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
What a World do we inhabit! where there is not only with us a great
_Roaring-Lyon-Devil_ daily seeking whom of us he may devour, and
innumerable Millions of lesser Devils hovering in the whole Atmosphere
over us, nay, and for ought we know, other Millions always invisibly
moving about us, and perhaps in us, or at least in many of us; but that
have, besides all these, a vast many counterfeit _Hocus Pocus Devils_;
human _Devils_, who are visible among us, of our own Species and
Fraternity, conversing with us upon all Occasions; who like Mountebanks
set up their Stages in every Town, chat with us at every Tea-Table,
converse with us in every Coffee-House, and impudently tell us to our
Faces that they are Devils, boast of it, and use a thousand Tricks and
Arts to make us believe it too, and that too often with Success.
It must be confess'd there is a strong Propensity in Man's Nature,
especially the more ignorant part of Mankind, to resolve every strange
Thing, or whether really strange or no, if it be but strange to us, into
Devilism, and to say every Thing is the Devil, that they can give no
Account of.
Thus the famous Doctors of the Faculty at _Paris_, when _John Faustus_
brought the first printed Books that had then been seen in the World, or
at least seen there, into the City, and sold them for Manuscripts: They
were surpriz'd at the Performance, and question'd _Faustus_ about it;
but he affirming they were Manuscripts, and that he kept a great many
Clarks employ'd to write them, they were satisfied for a while.
But looking farther into the Work, they observ'd the exact Agreement of
every Book, one with another, that every Line stood in the same Place,
every Page a like Number of Lines, every Line a like Number of Words; if
a Word was mis-spelt in one, it was mis-spelt also in all, nay, that if
there was a Blot in one, it was alike in all; they began again to muse,
how this should be? in a Word, the learned Divines not being able to
comprehend the Thing (and that was always sufficient) concluded it must
be the _Devil_, that it was done by Magick and Witchcraft, and that in
short, poor _Faustus_ (who was indeed nothing but a meer Printer) dealt
with the _Devil_.
N. B. _John Faustus_ was Servant, or Journeyman, or Compositor, or
what you please to call it, to _Koster_ of _Harlem_, the first
inventor of Printing; and having printed the Psalter, sold them at
_Paris_ as Manuscripts; because as such they yielded a better
Price.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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