want of servants that Satan took this sort of people into his pay. He had, as I have observed in its place, millions of diligent devils at his call, whatever business and however difficult he had for them to do, but as I have said above that our modern people are forwarder than even the devil himself can desire them to be, and that they come before they are called, run before they are sent, and crowd themselves into his service. So it seems it was in those early days when the world was one universal monarchy under his dominion, as I have at large described in its place. In those days the wickedness of the world keeping a just pace with their ignorance, this inferior sort of low-priced instruments did the devil's work mighty well. They dredged on in his black art so laboriously and with such good success that he found it was better to employ them as tools to delude and draw in mankind than to send his invisible implements about, and obliged them to take such shapes and dresses as were necessary upon every trifling occasion, which perhaps was more cost than worship, more pains than pay. Having then a set of these volunteers in his service, the true devil had nothing to do but to keep an exact correspondence with them and communicate some needful powers to them, to make them be and do something extraordinary and give them a reputation in their business, and these, in a word, did a great part of, nay, almost all the devil's business in the world. To this purpose gave he then power, if we may believe old Glanville, Baxter, Hicks, and other learned consults of oracles, to walk invisible, to fly in the air, ride upon broomsticks and other wooden gear, to interpret dreams, answer questions, betray secrets, to talk gibberish, the universal language, raise storms, sell winds, bring up spirits, disturb the dead and torment the living, with a thousand other needful tricks to amuse the world, keep themselves in menoration and carry on the devil's empire in the world. The first nations among whom these infernal practices were found were the Chaldeans, and that I may do justice in earnest as well as in jest, must be allowed that the Chaldeans, or those of them so-called, were not conjurers or magicians, only philosophers and studyers of nature, wise, sober and studious men at first, and we have an extraordinary account of them, and if we may believe some of our best writers of fame, Abraham was himself famous among them for such magic, as Sir Walter Rally expresses it, key contemplation on creaturorum cognorit creaturum. And now, granting this, it is all to my purpose, namely that the devil drew these wise men in, to search after more knowledge than nature could construct them in, and the knowledge of the true God being at that time sunk very low, he debauched them all with dreams, apparitions, conjurers, till he ruined the just notions they had and made devils of them all like himself. The learned sentences, speaking of the Chaldean kind of learning, gives us an account of five sorts of them. You will pardon me for being so grave as to go this length back. Number one, Chassadin, or Chaldeans, properly so-called, being astronomers. Number two, Asaphim, or magicians, such were Zoroastras and Balam, the son of Beor. Number three, Chattimim, or interpreters of dreams and the hard speeches enchanters. Number four, Meccasphim, or witches, called at first prophets afterwards Maliphasy or Vaniphasy, Poisoners. Number five, Ghazarim, or Aura Spices, and Diviners, such as Divined by the entrails of beasts, the liver in particular, mentioned in Isaac, or as others called Orgas. Now, as to all these I suppose, I may do them no wrong. If I say however justifiable they were in the beginning, the devil got them all into his service at last, and that brings me to my text again, from which the rest was a digression. Number one, the Chassadin or Chaldean astronomers turned astrologers, fortune-halors, calculators of nativities, and filed looters of the people, as if the wisdom of the Holy God was in them, as Nabuch Adnezar said of Daniel on that very account. Number two, the Asaphim, or Magi, or magicians, Sixtus Senensis says, they were such as wrought by covenants with devils, but turned to it from their wisdom, which was to study the practical part of natural philosophy, working admirable effects by the mutual application of natural causes. Number three, the Charterman from being reasoners or disputers upon difficult points in philosophy became enchanters and conjurers. So, number four, the Mekasphim, or prophets, they turned to be sorcerers, razors of spirits such as wounded by an evil eye and by bitter curses and were afterwards famed for having familiar converse with the devil, and were called witches. Number five, the Gazarim, from bear-observing of the good and bad omens by the entrails of beasts flying of birds, were turned to sacrists or priests of the heathen idols and sacrifices. Thus, I say, first or last, the devil engrossed all the wise men of the east for so they are called, made them all his own, and by them he worked wonders, that is, he filled the world with lying wonders of route by these men. When indeed it was all his own, from beginning to the end, and set on foot merely to propagate delusion, impose upon blinded and ignorant men, the God of this world blinded their minds, and they were led away by the subtlety of the devil, to say no worse of it till they became devils themselves, as to mankind. For they carried on the devil's work upon all occasions, and the race of them still continued in other nations, and some of them among ourselves, as we shall see presently. The Arabians followed the Chaldeans in this study, while it was kept within its due bounds, and after them the Egyptians, and among the latter we find that Nyanis and Yamburas were famous for their leading pharaoh by their pretended magic performances to reject the real miracles of Moses, and history tells us of strange pranks the wise men, the magicians, and the soothsayers played to delude the people in the most early ages of the world. But as I say now, the devil has improved himself, so he did then, for the Christian and Roman heathen rites coming on, they outdid all the magicians and soothsayers by establishing the devil's lying oracles, which, as a masterpiece of hell, did the devil more honour and brought more homage to him than ever he had before, or could arrive to since. Again, as by setting up the oracles, all the magicians and soothsayers grew out of credit, so at the seizing of those oracles the devil was vain to go back to the old game again, and take up with the agency of witches, diminations, enchantments and conjurings, as I hinted before, answerable to the four sorts mentioned in the story of Nebuchadnezzna, magicians, astrologers, the chaudians and the soothsayers. How these began to be out of request, I have mentioned already, but as the devil has not quite given them over, only laid them aside a little for the present, we may venture to ask what they were and what use he made of them, when he did employ them. The truth is, I think, as it was a very mean employment of anything that wears a human countenance to take up, so I must acknowledge, I think, it was a mean low-priced business for Satan to take up with, below the very devil, below his dignity as an angelic. Though condemned creature, below him, even as a devil, to go to talk to a parcel of ugly, deformed, spiteful, malicious old women, to give them power to do mischief, who never had a will after they entered into the state of old womanhood, to do anything else. Why the devil always chose the ugliest old women he could find, whether wizardism made them ugly, that were not so before, and whether the ugliness, as it was a beauty in witchcraft, did not increase according to the meritorious performance in the black trade. These are all questions of moment to be decided, if human learning can arrive to so much perfection, in ages to come. Some say the evil eye and the wicked look were parts of the enchantment, and that the witches, when they were in the height of their business, had a powerful influence with both, that by looking upon any person they could bewitch them, and make the devil, as the Scots express it, ride through them booted and spurred, and that hence came that very significant saying, to look like a witch. The strange work which the devil has made in the world, by this sort of his agents called witches, is such and so extravagantly wild that except our hope that most of those tales happen not to be true, I know not how anyone could be easy to live near a widow after she was five and fifty. All the other sorts of omissaries which Satan employs come short of these ghosts, and apparitions sometimes come and show themselves on particular accounts, and some of those particulars respect doing justice, repairing wrongs, preventing mischief, sometimes in matters very considerable, and on being so necessary to public benefit, that we are tempted to believe they proceed from some vigilant spirit who wishes as well. But on the other