Daniel Defoe - The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern - In Two Parts

Gent. Going! what did you run away from him?

Tho. No, but I fled into bed at one jump, and sunk down and pull’d the bed-clothes quite over me.

Gent. And what did you do that for?

Tho. To hide my self from such a frightful creature.

Gent. Why, if it had really been the Devil, do you think the bed-clothes would have secur’d you from him?

Tho. Nay, I don’t know, but in a fright it was all I could do.

Gent. Nay, ’twas as wise as all the rest; but come, Thomas , to be a little serious, pray did he speak to you?

Tho. Yes, yes, I heard a voice, but who it was the Lord knows.

Gent. What kind of voice was it, was it like a man’s voice?

Tho. No, it was a hoarse ugly noise, like the croaking of a Frog, and it call’d me by my name twice, Thomas Dawson, Thomas Dawson .

Gent. Well, did you answer?

Tho. No, not I, I could not have spoke a word for my life; why, I was frighted to death.

Gent. Did it say any thing else?

Tho. Yes , when it saw that I did not speak, it said, Thomas Dawson, Thomas Dawson, you are a wicked wretch, you lay with Jenny S – last night; if you don’t repent, I will take you away alive and carry you to Hell, and you shall be damned, you wretch .

Gent. And was it true, Thomas , did you lye with Jenny S — the night before?

Tho. Indeed Master, why yes it was true, but I was very sorry afterwards.

Gent. But how should the Devil know it, Thomas ?

Tho. Nay, he knows it to be sure; why, they say he knows every thing.

Gent. Well , but why should he be angry at that? he would rather did you lye with her again, and encourage you to lye with forty whores, than hinder you: This can’t be the Devil, Thomas .

Tho. Yes, yes. Sir, ’twas the Devil to be sure.

Gent. But he bid you repent too, you say?

Tho. Yes, he threatn’d me if I did not.

Gent. Why, Thomas , do you think the Devil would have you repent?

Tho. Why no , that’s true too, I don’t know what to say to that; but what could it be? ’twas the Devil to be sure, it could be nobody else?

Gent. No, no, ’twas neither the Devil, Thomas , nor any body else, but your own frighted imagination; you had lain with that wench, and being a young sinner of that kind, your Conscience terrified you, told you the Devil would fetch you away, and you would be damn’d; and you were so persuaded it would be so, that you at last imagin’d he was come for you indeed; that you saw him and heard him; whereas, you may depend upon it, if Jenny S — will let you lye with her every night, the Devil will hold the candle, or do any thing to forward it, but will never disturb you; he’s too much a friend to your wickedness, it could never be the Devil, Thomas ; ’twas only your own guilt frighted you, and that was Devil enough too, if you knew the worst of it, you need no other enemy.

Tho. Why that’s true, Master, one would think the Devil should not bid me repent, that’s true; but certainly ’twas the Devil for all that.

Now Thomas was not the only man that having committed a flagitious crime had been deluded by his own imagination, and the power of fancy, to think the Devil was come for him; whereas the Devil, to give him his due, is too honest to pretend to such things; ’tis his business to persuade men to offend, not to repent; and he professes no other; he may press men to this or that action, by telling them ’tis no sin, no offence, no breach of God’s Law, and the like, when really ’tis both; but to press them to repent, when they have offended, that’s quite out of his way; ’tis none of his business, nor does he pretend to it; therefore, let no man charge the Devil with what he is not concern’d in.

But to return to his Person, he is, as I have said, notwithstanding his lost glory, a mighty, a terrible and an immortal Spirit; he is himself call’d a Prince, the Prince of the Power of the Air ; the Prince of Darkness, the Prince of Devils , and the like, and his attending Spirits are call’d his Angels : so that however Satan has lost the glory and rectitude of his Nature, by his apostate state, yet he retains a greatness and magnificence, which places him above our rank, and indeed above our conception; for we know not what he is, any more than we know what the blessed Angels are; of whom we can say no more than that they are ministring Spirits , &c. as the Scripture has describ’d them.

Two things, however, may give us some insight into the nature of the Devil, in the present state he is in; and these we have a clear discovery of in the whole series of his Conduct from the Beginning.

1. That he is the vanquish’d but implacable enemy of God his Creator, who has conquer’d him, and expell’d him from the habitations of bliss; on which account he is fill’d with envy, rage, malice, and all uncharitableness; would dethrone God and overturn the thrones of Heaven, if it was in his power.

2. That he is man’s irreconcilable Enemy; not as he is a man, nor on his own account simply, nor for any advantage he (the Devil) can make by the ruin and destruction of man; but in meer envy at the felicity he is supposed to enjoy as Satan’s rival; and as he is appointed to succeed Satan and his Angels in the possession of those glories from which they are fallen.

And here I must take upon me to say, Mr. Milton makes a wrong judgment of the reason of Satan ’s resolution to disturb the felicity of man; He tells us it was meerly to affront God his Maker, rob him of the glory design’d in his new work of creations and to disappoint him in his main design, namely, the creating a new species of creatures in a perfect rectitude of soul, and after his own image, from whom he might expect a new Fund of glory should be rais’d, and who was to appear as the triumph of the Messiah’s victory over the Devil. In all which Satan could not be fool enough not to know that he should be disappointed by the same Power which had so eminently counter-acted his rage before.

But, I believe, the Devil went upon a much more probable design; and tho’ he may be said to act upon a meaner principle than that of pointing his rage at the personal glory of his Creator; yet I own, that in my opinion, it was by much the more rational undertaking, and more likely to succeed; and that was, that whereas he perceived this new species of creatures had a sublime as well as a human part, and were made capable of possessing the mansions of eternal Beatitude, from whence, he ( Satan ) and his Angels were expell’d and irretrievably banish’d; envy at such a rival mov’d him by all possible artifice, for he saw him deprived of capacity to do it by force , to render him unworthy like himself; that bringing him to fall into rebellion and disobedience, he might see his Rival damn’d with him; and those who were intended to fill up the empty spaces in Heaven, made so by the absence of so many millions of fallen Angels, be cast out into the same darkness with them.

How he came to know that this new species of creatures were liable to such imperfection, is best explain’d by the Devil ’s prying, vigilant disposition, judging or leading him to judge by himself; (for he was as near being infallible as any of God’s creatures had been) and then inclining him to try whether it was so or no.

Modern Naturalists, especially some who have not so large a charity for the fair sex, as I have, tell us, that as soon as ever Satan saw the woman, and look’d in her face, he saw evidently that she was the best form’d creature to make a Tool of, and the best to make a hypocrite of, that could be made, and therefore the most fitted for his purpose.