The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two PartsDefoe, Daniel
Philosophy
The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts
Defoe, Daniel
Devil -- Early works to 1800
This unusual Phaenomenon has been seen but a little while, and but a
little way, and the general Part of Mankind cannot come into the same
Notions about it; nay, perhaps they will all think it strange; but be
it as strange as it will, the Nature of the Thing confirms it, this
lower Sphere is full of _Devils_; and some of both Sexes have given
strange Testimonies of the Reality of their pre-existent _Devilism_ for
many Ages past, tho' I think it never came to that Height as it has now.
It is true, in former times Satan dealt much in old Women, and those, as
I have observ'd already, very ugly, _Ugly as a Witch_, _Black as a
Witch_, _I look like a Witch_, all proverbial Speeches, and which
testify'd what Tools it was Satan generally work'd with; and these old
Spectres, they tell us, us'd to ride thro' the Air in the Night, and
upon Broomsticks too, all mighty homely Doings; some say they us'd to go
to visit their Grand Seignior the _Devil_, in those Nocturnal
Perambulations: But be that as it will, 'tis certain the _Devil_ has
chang'd hands, and that now he walks about the World cloth'd in Beauty,
cover'd with the Charms of the Lovely, and he fails not to disguise
himself effectually by it, for who would think a beautiful Lady could be
a Masque to the Devil? and that a fine Face, a divine Shape, a heavenly
Aspect, should bring the _Devil_ in her Company, nay, should be herself
an _Apparition_, a mere DEVIL.
The Enquiry is indeed worth our while, and therefore I hope all the
enamour'd Beaus and Boys, all the Beauty-hunters and Fortune-hunters,
will take heed, for I suppose if they get the _Devil_, they will not
complain for want of a Fortune; and there's Danger enough, I assure you,
for the World is full of Apparitions, _non rosa sine spinis_; not a
Beauty without a _Devil_, the old Women Spectres, and the young Women
Apparitions; the ugly ones Witches, and the handsome ones _Devils_;
Lord ha' Mercy, and a [Illustration: Cross] may be Set on the Man's Door
that goes a courting.
CHAP. VIII.
_Of the Cloven-Foot walking about the World without the_ Devil, (viz.) _of
Witches making Bargains for the_ Devil, _and particularly of selling
the Soul to the_ Devil.
I have dwelt long upon the _Devil_ in Masque as he goes about the World
incog. and especially without his Cloven-Foot, and have touched upon
some of his Disguises in the Management of his Interest in the World; I
must say some of his Disguises only, for who can give a full account of
all his Tricks and Arts in so narrow a Compass as I am prescrib'd to?
But as I said, that every _Devil_ has not a Cloven-Foot, so I must add
now for the present Purpose, that every Cloven-Foot is not the Devil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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