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

Having thus brought the Devil and his innumerable Legions to the edge of the Bottomless-pit, it remains, before I bring them to action, that some enquiry should be made into the posture of their affairs immediately after their precipitate Fall, and into the place of their immediate Residence; for this will appear to be very necessary to Satan ’s History, and indeed, so as that without it, all the farther account we have to give of him, will be inconsistent and imperfect.

And first, I take upon me to lay down some Fundamentals, which I believe I shall be able to make out Historically, tho’, perhaps, not so Geographically as some have pretended to do.

1. That Satan was not immediately, nor is yet lock’d down into the Abyss of a local Hell , such as is supposed by some, and such as he shall be at last; or that,

2. If he was, he has certain liberties allowed him for excursions into the Regions of this Air, and certain spheres of action, in which he can, and does move, to do, like a very Devil as he is , all the mischief he can, and of which we see so many examples both about us and in us; in the inquiry after which, I shall take occasion to examine whether the Devil is not in most of us, sometimes, if not in all of us one time or other.

3. That Satan has no particular residence in this Globe or Earth where we live; that he rambles about among us, and marches over and over our whole country, he and his Devils in Camps volant ; but that he pitches his grand Army or chief Encampment in our Adjacencies or Frontiers, which the Philosophers call Atmosphere ; and whence he is call’d the Prince of the Power of that Element or part of the World we call Air ; from whence he sends out his Spies, his Agents and Emissaries, to get intelligence, and to carry his Commissions to his trusty and well beloved Cousins and Counsellors on Earth, by which his business is done, and his affairs carried on in the World.

Here, again, I meet Mr. Milton full in my face, who will have it, that the Devil , immediately at his expulsion, roll’d down directly into a Hell proper and local; nay, he measures the very distance, at least gives the length of the journey by the time they were passing or falling, which, he says, was nine days ; a good Poetical flight, but neither founded on Scripture or Philosophy; he might every jot as well have brought Hell up to the Walls of Heaven , advanc’d to receive them, or he ought to have consider’d the space which is to be allow’d to any locality, let him take what part of infinite distance between Heaven and a created Hell he pleases.

But let that be as Mr. Milton ’s extraordinary genius pleases to place it; the passage, it seems, is just nine days betwixt Heaven and Hell; well might Dives then see father Abraham , and talk to him too; but then the great Gulph which Abraham tells him was fix’d between them, does not seem to be so large, as according to Sir Isaac Newton , Dr. Halley , Mr. Whiston , and the rest of our Men of Science, we take it to be.

But suppose the passage to be nine Days, according to Mr. Milton , what follow’d? why Hell gap’d wide, open’d its frightful mouth, and received them all at once; millions and thousands of millions as they were, it received them all at a gulp, as we call it , they had no difficulty to go in, no, none at all.

All this, as Poetical, we may receive, but not at all as Historical; for then come difficulties insuperable in our way, some of which may be as follow: (1.) Hell is here supposed to be a place; nay a place created for the punishment of Angels and Men, and likewise created long before those had fallen, or these had Being; this makes me say, Mr. Milton was a good Poet, but a bad Historian: Tophet was prepar’d of old, indeed, but it was for the King, that is to say, it was prepar’d for those whose lot it should be to come there; but this does not at all suppose it was prepar’d before it was resolv’d whether there should be subjects for it, or no; else we must suppose both Men and Angels were made by the glorious and upright Maker of all things, on purpose for destruction, which would be incongruous and absurd.

But there is worse yet to come; in the next place he adds, that Hell having receiv’d them, clos’d upon them; that is to say, took them in, clos’d or shut its Mouth; and in a word, they were lock’d in, as it was said in another place, they were lock’d in, and the Key is carry’d up to Heaven and kept there; for we know the Angel came down from Heaven, having the Key of the Bottomless-pit; but first, see Mr. Milton .

This Scheme is certainly deficient, if not absurd, and I think is more so than any other he has laid; ’tis evident, neither Satan or his Host of Devils are, no not any of them , yet, even now, confin’d in the eternal Prison, where the Scripture says, he shall be reserved in chains of darkness . They must have mean thoughts of Hell , as a Prison, a local Confinement, that can suppose the Devil able to break Goal, knock off his Fetters, and come abroad, if he had been once lock’d in there, as Mr. Milton says he was: Now we know that he is abroad again, he presented himself before God , among his neighbours, when Job ’s case came to be discours’d of; and more than that, it’s plain he was a prisoner at large, by his answer to God’s question, which was, whence comest thou? to which he answer’d, from going to and fro thro’ the Earth , &c. this, I say, is plain, and if it be as certain that Hell closed upon them, I demand then, how got he out? and why was there not a Proclamation for apprehending him, as there usually is, after such Rogues as break prison?

In short, the true Account of the Devil ’s Circumstances, since his Fall from Heaven , is much more likely to be thus: That he is more of a Vagrant than a Prisoner, that he is a Wanderer in the wild unbounded Wast, where he and his Legions, like the Hoords of Tartary , who, in the wild Countries of Karakathay , the Desarts of Barkan , Kassan , and Astracan , live up and down where they find proper; so Satan and his innumerable Legions rove about hic & ubique , pitching their Camps (being Beasts of prey) where they find the most Spoil; watching over this World, (and all the other Worlds for ought we know, and if there are any such,) I say watching, and seeking who they may devour, that is , who they may deceive and delude, and so destroy, for devour they cannot.

Satan being thus confin’d to a vagabond, wandring, unsettl’d Condition, is without any certain Abode; For tho’ he has, in consequence of his Angelic Nature, a kind of Empire in the liquid Wast or Air ; yet, this is certainly part of his punishment, that he is continually hovering over this inhabited Globe of Earth; swelling with the Rage of Envy, at the Felicity of his Rival, Man; and studying all the means possible to injure and ruin him; but extremely limited in Power, to his unspeakable Mortification: This is his present State, without any fix’d Abode, Place, or Space, allow’d him to rest the Sole of his Foot upon.