The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts

by Daniel Defoe

In a Word, this Opera of the Cloven-Foot has been acted all over the Christian World, ever since Judas betray’d the Son of God with a Kiss; nay, our Saviour says expresly of him, One of you is a Devil; and the sacred Text says in another Place, The Devil enter’d into Judas.

It would take up a great deal of Time and Paper too, to give you a full Account of the Travels of this Cloven-Foot; its Progress into all the Courts of Europe, and with what most accurate Hypocrisy Satan has made use of it upon many Occasions, and with what Success; but as in the elaborate Work of which I just now gave you a Specimen I design one whole Volume upon this Subject, and which I shall call, The compleat History of the Cloven-Foot; I say, for that Reason, and diverse others, I shall say but very little more to it in this Place.

It remains to tell you, that this merry Story of the Cloven-Foot is very essential to the History which I am now writing, as it has been all along the great Emblem of the Devil’s Government in the World, and by which all his most considerable Engagements have been answer’d and executed; for as he is said not to be able to conceal this Foot, but that he carries it always with him, it imports most plainly, that the Devil would be no Devil if he was not a Dissembler, a Deceiver, and carried a double Entendre in all he does or says; that he cannot but say one Thing and mean another, promise one Thing and do another, engage and not perform, declare and not intend, and act like a true Devil as he is, with a Countenance that is no Index of his Heart.

I might indeed go back to Originals, and derive this Cloven-Foot from Satan’s primitive State as a Cherubim or a celestial Being, which Cherubims, as Moses is said to have seen them about the Throne of God in Mount Sinai, and as the same Moses, from the Original represented them afterwards covering the Ark, had the Head and Face of a Man, Wings of an Eagle, Body of a Lion, and Legs and Feet of a Calf; but this is not so much to our present Purpose, for as we are to allow that whatever Satan had of heavenly Beauty before the Fall, he lost it all when he commenc’d Devil, so to fetch his Original so far up would be only to say, that he retain’d nothing but the Cloven-Foot, and that all the rest of him was alter’d and deform’d, become frightful and horrible as the Devil; but his Cloven-Foot, as we now understand it, is rather mystical and emblematick, and describes him only as the Fountain of Mischief and Treason, and the Prince of Hypocrites, and as such we are now to speak of him.

’Tis from this Original all the hypocritic World copy, he wears the Foot on their Account, and from this Model they act: This made our blessed Lord tell them, the Works of your Father ye will do, meaning the Devil, as he had express’d it just before.

Nor does he deny the Use of the Foot to the meaner Class of his Disciples in the World, but decently equips them all upon every Occasion with a needful Proportion of Hypocrisy and Deceit; that they may hand on the Power of promiscuous Fraud thro’ all his temporal Dominions, and wear the Foot always about them as a Badge of their profess’d Share in whatever is done by that Means.

Thus every Dissembler, every false Friend, every secret Cheat, every Bearskin-Jobber has a Cloven-Foot, and so far hands on the Devil’s Interest by the same powerful Agency of Art, as the Devil himself uses to act when he appears in Person, or would act if he was just now upon the Spot; for this Foot is a Machine which is to be wound up and wound down, as the Cause it appears for requires; and there are Agents and Engineers to act in it by Directions of Satan (the grand Engineer) who lies still in his Retirement, only issuing out his Orders as he sees convenient.

Again, every Class, every Trade, every Shopkeeper, every Pedlar, nay, that meanest of Tradesmen, that Church Pedlar the Pope, has a Cloven-Foot, with which he Paw wa’s upon the World, wishes them all well, and at the same time cheats them; wishes them all fed, and at the same time starves them; wishes them all in Heaven, and at the same time marches before them directly to the Devil, alamode de Cloven-Foot.

Nay, the very Bench, the everliving Foundation of Justice in the World; how often has it been made the Tool of Violence, the Refuge of Oppression, the Seat of Bribery and Corruption, by this Monster in Masquerade, and that every where (our own Country always excepted)? They had much better wipe out the Picture of justice blinded, and having the Sword and Scales in her Hand, which in foreign Countries is generally painted over the Seat of those who sit to do Justice, and place instead thereof a naked unarm’d Cloven-Hoof, a proper Emblem of that Spirit that Influences the World, and of the Justice we often see administred among them; human Imagination cannot form an Idea more suitable, nor the Devil propose an Engine more or better qualified for an Operation of Justice, by the Influence of Bribery and Corruption; it is this magnipotent Instrument in the Hands of the Devil, which under the closest Disguise agitates every Passion, bribes every Affection, blackens every Virtue, gives a double Face to Words and Actions, and to all Persons who have any Concern in them, and in a Word, makes us all Devils to one another.

Indeed the Devil has taken but a dark Emblem to be distinguish’d by, for this of a Goat was said to be a Creature hated by Mankind from the beginning, and that there is a natural Antipathy in Mankind against them: Hence the Scape Goat was to bear the Sins of the People, and to go into the Wilderness with all that Burthen upon him.