hand, these witches are never concerned in anything but mischief. Nay, if what they do portends good to one, it issues in hurt to many the whole tenor of their life, their design in general is to do mischief. They are only employed in mischief and nothing else. How far they are furnished with abilities suitable to the horrid will they are vested with, remains to be described. These witches, to said, are furnished with power suitable to the occasion that is before them, and particularly that which deserves to be considered as prediction, and foretelling events which are against the author of witchcraft is not accomplished with himself, nor can he communicate it to any other. How then witches come to be able to foretell things to come, which to said the devil himself cannot know, and which as I have shown to evident he does not know himself, is yet to be determined. That which is do foretell is certain, from the witch of end all were told things to sell, which he knew not before, namely that he should be slain in battle the next day, which accordingly came to pass. They are, however, notwithstanding this particular case, many instances wherein the devil has not been able to foretell approaching events, and that in things of the utmost consequence, and he has given certain foolish or false answers in such cases, the devil's priests which were summoned in by the prophet Elijah to decide the dispute between God and Baal, had the devil been able to have informed them of it, would certainly have received notice from him of what was intended against them by Elijah, that is to say that they would be all cut in pieces, for Satan was not such a fool as not to know that Baal was a non-entity and nothing, at best a dead man perished and rotting in his grave, for Baal was Baal or Belis, an ancient king of the Assyrian monarchy, and he could no more answer by fire to consume the sacrifice than he could raise himself from the dead. But the priests of Baal were left of their master to their just fate, namely, to be a sacrifice to the fury of a deluded people, hence I infer his inability, for it would have been very unkind and ungrateful in him, not to have answered them if he had been able. There is another argument raised here, most justly against the devil, with relation to his being under restraint and that of greater eminence than we imagine, and it is drawn from this very passage thus, tis not to be doubted but that Satan, who has much of the element put into his hands as Prince of the Air, had a power or was able potentially speaking to have answered Baal's priests by fire, fire being in virtue of his airy principality a part of his dominion, but he was certainly withheld by the superior hand which gave him that dominion, I mean withheld for the occasion only, so in another case it was plain that Baal Am, who was one of those sorts of childeans mentioned above, who dealt in divinations and enchantments, was withheld from cursing Israel. Some are of opinion that Baal Am was not a witch or a dealer with the devil because tis said of him, or rather he says it of himself, that he saw the visions of God. Number 24-16 He hath said who heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the visions of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes open. Hence they allege he was one of those Magi which Saint Augustine speaks of, who by the study of nature and by the contemplation of created beings came to the knowledge of the creature, and that Baal Am's fault was that being tempted by the rewards and honours that the king promised him, he intended to have cursed Israel, but when his eyes were opened and that he saw they were God's own people, he durst not do it. They will have it therefore that except, as above, Baal Am was a good man, or at least that he had the knowledge of the true God and the fear of that God upon him and that he honestly declares this. Number 22-18 If Baal Am would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the world of the Lord my God. Where though he is called a false prophet by some, he evidently owns God and assumes a property in him as other prophets did, my God, and I cannot go beyond his orders, but that which gives me a better opinion of Baal Am than all this is, his plain prophecy of Christ. Chapter 24-17 Where he calls him the star of Jacob and declares, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Seth, all which express not a knowledge only, but a faith in Christ. But I have done preaching. This is all by the by. I return to my business, which is the history. There is another piece of dark practice here, which lies between Satan and his particular agents, and which they must give us an answer to when they can, which I think will not be in haste, and that is about obsequious devil submitting to be called up into visibility whenever an old woman has her hand crossed with a white sixpence, as they call it. One would think that instead of these vile things called riches being sold to the devil, the devil was really sold for a slave to them. For how far Suver Satan's residence is off of the state of life, they have power, it seems, to fetch him from home and oblige him to come at their call. I can give little account of this, only that indeed so it is, nor is the thing so strange in itself as the methods to do it are mean, foolish and ridiculous, as making a circle and dancing in it, pronouncing such and such words, saying the Lord's prayer backward and the like. Now is this agreeable to the dignity of the prince of the air or atmosphere, that he should be commanded forth with no more pomp or ceremony, than that of muttering a few words such as the old witches and he agree about, or is there something else in it which none of us or themselves understand. Perhaps indeed he is always with those people called witches and conjurers or at least some of his camp volante are always present and so upon the least call of the wizard it is but putting off the misty cloak and showing themselves. Then we have a piece of mock pageantry in bringing those things called witches or conjurers to justice, that is first to know if a woman be a witch, throw her into a pond and if she be a witch she will swim and it is not in her own power to prevent it. If she does all she can to sink herself it will not do, she will swim like a cork. Then that a rope will not hang a witch but she must get a width, a green ossea, that if you nail a horseshoe on the seal of the door she cannot come into the house or go out if she be in. These and a thousand more. Too simple to be believed are yet so vouched, so taken for granted and so universally received for truth. There is no resisting them without being thought a-theistical. What methods to take to know? Well witches I really know not, but on the other side I think they are a variety of methods to be used to know who are not. W. G. S. is a man of fame. His parts are great because his estate is so. He has three score and eight lines of Virgil by rote. When they take up many of the intervals of his merry discourses he has just as many witty stories to please society when they are well told, once over. He begins again and so he lives in a round of wit and learning. He is a man of great simplicity and sincerity. You must be careful not to mistake by meaning as to the word simplicity. Some take it to mean honesty and so do I, only that it has a negative attending it in his particular case. In a word W. G. is an honest man and no conjurer, good character I think, and without impeachment to his understanding. He may be a man of worth for all that. Take the other sex. There is the Lady H. is another discovery. Bless us. What charms in that face. How bright those eyes. How flowing white her breasts. How sweet her voice. Add to all how heavily divinely good her temper. How inimitable her behaviour. How spotless her virtue. How perfect her innocence. And to sum up her character we may add the Lady H. is no witch. Sure none of our bold critics will be so unkind now as to censor me in those honest descriptions as if I meant that my good friend W. G. S. or my adored angel of the bright of the charming Lady H. were fools, but what will not those savages called critics do whose barbarous nature inclines them to trample on the brightest characters and to cavel on the clearest expressions. It might be expected of me, however. Injustice to my friends and to the bright characters of abundance of gentlemen of this age who by the depth of their politics and the height of their elevations might be suspected and might give us room to charge them with subterranean intelligence. I say it might be expected that I should clear up their fame and assure the world concerning them even by name that they are no conjurers that they do not deal with the devil at least not by the way rich craft and divinations such as their T. K. E. B. S. my lord homily Cole Swagger Geoffrey Well with S. Captain Harry Go Deeper Mr. Wellcome Wallen Citizen and merchant tailor of London Henry Cadeva S. The D. of Cale Philly The Marcus of Silly Hoo To Edward