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

by Daniel Defoe

Of Divination, Sorcery, the Black-Art, Pawawing, and such like Pretenders to Devilism, and how far the Devil is or is not concern’d in them.

Tho’ I am writing the History of the Devil, I have not undertaken to do the like of all the Kinds of People, Male or Female, who set up for Devils in the World: This would be a Task for the Devil indeed, and fit only for him to undertake, for their Number is and has been prodigious great, and may, with his other Legions be rank’d among the Innumerable.

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.

But the learned Doctors not being able to understand how the Work was perform’d, concluded as above, it was all the Devil, and that the Man was a Witch; accordingly they took him up for a Magician and a Conjurer, and one that work’d by the Black Art, that is to say, by the help of the Devil; and in a Word, they threaten’d to hang him for a Witch, and in order to it, commenc’d a Process against him in their criminal Courts, which made such a Noise in the World as rais’d the Fame of poor John Faustus to a frightful Height, till at last he was oblig’d, for fear of the Gallows, to discover the whole Secret to them.

N. B. This is the true original of the famous Dr. Faustus or Foster, of whom we have believ’d such strange Things, as that it is become a Proverb, as great as the Devil and Dr. Foster: Whereas poor Faustus was no Doctor, and knew no more of the Devil than another Body.

Thus the Magistrates of Bern and Switzerland, finding a Gang of French Actors of Puppet-shew open’d their Stage in the Town, upon hearing the surprizing Accounts which the People gave of their wonderful Puppets, how they made them speak, answer Questions, and discourse, appear and disappear in a Moment, pop up here, as if they rise out of the Earth, and down there, as if they vanish’d, and Abundance more Feats of Art, censur’d them as Demons; and if they had not pack’d up their Trinkets, and disappeared almost as dextrously as their Puppets, they had certainly condemn’d the poor Puppets to the Flames for Devils, and censur’d, if not otherwise punished their Masters. See the Count de Rochfort’s Memoirs, p. 179.