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
But on the other Hand, if at any Time the Mind is ruffled, if Vapours
rise, Clouds gather, if Passions swell the Breast, if Anger, Envy,
Revenge, Hatred, Wrath, Strife; if these, or any of these hover over
you, much more if you feel them within you; if the Affections are
possess'd, and the Soul hurried down the Stream to embrace low and base
Objects; if those Spirits, which are the Life and enlivening Powers of
the Soul, are drawn off to Parties, and to be engag'd in a vicious and
corrupt manner, shooting out wild and wicked Desires, and running the
Man headlong into Crime, the Case is easily resolv'd, the Man is
possess'd, the _Devil_ is in him; and having taken the Fort, or at least
the Counterscarp and Out-Works, is making his Lodgment to cover and
secure himself in his Hold, that he may not be dispossess'd.
Nor can he be easily dispossess'd when he has got such hold as this; and
'tis no wonder, that being lodg'd thus upon the Out-Works of the Soul he
continues to sap the Foundation of the rest, and by his incessant and
furious Assaults, reduces the Man at last to a Surrender.
If the Allegory be not as just and apposite as you would have it be, you
may, however, see by it in a full View, the State of the Man, and how
the _Devil_ carries on his Designs; nothing is more common, and I
believe there are few thinking Minds but may reflect upon it in their
own Compass, than for our Passions and Affections to flow out of the
ordinary Channel; the Spirits and Blood of the Soul to be extravasated,
the Passions grow violent and outragious, the Affections impetuous,
corrupt and violently vicious: Whence does all this proceed? from Heaven
we can't pretend it comes; if we must not say 'tis the _Devil_, whose
Door must it lie at? Pride swells the Passions; Avarice moves the
Affections; and what is Pride, and what is Avarice, but the _Devil_ in
the Inside of the Man? ay, as personally and really as ever he was in
the Herd of Swine.
Let not any Man then, who is a Slave to his Passions, or who is chain'd
down to his Covetousness, pretend to take it ill, when I say he has the
_Devil_ in him, or that he is a _Devil_: What else can it be, and how
comes it to pass that Passion and Revenge so often dispossess the Man of
himself, as to lead him to commit Murther, to lay Plots and Snares for
the Life of his Enemies, and so to thirst for Blood? How comes this but
by the Devil's putting those Spirits of the Soul into so violent a
Ferment, into a Fever? that the Circulation is precipitated to that
Degree, and that the Man too is precipitated into Mischief, and at last
into Ruin; 'tis all the _Devil_, tho' the Man does not know it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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