Throw and Throbart and a world of fine gentlemen more whose great hands and weighty understandings have given the world such occasion to challenge them with being at least descended from the Magi and perhaps engaged with old Satan in his politics and experiments but I, that have such good intelligence among Satan's ministers of state as is necessary to the present undertaking thereby are able to clear up their characters and I doubt not but they will value themselves upon it and acknowledge their obligation to me for letting the world know the devil does not pretend to have had any business with them or to have enrolled them in the list of his operators in a word that none of them are conjurers upon which testimony of mine I expect they be no longer charged with or so much as suspected of having an unlawful quantity of wit or having any sorts of it about them that are contraband or prohibited but that for the future they pass unmolested and be taken for nothing for what they are very honest worthy gentlemen End of Part 2, Chapter 9 Recording by Farah Iftikar Part 2, Chapter 10 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 Recording by Rick Veena The History of the Devil by Daniel Defoe Part 2, Chapter 10 of the various methods the devil takes to converse with mankind He makes spoken something of persons and particularly of such as the devil thinks fit to employ in his affairs in the world It comes next of course to say something of the manner how he communicates his mind to them and by them to the rest of his acquaintance in the world I take the devil to be under great difficulties in his affairs Part, especially occasioned by the bounds which are set him or which policies oblige him to set to himself in his access to the conversing with mankind To his evident he is not permitted to fall upon them with force and arms That is to say to muster up his infernal troops and attack them with fire and sword If he was not loose to act in this manner as he was able by his own seraphic power to have destroyed the whole race and even the earth they dwelt upon So he would certainly and long ago have effectually done it His particular interests and inclinations are well enough known But in the next place as he is thus restrained from violence so prudentials restrain him in all his other actings with mankind and being confined to stratagem and soft still methods such as persuasion allurement, feeding the appetite prompting and then gratifying corrupt desires and the like He finds it for his purpose not to appear in person except very rarely and then in disguise but to act all the rest in the dark under the visor of art and craft making use of persons and methods concealed or at least not fully understood or discovered As to the persons whom he employs I have taken some pains you see to discover some of them but the methods he uses with them either to inform and instruct and give orders to them or to converse with other people by them These are very particular and deserve some place in our memoirs particularly as they may serve to remove some of our mistakes and to take off some of the frightful ideas apt to entertain in prejudice of this great manager as if he was no more to be matched in his politics than he would be to be matched in his power if it was let loose which is so much a mistake that on the contrary we read of several people that have abused and cheated the devil a thing which I cannot say is very honest nor just not withstanding the old Latin proverb falere falentem non est fraus which men construe or rather render by way of banter upon Satan tis no sin to cheat the devil which for all that upon the whole I deny and allege that let the devil act how he will by us we ought to deal fairly by him but to come to the business without circumlocutions I am to inquire how Satan issues out his orders gives his instructions and fully delivers his mind to his emissaries of whom I have mentioned some in the title to chapter 9 in order to this you must form an idea of the devil sitting in great state in open campaign with all his legions about him in the height of the atmosphere or if you will at a certain distance from the atmosphere and above it that the plan of his encampment might not be hurried round its own axis with the earth's diurnal motion which might be some disturbance to him by this fixed situation the earth performing its rotation he has every part and parcel of it brought to a direct opposition to him and consequently to his view once in 24 hours the last time I was there if I remember right he had this quarter of the world called Christendom just under his eye and as the motion is not so swift but that his piercing optics can take a strict view of it en passant for the circumference of it being but 21,000 miles and its circular motion being full 24 hours performing he has something more than an hour to view every thousand miles which to his supernatural penetration is not worth naming as he takes thus a daily view of all the circle and an hourly view of the parts he is fully master of all transactions at least such as are done above board by all mankind and then he dispatches his emissaries or aid du camp to every part with his orders and instructions now these emissaries you are to understand are not the witches and diviners who I spoke of above for I call them also emissaries but they are all devils or as you know they are called devils angels and these may perhaps come and converse personally with the sub emissaries I mentioned to be ready for their support and assistance on all occasions of business these are those devils which the witches are said to raise for we can hardly suppose the master devil comes himself at the summons of every ugly old woman these run about at every nook and corner wherever Satan's business calls them and are never wanting to him but are the most diligent devils imaginable like the Turkish chayus they no sooner receive their errand but they execute it with the utmost alacrity and as to their speed it may be truly written as a motto every individual devil known indiget calcaribus these are those who they tell us are witches, sorcerers, wizards and such sorts of folks converse freely with and are therefore called their familiars and as they tell us come to them in human shapes talk to them with articulate plain voices as if men and that yet the said witches et cetera know them to be devils history is not yet enlightened us in this part of useful knowledge or at least not sufficiently for a description of the persons or habits of these sorts of appearances as what shapes they take up what language they speak and what particular works they perform so we must refer it to farther inquiry but if we may credit history we are told many famous stories of these appearances for example the famous mother lackland who was burnt for a witch at Ipswich Anno 1646 confessed at the time of her execution or a little before it that she had frequent conversation with the devil himself that she being very poor and with all of a devilish passionate, cruel and revengeful disposition before used to wish she had it in her power to do such and such mischievous things to some that she hated and that the devil himself who it seems knew her temper came to her one night as she lay in her bed and was between sleeping and waking and speaking in a deep hollow voice told her if she would serve him in some things he would employ her to do she should have her will of all her enemies and should want for nothing that she was much afraid at first but that he soliciting her very often bade her not be afraid of him and still urged her to yield and as she says struck his claw into her hand and though it did not hurt her made it bleed and with the blood wrote the covenants that is to say the bargain between them being asked what was in them and whether he required her to curse or deny God or Christ she said no Notabene I do not find she told them whether the devil wrote it with a pen or whether on paper or parchment nor whether she signed it or no but it seems he carried it away with him I suppose if Satan's register were examined it might be found among the archives of hell the roles of his apta publica and when his historiographer royal publishes them we may look for it among them then he furnished her with three devils to wait upon her I suppose for she confessed they were to be employed in her service they attended in the shapes of two little dogs and a mole the first she bewitched was her own husband by which he lay a while in great misery and died then she sent to one captain Biel and burnt a new ship of his just built which had never been at sea these and many other horrid things she did and confessed in twenty years a witch at last the devil left her and she was burnt as she deserved that some extraordinary occasions may bring these agents of the devil nay, sometimes the devil himself to assume human shapes and appear to other people we cannot doubt he did thus in the case of our savior as a tempter and some think he did so to Manassas as a familiar who the