That _Satan_ is a fallen Angel, a rebel Seraph, cast out for his Rebellion, is the general opinion, and 'tis not my business to dispute things universally receiv'd; as he was try'd, condemn'd, and the sentence of expulsion executed on him in Heaven, he is in this World like a transported Felon never to return; His crime, whatever particular aggravations it might have, 'tis certain, amounted to High-treason against his Lord and Governor, who was also his Maker; against whom he rose in rebellion, took up arms, and in a word, rais'd a horrid and unnatural war in his dominions; but being overcome in battle, and made prisoner, he and all his Host, whose numbers were infinite, all glorious Angels like himself, lost at once their beauty and glory with their Innocence, and commenc'd _Devils_, being transform'd by crime into monsters and frightful objects; such as to describe, human fancy is obliged to draw pictures and descriptions in such forms as are most hateful and frightful to the imagination. These notions, I doubt not, gave birth to all the beauteous Images and sublime expressions in Mr. _Milton_'s majestick Poem; where, tho' he has play'd the Poet in a most luxuriant manner, he has sinn'd against _Satan_ most egregiously, and done the _Devil_ a manifest injury in a great many particulars, as I shall shew in its place. And as I shall be oblig'd to do _Satan_ justice when I come to that part of his History, Mr. _Milton_'s admirers must pardon me, if I let them see, that tho' I admire Mr. _Milton_ as a Poet, yet that he was greatly out in matters of History, and especially the History of the _Devil_; in short, That he has charged _Satan_ falsly in several particulars; and so he has _Adam_ and _Eve_ too: But that I shall leave till I come to the History of the Royal Family of _Eden_; which I resolve to present you with when the _Devil_ and I have done with one another. But not to run down Mr. _Milton_ neither, whose poetry, or his judgment, cannot be reproached without injury to our own; all those bright Ideas of his, which make his poem so justly valued, whether they are capable of proof as to the fact, are notwithstanding, confirmations of my hypothesis; and are taken from a supposition of the Personality of the _Devil_, placing him at the head of the infernal host, as a sovereign elevated Spirit and Monarch of Hell; and as such it is that I undertake to write his history. By the word Hell I do not suppose, or at least not determine, that his residence, or that of the whole army of _Devils_, is yet in the same local HELL, to which the Divines tell us he shall be at last chain'd down; or at least that he is yet confin'd to it, for we shall find he is at present a prisoner at large: of both which circumstances of Satan I shall take occasion to speak in its course.