He raises the Vapours, and prompts the Desires, And to ev'ry dark Deed holds the Candle; The Passions enflames and the Appetite fires, And takes ev'ry Thing by the Handle. Thus he walks up and down in compleat Masquerade, And with every Company mixes, Sells in every Shop, works at every Trade, And ev'ry Thing doubtful perplexes. How Satan comes by this governing Influence in the Minds and upon the Actions of Men, is a Question I am not yet come to, nor indeed does it so particularly belong to the Devil's History, it seems rather a Polemick, so it may pass at School among the Metaphysicks, and puzzle the Heads of our Masters; wherefore I think to write to the learned Dr. _B----_ about it, imploring his most sublime Haughtiness, that when his other more momentous Avocations of Pedantry and Pedagogism will give him an Interval from Wrath and Contention, he will set apart a Moment to consider human Nature Deviliz'd, and give us a Mathematical Anatomical Description of it; with a Map of Satan's Kingdom in the Microcosm of Mankind, and such other Illuminations as to him and his Contemporaries ---- and, ---- _&c._ in their great Wisdom shall seem meet. CHAP. V. _Of the_ Devil_'s Management in the Pagan Hierarchy by Omens, Entrails, Augurs, Oracles, and such like Pageantry of Hell; and how they went off the Stage at last by the Introduction of true Religion._ I have adjourn'd, not finished, my Account of the _Devil_'s secret Management by _Possession_, and shall reassume it, in its Place; but I must take leave to mention some other Parts of his retir'd Scheme, by which he has hitherto manag'd Mankind, and the first of these is by that Fraud of all Frauds call'd Oracle. Here his Trumpet yielded an uncertain Sound for some Ages, and like what he was, and according to what he practised from the Beginning, he deliver'd out Falshood and Delusion by Retale: The Priests of _Apollo_ acted this Farce for him to a great Nicety at _Delphos_; there were divers others at the same Time, and some, which to give the Devil his due, he had very little Hand in, as we shall see presently. There were also some smaller, some greater, some more, some less famous Places where those Oracles were seated, and Audience given to the Enquirers, in all which the _Devil_, or some Body for him, _Permissu Superiorum_, for either vindictive or other hidden Ends and Purposes, was allow'd to make at least a Pretension to the Knowledge of Things to come; but, as publick Cheats generally do, they acted in Masquerade, and gave such uncertain and inconsistent Responses, that they were oblig'd to use the utmost Art to reconcile Events to the Prediction, even after things were come to pass.