scripture charges with sorcery and having a familiar or devil fame tells us that Saint Dunstan frequently conversed with him and finally took him by the nose and so of others but in these modern ages of the world he finds it much more to his purpose to work underground as I have observed and to keep upon the reserve so that we have no authentic accounts of his personal appearance but what are very ancient or very remote from our faith as well as our inquiry it seems to be a question that would bear some debating whether all apparitions are not devils or from the devil but there being so many of those apparitions which we call spirits which really assume shapes and make appearances in the world upon such accounts as we know Satan himself scorns to be employed in that I must dismiss the question in favor of the devil assuring them that as he never willingly did any good in his life so he would be far from giving himself the trouble of setting one foot into the world on such an errand and for that reason we may be assured those certain apparitions which we are told came to detect a murder in Glistershar and others who appeared to prevent the ruining an orphan for want or finding a deed that was not lost was certainly some other power equally concerned and not the devil on the other hand neither will it follow that Satan never appears in human shape for though every apparition may not be the devil yet it does not follow that the devil never makes an apparition all I shall say to it is as I have mentioned before that generally speaking the devil finds it more for his purpose to have his interest in the world propagated another way namely in private and his personal appearances are reserved for things only of extraordinary consequence and as I may say of evident necessity where his honor is concerned and where his interest could be carried on no other way not forgetting to take notice that this is very seldom it remains to inquire what then those things are which we make so much stir about and which are called apparitions or spirits assuming human shapes and showing themselves to people on particular occasions whether they are evil spirits or good and though indeed this is out of my way at this time and does not relate at all to the devil's history yet I thought it not a miss to mention it one because as I have said I do not wholly exclude Satan from all concern in such things and two because I shall dismiss the question with so very short an answer namely that we may determine which are and which are not the devil's by the errand they come upon every one to his own business if it comes of a good errand you may certainly acquit the devil of it conclude him innocent and that he has no hand in it if it comes of a wicked and devilish errand you may even take him up upon suspicion tis ten to one but you find him at the bottom of it next to apparitions we find mankind disturbed by abundance of little odd reserved ways which the devil is shrewdly suspected of having a hand in such as dreams noises voices et cetera smells of brimstone candles burning blue and the like as to dreams I have nothing to say in Satan's prejudice at all there I make no question but he deals very much with that kind of intelligence and why should he not we know heaven itself formerly conversed very often with the greatest of men by the same method and the devil is known to mimic the methods as well as the actions of his maker whether heaven has not quite left off that way of working we are not certain but we pretty well know that the devil has not left it and I believe some instances may be given where his worship has been really seen and talked to in sleep as much as if the person had been awake with his eyes open these are to be distinguished too pretty much by the goodness or badness of the subject how often he would murder robbery and adultery in a dream and at the same time accept an extraordinary agitation of the soul and expressed by extraordinary noises in the sleep by violent sweating and other such ways the head has never been removed from the pillow whether in such cases the soul with all the passions and affections being agitated and giving their full assent to the facts of whatever kind so ever the man is not as guilty as if the sins so dreamed of his committing had been actually committed though it be no doubt to me it is so yet as it is foreign to the present affair and not at all relating to the devil's history I leave it to the reverend doctors of the church as properly belonging to them to decide I knew a person who the devil so haunted with naked women fine beautiful ladies in bed with him and ladies of his acquaintance too offering their favors to him and all in his sleep so that he seldom slept without some such entertainment the particulars are too gross for my story but he gave me several long accounts of his knights amours and being a man of a virtuous life and good morals I was the greatest surprise to him imaginable for you cannot doubt but that the cunning devil made everything be acted to the life with him and in a manner the most wicked he owned with grief to me that the very first attack the devil made upon him was with a very beautiful lady of his acquaintance who he had been really something freer with in their common conversation this lady he brought to him in a posture for wickedness and wrought up his inclination so high in his sleep that he, as he thought actually went about to debauch her she not at all resisting but that he waked in the very moment he was greatly concerned at this part namely that he really gave the consent of his will to the fact and wanted to know if he was not as guilty of adultery as if he had lain with her indeed he decided the question against himself so forcibly that I, who was of the same opinion before had nothing to say against it however I confirmed him in it by asking him these questions one whether he did not think the devil had the chief hand in such a dream he answered it could certainly be nobody else it must be the devil two I then asked him what reason the devil could have for it sent to the fact in sleep had not been criminal that's true indeed says he I am answered but then he asked another question which I confess is not so easy to answer namely how he should prevent being served so again nor could all my divinity or his own keep the devil from attacking him again on the other hand as I have said he worried him to that degree that he injured his health bringing naked women to him sometimes one sometimes another sometimes in one posture of lewdness sometimes in another sometimes into his very arms sometimes with such additions as I am not merry enough sometimes such as I am not wicked enough to put into your heads the man indeed could not help it and so the devil was more faulty than he but as I hinted to him he might bring his mind to such a stated habit of virtue as to prevent its assenting to any wicked motion even in sleep and that would be the way to put an end to the attempt and this advice he relished very well and practiced I believe with success by the same method the same devil injects powerful incentives to other crimes provokes avarice by laying a great quantity of gold in your view and nobody present giving you an opportunity to steal it or some of it at the same time perhaps knowing your circumstances to be such as that you are at that time in a great want of the money I knew another who being a tradesman and in great distress for money in his business dreamed that he was walking all alone in a great wood and that he met a little child with a bag of gold in its hand and a fine necklace of diamonds on its neck upon the sight his wants presently dictated to him to rob the child the little innocent creature just so he dreamed not being able to resist or to tell who it was accordingly he consented to take the money from the child and then to take the diamond necklace from it too and did so but the devil a full testimony as I told him that it was the devil not contented with that hinted to him that perhaps the child might some time or other know him and single him out by crying or pointing or some such thing especially if he was suspected and shooed to it and therefore it would be better for him to kill the child prompting him to kill it for his own safety and that he need do no more but twist the neck of it a little or crush it with his knee he told me he stood debating with himself to do so or not but that in that instant his heart struck him with the word murder and he entertained a horror of it refused to do it and immediately wait he told me that when he wait he found himself in so violent a sweat as he never had known the like that his pulse beat with that heat and rage that it was like a palpitation of the heart to him and that the agitation of his spirits was such that he was not fully composed in some hours though the satisfaction and joy that attended him when he found it was but a dream assisted much to return his spirits to their due temperament it is neither my business or inclination to turn divine here