The Political History of the Devil by Daniel Defoe

Author:Daniel Defoe [Daniel Defoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2015-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

II

Of Hell, as it is represented to us, and how the Devil is to be understood as being personally in Hell, when, at the same time, we find him at liberty, ranging over the world.

It is true, as that learned and pleasant author, the inimitable Dr Brown, says, ‘The Devil is his own hell;’ one of the most constituting parts of his infelicity is, that he cannot act upon mankind brevi manu, by his own inherent power, as well as rage; that he cannot unhinge this creation, which, as I have observed in its place, he had the utmost aversion to from its beginning, as it was a stated design in the Creator to supply his place in heaven with a new species of being called man, and fill the vacancies occasioned by his degeneracy and rebellion.

This filled him with rage inexpressible, and horrible resolutions of revenge, and the impossibility of executing those resolutions torments him with despair; this, added to what he was before, makes him a complete devil, with a hell in his own breast, and a fire unquenchable burning about his heart.

I might enlarge here, and very much to the purpose, in describing, spherically and mathematically, that exquisite quality called a devilish spirit, in which it would naturally occur to give you a whole chapter upon the glorious articles of malice and envy, and especially upon that luscious, delightful, triumphant passion, called revenge: how natural to man, nay, even to both sexes: how pleasant in the very contemplation, though there be not, just at that time, a power of execution: how palatable it is in itself, and how well it relishes when dished up with its proper sauces, such as plot, contrivance, scheme, and confederacy, all leading on to execution: how it possesses the human soul in all the most sensible parts: how it empowers mankind to sin in imagination, as effectually, to all future intents and purposes (damnation), as if he had sinned actually: how safe a practice it is too, as to punishment in this life, namely, that it empowers us to cut throats clear of the gallows, to slander virtue, reproach innocence, wound honour, and stab reputation; and, in a word, to do all the wicked things in the world, out of the reach of the law.

It would also require some few words to describe the secret operations of those nice qualities when they reach the human soul; how effectually they form a hell within us, and how imperceptibly they assimilate and transform us into devils, mere human devils, as really devils as Satan himself, or any of his angels; and that, therefore, it is not so much out of the way as some imagine, to say, such a man is an incarnate devil; for, as crime made Satan a devil, who was before a bright immortal seraph, or angel of light, how much more easily may the same crime make the same devil, though every way meaner and more contemptible, of a man or a woman either! But this is too grave a subject for me at this time.

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