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

by Daniel Defoe

As to how long their time might be, I shall leave that Search; no lights being given me that are either probable or rational, and we have so little room to make a Judgment of it, that we may as well believe Father M——, who supposes it to be a hundred thousand Years, as those who judge it one thousand Years; ’tis enough that we are sure, it was before the Creation, how long before is not material to the Devil’s History, unless we had some Records of what happen’d to him, or was done by him in the Interval.

During the wandring Condition the Devil was in at that Time, we may suppose, he and his whole Clan to be employ’d in exerting their Hatred and Rage at the Almighty, and at the Happiness of the remaining faithful Angels, by all the ways they had power to shew it.

From this determin’d stated Enmity of Satan and his Host against God, and at every thing that brought Glory to his Name, Mr. Milton brings in Satan, (when first he saw Adam in Paradise, and the Felicity of his Station there) swelling with Rage and Envy, and taking up a dreadful Resolution to ruin Adam and all his Posterity, meerly to disappoint his Maker of the Glory of his Creation; I shall come to speak of that in its Place.

How Satan, in his remote Situation, got Intelligence of the Place where to find Adam out, or that any such thing as a Man was created, is Matter of just Speculation, and there might be many rational Schemes laid for it: Mr. Milton does not undertake to tell us the Particulars, nor indeed could he find room for it; perhaps, the Devil having, as I have said, a Liberty to range over the whole Void or Abyss, which we want as well a Name for, as indeed Powers to conceive of; might have discovered that the Almighty Creator had form’d a new and glorious Work, with infinite Beauty and Variety, filling up the immense Wast of Space, in which he, (the Devil) and his Angels, had rov’d for so long a time, without finding any thing to work on, or to exert their Apostate Rage in against their Maker.

That at length they found the infinite untrodden Space, on a sudden spread full with glorious Bodies, shining in self-existing Beauty, with a new, and to them unknown Lustre, call’d Light: They found these luminous Bodies, tho’ immense in Bulk, and infinite in Number, yet fixt in their wondrous Stations, regular and exact in their Motions, confin’d in their proper Orbits, tending to their particular Centers, and enjoying every one their peculiar Systems, within which was contain’d innumerable Planets with their Satellites or Moons, in which (again) a reciprocal Influence, Motion and Revolution conspired to Form the most admirable Uniformity of the whole.

Surprized, to be sure, with this sudden and yet glorious Work of the Almighty; for the Creation was enough, with its Lustre, even to surprize the Devils; they might reasonably be supposed to start out of their dark Retreat, and with a Curiosity not below the Seraphic Dignity; for these are some of the things which the Angels desire to look into, to take a flight thro’ all the amazing Systems of the fix’d Suns or Stars, which we see now but at a Distance, and only make Astronomical Guesses at.

Here the Devil found not subject of Wonder only, but matter to swell his revolted Spirit with more Rage, and to revive the Malignity of his Mind against his Maker, and especially against this new encrease of Glory, which to his infinite Regret was extended over the whole Wast, and which he look’d upon, as we say in human Affairs, as a Pays conquis, or, if you will have it in the Language of the Devil, as an invasion upon his Kingdom.

Here it naturally occur’d to them, in their State of Envy and Rebellion, that tho’ they could not assault the impregnable Walls of Heaven, and could no more pretend to raise War in the Place of Blessedness and Peace; yet that perhaps they might find Room in this new, and however glorious, yet inferior Kingdom or Creation, to work some despite to their great Creator, or to affront his Majesty in the Person of some of his new made Creatures; and upon this they may be justly supposed to double their Vigilance, in the survey they resolve to take of these new Worlds, however great, numberless and wonderful.

What Discoveries they may have made in the other and greater Worlds, than this Earth, we have not yet had an account; possibly they are conversant with other Parts of God’s Creation, besides this little little Globe, which is but as a Point in comparison of the Rest; and with other of God’s Creatures besides Man, who may, according to the Opinion of our Philosophers, inhabit those Worlds; but as no body knows that Part but the Devil, we shall not trouble our selves with the Enquiry.

But ’tis very reasonable, and indeed probable, that the Devils were more than ordinarily surpriz’d at the Nature and Reason of all this glorious Creation, after they had, with the utmost Curiosity, view’d all the parts of it; The Glories of the several Systems; the immense spaces in which those glorious Bodies that were created and made part of it, were allow’d respectively to move; the innumerable fix’d Stars, as so many Suns in the Center of so many distant Solar Systems; the (likewise innumerable) dark opaque Bodies receiving light, and depending upon those Suns respectively for such light, and then reflecting that light again upon and for the Use of one another; To see the Beauty and Splendor of their Forms, the Regularity of their Position, the Order and Exactness, and yet inconceivable Velocity of their Motions, the certainty of their Revolutions, and the Variety and Virtue of their Influences; and then, which was even to the Devils themselves most astonishing, That after all the rest of their Observations they should find this whole immense Work was adapted for, and made subservient to the Use, Delight and Blessing only of one poor Species, in itself small, and in Appearance contemptible; the meanest of all the Kinds supposed to inhabit so many glorious Worlds, as appeared now to be form’d; I mean, that Moon call’d the Earth, and the Creature call’d Man; that all was made for him, upheld by the wise Creator, on his account only, and would necessarily end and cease whenever that Species should end and be determin’d.