nor is the age I write to sufficiently grave to relish a sermon if I was disposed to preach though they must allow the subject would very well bear it but I shall only ask them if they think this is not the devil what they think it is if they believe it is the devil they will act accordingly I hope or let it alone as Satan and they can agree about it I should not oblige the devil over much whatever I might do to those that read it if I should enter here upon a debate of interests that is to say to inquire whether the devil has not a vast advantage upon mankind this way and whether it is not much his interest to preserve it and if I prove the affirmative I leave it to you to inquire whose interest it is to disappoint and supplant him in short I take dreams to be the second best of the advantages the devil has over mankind the first I suppose you all know that is to say the treachery of the garrison within by dreams he may be said to get into the inside of us without opposition here he opens and locks without a key and like an enemy laying siege to a fortified city reason and nature the governor of the city keep him out by day and keep the garrison true to their duty but in the dark he gets in and parlays with the garrison the affections and passions debauches their loyalty steering up them to disloyalty and rebellion so they betray their trust revolt mutiny and go over to the besieger thus he manages his interest I say and insinuates himself into the inside of us without our consent nay without our knowledge for whatever speculation may do to his evident demonstration does not assist us to discover which way he gets access to the soul while the organ tied up and dozed with sleep has locked it up from action that it is so is clear but how he does it is a secret which I do not find the ancients or moderns have yet made a discovery of the devil of a creature mother lackland whose story I mentioned above acknowledged that the first time the devil attempted to draw her in to be a witch was in a dream and even when she consented she said she was between sleeping and waking that is she did not know whether she was awake or asleep and the cunning devil it seems was satisfied with her ascent when she was asleep or neither asleep or awake so taking the advantage of her incapacity to act rationally the stories of her bewitching several people in the manner in which they died are so formidable and extravagant that I care not to put anyone's faith to the stretch about them though published by authority and testified by abundance of witnesses but this is recorded in particular and to my purpose whether from her own mouth or not I do not say namely the description of a witch and a difference between witches and those other of Satan's acquaintance who act in his name one they have consulted and covenanted with a spirit or devil two they have a deputy devil sometimes several to serve and assist them three these they employ as they please call them by name and command their appearance in whatever shape they think fit four they send them abroad to or into the persons who they designed to bewitch who they always torment and often murder them as mother Lackland did several as to the difference between the several devils that appear it relates to the office of the persons who employ them as conjurers who seem to command the particular devil that waits upon them with more authority and raise them and lay them at pleasure drawing circles casting figures and the like but the witch any more familiar manner whispers with the devil keeps the devil in a bag or a sack sometimes in her pocket and the like and like Mr. Foe shows tricks with him but all these kinds deal much in dreams talk with the devil in their sleep and make other people talk with him in their sleep too and is on this occasion I mention it here in short the devil may well take this opportunity with mankind for not half the world that came into his measures would comply if they were awake but of that hereafter and yet his thus insinuating himself by dream does not seem sufficient in my opinion to answer the devil's end and to carry on his business and therefore we must be forced to allow him a kind of actual action in particular cases and that in the souls of some people by different methods from others Luther is of the opinion that the devil gets a familiarity with some souls just at or rather before their being embodied as to the manner and method how he gets in that is another question spoken of by itself besides why may not he that at Satan's request to enter into the herd of swine said go give the same commission to possess a sort of creatures so many degrees below the dignity of the Gatoranian swine and open the door too but as for that when our Lord said go the devil never inquired which way he should get in when then I see nations or indeed herds of nations set on fire of hell and as I may say inflamed by the devil when I see towns parties factions and rabbles of people visibly possessed to me that the great master of the devils has said to him go there's no need to inquire which way he finds open or at what poster gate he gets in as to his appearing to his plane he often gets in without appearing and therefore the question about his appearing still remains a doubt and is not very easy to be resolved in the scripture we have some light into it and that is all the help I find from antiquity and it goes a great way to solve the phenomena of Satan's appearing what I mean by the scripture giving some light to it is this to said in several places and of several persons God came to them in a dream Genesis 23 God came to Abimelech in a dream by night Genesis 31 24 and God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream Matthew 2 13 the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream short comments are sufficient to plain texts applying this to my friend when he wanted to be satisfied about the how relating to his dream that is to say how he should come to dream such wicked things I told him in short the case was plain the devil came to him in a dream by night how and in what manner he formed the wicked representations and spread debauched appearances before his fancy by real whispers and voice according to Milton or by what other methods the learned are not arrived to any certainty about it this leads me necessarily to inquire whether the devil or some of his agents are not always in our company whether they make any visible appearances or no for my part I make no question of it how else could he come at the knowledge of what we do for as I can allow him no prescience at all as for many reasons I have observed already he must be able to see and know us and what we are about when we know nothing of him or else he could know nothing of us and our affairs which yet we find otherwise and this gives him infinite advantage to influence our actions to judge of our inclinations and to bring our passions to clash with our reason as they often do and get the better of it too all this he obtains by his being able to walk about invisible and see when he is not seen of which I have spoken already hence that most wise and solid suggestion that when the candles burn blue the devil is in the room which great secret in nature that you may more fully be convinced of its imaginary reality I must tell you the following story which I saw in a letter directed to a particular friend take it word for word as in the letter because I do not make myself accountable for the facts but take them odd referendum sir we had one day very early in the morning and for the most part of the day a great deal of rain with a high wind and the clouds very thick and dark all day in the evening the cloudy thick weather continued though not the rain when being in a friend's house in blank lane London and several ladies and some gentlemen in the room besides two or three servants for we had been eating the following interlude happened for our entertainment when the cloth was taken away two large candles were brought upon the table and placed there with some bottles and glasses for the gentlemen who it seems were intending to drink and be very merry two large wax candles were also set on another table the ladies being going to cards also there were two large candles in sconces over or near the chimney and one more in a looking glass sconce here by the window with all this apparatus the company separating sat down the gentlemen at their table and the ladies at theirs to play as above when after some time the gentlemen of the house said hastily to a servant what a pee blank ales the candles and turning to the servant wraps out an oath or two and bids him snuff the candles for they burnt as if the devil was in the room the fellow going to snuff one of the candles snuffs it out at which his master being in a passion the fellow lights it again immediately at the other candle and then being in a little hurry going to snuff the other candle snuffed that out too the first candle that was relighted as is usual in such cases burned dim and dull for a good while and the other being out the room was much darker than before in a winch that stood by the ladies table balls out to her mistress law, madam the candles burn blue an old lady that sat by says I betty so they do upon this one of the ladies starts up mercy upon us says she what is the matter in this unlucky moment another servant without orders went to the great pier sconce and because as he thought the candle well he offers to take it down but very unhappily I say the hook came out and down falls the sconce candle and all and the looking glass broke all to pieces with a horrible noise however the candle falling out of the sconce did not go out but lay on the floor burning dully and as it is usual on such cases all on one side betty cries out again law, madam that candle burns blue too the very moment she said this the footman that had thrown down the sconce says to his fellow servant that came to his assistance I think the devil is in the candles tonight in a way he run out of the room for fear of his master the old lady who upon the maid betty's notion of the candles burning blue had her head just full of that old chimney corner story the candles burn blue when the spirits are in the room heard the footman say the word devil something else of what he said upon this she rises up in a terrible fright and cries out that the footman said the devil was in the room as she was indeed frighted out of her wits she frighted the ladies most terribly and they all starting up together down goes the card table and put the wax candles out Mrs. Betty that had frighted them all runs to the sconce next the chimney but that having a long snuff she cried out it burnt blue too and she durst not touch it in short though there were three candles left still burning in the room yet the ladies were all so frighted that they and the maids too run out of the parlor screaming like mad folks the master in a rage kicked his first man out of the room and the second man was run out to avoid as I said before the like so that no servant was to be had but all was in confusion the two other gentlemen who were sitting at the first table kept their seats composed and easy enough only concerned to see all the house in such a fright it was true they said the candles burnt dim and very oddly but they could not perceive they burnt blue except one of those over the chimney and that on the table which was relighted out however the maid the old lady and the footman that pulled down the sconce all insist that the candles burnt blue and all pretend that the devil was certainly in the room and was the occasion of it and they now came to me with the story to desire my opinion of it this put me upon inquiry into the notion of candles burning blue when spirits are in a room which upon all the search into things that I am able to make amounts to no more than this that upon any extraordinary emission of sulfurous or of nitrous particles either in a closed room or in any not very open place if the quantity be great a candle or a lamp or any such little blaze of fire will seem to be or to burn blue and if then they can prove that any such effluvia attends or is emitted from a spirit then when Satan is at hand it may be so but then question grossly because no man can assure us that the devil has any sulfurous particles about him it is true the candles burn thus in mines and vaults and damp places and tis as true that they will do so upon occasion of very damp, stormy and moist air when an extraordinary quantity of vapors are supposed to be dispersed abroad as was the case when this happened and if there was any thing of that in it on that Monday night the candles might perhaps burn blue upon that occasion but that the devil was abroad upon any extraordinary business that night that I cannot grant unless I have some better testimony than the old lady that heard the footman's outcry but by haves or then Mrs. Betty who first fancied the candles burnt blue so I must suspend my judgment till I hear farther this story, however may solve a great many of those things which pass for apparitions in the world in which are laid to the devil's charge though he really may know nothing of the matter and this would bring me to defend Satan in many things wherein he may truly be said to suffer wrongfully and if I thought it would oblige him I might say something to his advantage this way however I'll venture a word or two for an injured devil taken as you will first it is certain that as this invisibility of the devil is very much to our prejudice so the doctrine of his visibility is a great prejudice to him as we make use of it by his invisibility he is certainly vested with infinite advantages against us while he can be present with us and we know nothing of the matter he informs himself of all our measures and arms himself in the best and most suitable manner to injure and assault us as he can counteract all our secret concerted designs disappoint all our schemes and except when heaven apparently concerns itself to overrule him can defeat all our enterprises break all our measures and do us mischief in almost every part of our life and all this because we are not privy to all his motions as he is to ours but now for his visibility and his appearance in the world and particularly among his disciples and emissaries such as witches and wizards demonists and the like here I think Satan has a great deal of loss suffers manifest injury and has great injustice done him and that therefore I ought to clear this matter up a little if it be possible to justice to Satan and set matters right in the world about him according to that useful old maxim of setting the saddle upon the right horse or giving the devil his due first as I have said we are not to believe every idle head who pretends even to converse face to face with the devil and who tells us they have thus seen him and been acquainted with him every day many of these pretenders are manifest cheats and however they would have the honor of a private interest in him and boast how they have him at their back can call him this way and send him that as they please raise him and lay him when and how and as often as they find for their purpose I say whatever boasts they make of this kind they really have nothing of truth in them now the injuries and injustice done to the devil in these cases are manifest namely that they entitled the devil to all the mischief they are pleased to do in the world and if they commit a murder or a robbery fire a house or do any active violence in the world they presently are said to do it by the agency of the devil and the devil helps them so Satan bears the reproach and they have all the guilt this is one, a grand cheat upon the world and two, a notorious slander upon the devil and it would be a public benefit to mankind to have such would-be devils as these turned inside out that we might know when the devil was really at work among us and when not what mischiefs were of his doing and which were not and that these fellows might not slip their necks out of the halter by continually laying the blame of their wickedness upon the devil not that the devil is not very willing to have his hand in any mischief or in all the mischief that is done in the world but there are some low prized rogueries that are too little for him beneath the dignity of his operation and which tis really a scandal to the devil to charge upon him I remember the devil had such a cheat put upon him in East Smithfield once where a person pretended to converse with the devil face to face and that in open day too and to cause him to tell fortunes for tell good and evil etc discover stolen goods tell where they were who stole them and how to find them again nay, and even to find out the thieves but Satan was really slandered in the case the fellow had no more to do with the devil than other people and perhaps not so much this was one of those they called cunning men or at least he endeavored to pass for such a one but was all a cheat besides what had the devil to do to detect thieves and restore stolen goods thieving and robbing trick and cheat are part of the craft of his agency and his deployments which it is his business to encourage they greatly mistake him who think he will assist any body in suppressing and detecting such laudable arts in such diligent servants I won't say but the devil to draw these people we call cunning men into a snare and the other designs may encourage them privately and in a manner that they themselves know nothing of to make use of his name and abuse the world about him till at last they may really believe they do deal with the devil when indeed his only he deals with them and they know nothing of the matter in other cases may encourage them in these little frauds and cheats and give them leave as above to make use of his name to bring them afterwards and by degrees to have a real acquaintance with him so bringing the jest of their trade into earnest till at length prompting them to commit some great villainy he secures them to be his own the very fear of his leaving them to be exposed to the world thus he puts a Jonathan wild upon them and makes them be the very wretches they only pretended to be before so old Parsons of Clithro as fame tells was 25 years a cunning man and 22 years a witch that is to say 5 and 20 years he was only pretending to deal with the devil when Satan and he had no manner of acquaintance and he only put his leisure the man upon the people in the devil's name without his leave but at length the devil's patience being tired quite out he told the old counterfeit that in short he had been his stalking-horse long enough and that now if he thought fit to enter himself and take a commission well and good and he should have a lease to carry on his trade for so many years more to his heart's content but if not he would expose his navery to the world for that he should take away his people's trade here but that he Satan would set up another in his room that should make a mere fool of him and carry away all his customers upon this the old man considered of it took the devil's council and listed in his pay so he that had played his pranks 25 years as a conjurer when he was no conjurer was then forced really to deal with the devil for fear the people should know he did not till now he had Ambo Dexter cheated the devil on one hand and the people on the other but the devil gained his point at last and so he was a real wizard ever after but this is not the only way the devil has injured neither for we have often found people pretend upon him in other cases and of nearer concern to him a great deal and in articles more weighty as in particular in the great business of possession it is true this point is not thoroughly understood among men neither has the devil not fit to give us those illuminations about it as I believe he might do particularly that great and important article is not for ought I can see rightly explained namely whether there are not two several kinds of possession that is to say some wherein the devil possesses us and some in which we really possess the devil the nicety of which I doubt this age with all its penetration is not qualified to explain in a dissertation upon it being too long for this work especially so near its conclusion I am obliged to admit as I am also all the practical discourses upon the usefulness and advantages of real possession whether considered one way or other to mankind all which I must leave to hereafter but to come back to the point in hand and to consider the injustice done to the devil in the various turns and tricks which men put upon him very often in this one article to say pretending to possession and to have the devil in them when really it is not so certainly the devil must take it very ill to have all their demented lunatic tricks charged upon him some of which nay, most of which are so gross so simple so empty and so little to the purpose he ashamed to see such things pass in his name or that the world should think he was concerned in them it is true that possession being one of the principal pieces of the devil's artifice in his managing mankind and in which with the most exquisite skill he plays the devil among us he has the more reason to be wanted when he finds himself invaded in this part and angry that any body should pretend to possess or be possessed without his leave and this may be the reason for ought we know why so many blunders have been made when people have pretended to it without him and he has thought fit not to own them in it but many examples in history as in Simon Magus the devil of London the fair maid of Kent and several others whose history it is not worthwhile to enlarge upon in short possessions as I have said are nice things as it is not so easy to mimic the devil in that part as it may be in some other designing men have attempted it often but their manner has been easily distinguished even without the devil's assistance thus the people of Salem in New England pretended to be bewitched and that a black man tormented them by the instigation of such and such whom they resolved to bring to the gallows this black man they would have be the devil employed by the person who they accused for a witch thus making the devil a page or a footman to the wizard to go and torment whoever the said wizard commanded till the devil himself was so weary of the foolish part that he left them to go on their own way and at last they overacted the murdering part so far that when they confessed themselves to be witches and possessed and that they had correspondence with the devil Satan not appearing to vouch for them no jury would condemn them upon their own evidence and they could not get themselves hanged whatever pains they took to bring it to pass thus you see the devil may be wronged and falsely accused in many particulars and often has been so there are likewise some other sorts of counterfeit devils in the world such as gypsies fortune tellers foretellers of good and bad luck sellers of winds razors of storms and many more some practiced among us some in foreign parts too many almost to reckon up nay I almost doubt whether the devil himself knows all the sorts of them for it is evident he has little or nothing to do with them I mean not in the way of their craft these I take to be interlopers or with the guinea merchants leave separate traitors and who act under the screen and protection of Satan's power but without his license or authority no doubt these carry away a great deal of his trade that is to say the trade which otherwise the devil might have carried on by agents or his own I cannot but say that while these people can be thought devils though they really are not it is but just they should be really made as much devils as they pretended to be or that Satan should do himself justice upon them as he threatened to do upon old Parsons of Clithro above mentioned and let the world know them and of history of the devil part 2 chapter 10 part 2 chapter 11 section a 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 chapter 11 section a of divination sorcery the black art and such like pretenders to devilism and how far the devil is or is not concerned in them though I am writing the history of the devil I am not undertaken to do the like of all the kinds of people male or female this would be a test for the devil indeed and fit only for him to undertake for the number is and has been prodigious great and may with his other legions be ranked among the innumerable what a world do we inhabit where there is not only with us a great roaring lion devil daily seeking whom of us he may devour and innumerable millions of lesser devils hovering in the whole year over us we know other millions always invisibly moving about us and perhaps in us or at least in many of us but that have besides all these a vast many counterfeit hocus pocus devils human devils who are visible among us of our own species and fraternity conversing with us upon all occasions who like monta banks set up their stages in every town chat with us at every tea table converse with us in every coffee house and impudently tell us to our faces that they are devils most of it and use a thousand tricks and arts to make us believe it too and that too often with success it must be confessed there is a strong propensity in man's nature especially the more ignorant part of mankind to resolve every strange thing or whether really strange or null if it be but strange to us into devilism and to say everything is the devil that they can give no account of thus the famous doctors of the faculty at Paris when John Faustus brought the first printed books that had then been seen in the world for at least seen there into the city and sold them for manuscripts they were surprised at the performance and questioned Faustus about it but he affirming they were manuscripts and that he kept a great many clerks employed to write them they were satisfied for a while but looking farther into the work they observed the exact agreement of every book one with another that every line stood in the same place every page a like number of lines every line a like number of words the word was misspelled in one it was misspelled also in another nay that if there was a blood in one it was a like in all they began again to muse how this should be in a word the learned divines not being able to comprehend the thing and that was always sufficient concluded it must be the devil and it was done by magic and witchcraft and that in short poor Faustus who was indeed nothing but a mere printer dealt with the devil John Faustus was servant or journeyman or compositor or what you pleased to call it the first inventor of printing and having printed the Psalter sold them at Paris as manuscripts because as such they yielded a better price but the learned doctors not being able to understand how the work was performed concluded as above it was all the devil and that the man was a witch and he came up for a magician and a conjurer and one that worked by the black art that is to say by the help of the devil and in a word they threatened to hang him for a witch and in order to it commenced a process against him in their criminal courts which made such a noise in the world as raised the fame of poor John Faustus to a frightful height till at last he was obliged for fear of the gallows and be this is the true original of the famous doctor Faustus or Faustus of whom we have believe such strange things as that it has become a proverb as great as the devil and doctor Faustus whereas poor Faustus was no doctor and knew no more of the devil than any body thus the magistrates of Bern in Switzerland finding a gang of French actors to open their stage in the town upon hearing the surprising accounts which the people gave of their wonderful puppets how they made them speak answer questions and discourse appear and disappear in a moment pop up here as if they rise out of the earth and down there as if they vanished and abundance more feats of art censored them as demons and if they had not packed up their trinkets and disappeared almost as dexterously as their puppets they had certainly condemned the poor puppets to the flames for devils and censored if not otherwise punished their masters see the count of Rocheford's memoirs page 179 wonderful operations astonish the mind especially where the head is not overburdened with brains and custom has made it so natural to give the devil either the honor or scandal everything that we cannot otherwise count for that it is not possible to put the people out of the road of it the magicians were in the Chalcedon monarchy called the Wisemen and though they are joined with the sorcerers and astrologers in the same place Daniel 2 4 yet they were generally so understood among those people but in our language we understand them to be people that have an art to reveal secrets interpret dreams foretell events etc and that use enchantments and sorceries by all which we understand the same thing which now in a more vulgar way we express by one general course expression dealing with the devil the scripture speaks of a spirit of divination Acts 16 verse 16 in a wench that was possessed by the spirit brought her master much gain by sooth saying that is to say according to the learned by oracle or answering questions once you will see in the margin that this sooth saying devil is there called python that is Apollo who is often called python and who at the oracle of Delphos gave out such answers and double entendres as this wench possibly did and hence all those spirits which were called spirits of divination were in another sense called pythons now when the apostle saint paul came to see this creature the spirit takes upon it to declare that those men meeting saint paul and timifeas were the servants of the most high god which show unto them the way of salvation this was a good turn of the devil to preserve his authority and the possessed girl she brought them gain by sooth saying that is to say resolving difficult questions answering doubts interpreting dreams et cetera among these doubts he makes her give testimony to paul and timifeas to wheatle in with the new Christians and perhaps though very ignorantly even with paul and timifeas themselves so to give a kind of credit and respect to her for speaking but the devil who never speaks truth to some sinister end was discovered here and detected his flattering recognition not accepted and he himself uncannled as he deserved there the devil was overshot in his own bow again here now was a real possession and the evil spirits who possessed her did stoop to sundry little acts of servitude that we could give little or no reason for only that the girl's master might get money but perhaps this was a particular case and prepared to honor the authority and power the apostles had over evil spirits but we find these things carried a great way farther in many cases that is to say where the parties are thus really possessed namely the devil makes agents of the possessed parties to do many things for the propagating his interests and kingdom and particularly for the carrying on his dominion in the world but I am for the present not so much upon the real possession as the pretended and particularly we have had many that have believed themselves possessed when the devil never believed it of them and perhaps knew them better some of these are really poor devils to be pitied and are what I call Diables imaginer these have not withstanding done the devil good service brought their masters good gain by sooth sang we find possessions acknowledged in scripture to be really and personally the devil or according to the text legions of devils in the plural the devil or devils rather which possessed the man among the tombs is positively affirmed to be the devil in the scripture all the evangelists agree in calling him so and in his very works show it the mischief he did as well as to the poor creature among the tombs who was made so fierce that he was the terror of all the country as to the herds swine into the country and the loss of them I might preach you a lecture here the devil's terror upon the approach of our savior the dread of his government and how he acknowledged that there was a time for his torment which was not yet come art thou come to torment us before our time it is evident the devil apprehended that Christ would chain them up before the day of judgment and therefore some think the devil here being as it were caught out of his due bounds possessing the poor man in such a furious manner was afraid and petitioned Christ not to chain him up for it and as the text says they besought him to suffer them to go away etc. that is to say when they say art thou come to torment us before the time the meaning is they begged he would not cast them into torment before the time which was already fixed but that if he would cast them out of the man he would let them go away etc. the evangelist St. Luke says the devil besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep our learned annotators think that part is not rightly rendered adding that they do not believe the devil fearing drowning but with submission I believe the meaning is that they would not be confined to the vast ocean where no inhabitants being to be seen they would be effectually imprisoned and tied down from doing mischief which would be a hell to them as to they're going into the swine that would afford us some allegory but I'm not disposed to jest with the scripture no nor with the devil neither farther than needs must it is evident the devil makes use of very mean instruments sometimes such as the damsel possessed with the spirit of divination and several others I remember a story how true I know not of a weak creature next door to an idiot established in the country for an oracle and would tell people strange things that should be long before they came to pass when people were sick would tell them whether they should live or die if people were married tell how many children they should have and a hundred such things has filled the people with admiration and they were the easier brought to believe that the girl was possessed but then they were divided about her too and that was the finest spun thread the devil could work for he carried a great point in it some said she had a good spirit and some a bad some said she was a prophetess and some that she was the devil now had I been there to decide the question I should certainly have given it for the latter if it were only upon this account namely that the devil has often found fools very necessary agents for the propagating his interest and kingdom but we never knew the good spirits do so on the other hand it does not seem likely that heaven should deprive a poor creature of its senses and as it were take her soul from her and then make her an instrument of instruction to others and an oracle to declare his decrees by this does not seem to be rational but as far as divination is in use in our days yet I do not find room to charge the devil with making any great use of fools unless it be such as he has particularly qualified for his work for as to idiots and naturals they are perfectly useless to him but a sort of fools called the magi indeed we have some reason to think he often works with we are not arrived to a certainty yet in the settling of this great point namely what magic is whether a diabolical art or a branch of the mathematics our most learned lexicon technium is of the latter opinion and gives the magic square and the magic lantern two terms of art the magic square is when numbers in erythematical proportion are disposed into such parallels or equal ranks as that the sums of each row as well diagonally as laterally shall be all equal for example two three four five six seven eight nine ten place these nine in the square of three they will directly and diagonally make eighteen thus this he calls the magic square but gives no reason for the term nor any account of what infernal operations are wrought by this occurrence of the numbers neither do I see that there can be any such use made of it end of part two chapter eleven section a