fo many ftrange prophetic things are recorded, whether true, or not, is not the queftion, are (if the Italian painters may have any credit given them) all reprefented as very old women; as if uglinefs were a beauty to old age, they feem to paint them out as ugly and frightful as (not they, the painters, but even as) the Devil himself could make them; not that I believe that there are any original pictures of them really extant; but it is not unlikely that the Italians might have fome traditional knowledge of them, or fome remaining notions of them, as, particularly, that antient Sibyl, named Anus, who fold the fatal book to Tarquin; it is faid of her, that Tarquin fuppofed fhe doated with age.

I had thoughts indeed here to have entered into a learned difquifition of the excellency of old women in all diabolical operations, and particularly of the neceffity of having recourfe to them for Satan's more exquifite adminiftration; which alfo may ferve to folve the great difficulty in the natural philofophy of hell; namely, why it comes to pass that the Devil is obliged, for want of old women, properly fo called, to turn fo many antient fathers, grave counfellors, both of law and ftate, and efpecially civilians, or doctors of the law, into old women; and how the extraordinary operation is performed: but this, as a thing of great confequence in Satan's management of human affairs, and particularly as it may lead us into the neceffary hiftory, as well as characters, of fome of the moft eminent of thefe fects among us, I have purpofely referved for a work by itself, to be published, if Satan hinders not, in fifteen volumes in folio; wherein I fhall, in the first place, define, in the most exact manner poffible, what is to be understood by a male old woman, of what heterogeneous kind they are produced; give you the monftrous anatomy of the parts, and especially thofe of the head; which, being filled with innumerable globules of a fublime nature, and which being of a fine contexture without, but particu

larly hollow in the cavity, defines moft philofophically that antient paradoxical faying, viz. being full of emptinefs; and makes it very confiftent with nature and common fenfe.

I fhall likewise spend fome time, and it must be labour too, I affure you, when it is done, in determining whether this new fpecies of wonderfuls are not derived from that famous old man Merlin, which I prove to be very reasonable for us to fuppofe; because of the many feveral judicious authors, who affirm the faid Merlin, as I hinted before, to have been begotten by the Devil.

As to the deriving his gift of prophecy from the Devil, by that pretended generation, 1 fhall omit that part, because, as I have all along infifted upon it, that Satan himfelf has no prophetic or predicting powers of his own, it is not very clear to me, that he could convey it to his pofterity: Nil dat quod not habet.

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However, in deriving this fo much magnified prophet, in a right line from the Devil, much may faid in favour of his ugly face, in which, it was faid, he was very remarkable; for it is no new thing for a child to be like the father: but all thefe weighty things I adjourn for the prefent, and proceed to the affair in hand, namely, the several branches of the Devil's management fince his quitting his temples and oracles.

CHA P. VI.

Of the extraordinary appearance of the Devil, and particularly of the cloven foot.

OME people would fain have us treat this tale of the Devil's. appearing with a cloven foot with more folemnity, than, I believe, the Devil himself does; for Satan, who knows how much of a cheat it is, muft certainly ridicule it, in his own thoughts, to the laft degree; but as he is glad of any way to hoodwink the understandings, and bubble the weak part of the

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world; fo, if he fees men willing to take every fcarecrow for a Devil, it is not his bufinefs to undeceive them on the other hand, he finds it his intereft to fofter the cheat, and ferve himself of the confequence: nor could I doubt but the Devil, if any mirth be allowed him, often laughs at the many frightful fhapes and figures we drefs him up in, and especially to fee how willing we are firft to paint him as black, and make him appear as ugly as we can, and then ftare and fart at the fpectre of our own making.

The truth is, that among all the horribles that we drefs up Satan in, I cannot but think we fhew the leaft of invention in this of a goat, or a thing with a goat's foot, of all the reft; for though a goat is a creature made ufe of by our Saviour, in the allegory of the day of judgment, and is faid there to reprefent the wicked rejected party, yet it feems to be only on account of their fimilitude to the fheep, and fo to reprefent the juft fate of hypocrify, and hypocrites; and, in particular, to form the neceffary antithefis in the ftory; for elfe, our whimfical fancies excepted, a fheep, or a lamb, has a cloven foot, as well as a goat; nay, if the Scripture be of any value in this cafe, it is to the Devil's advantage; for the dividing the hoof was the diftinguishing character or mark of a clean beaft; and how the Devil can be brought into that number, is pretty hard to fay.

One would have thought, if we had intended to have given a juft figure of the Devil, it would have been more appofite to have ranked him among the cat kind, and given him a foot (if he is to be known by his foot) like a lion, or like a red dragon, being the fame creatures which he is reprefented by in the text; and fo his claws would have had fome terror in them, as well as his teeth.

But neither is the goat a true representative of the Devil at all, for we do not rank the goats among the fubtile or cunning part of the brutes; he is counted a fierce creature indeed of his kind, though nothing like

those other above mentioned; and he is emblematically used to represent a luftful temper; but even that part does not fully ferve to describe the Devil, whofe operation lies principally another way.

Befides, it is not the goat himself that is made ufe of, it is the cloven hoof only, and that fo particularly, that the cloven foot of a ram, or a fwine, or any other creature, may ferve as well as that of a goat; only that history gives us fome cause to call it the goat's foot.

In the next place, it is understood by us not as a bare token to know Satan by, but as if it were a brand upon him; and that, like the mark God put upon Cain, it was given him for a punishment, fo that he cannot get leave to appear without it, nay, cannot conceal it, whatever other drefs or disguise he may put on; and, as if it was to make him as ridiculous as poffible, they will have it that, whenever Satan has occafion to drefs himself in any human fhape, be it of what degree foever, from the king to the beggar, be it of a fine lady or of an old woman, (the latter, it feems, he ofteneít affumes), yet ftill he not only muft have this cloven foot about him, but is obliged to fhew it too: nay, they will not allow him any drefs, whether it be a prince's robes, a lord cha- 's gown, or a tady's hoop and long petticoats, but the cloven foot must be fhewn from under them they will not fo much as allow him an artificial shoe or a jack-boot, as we often fee contrived to conceal a club-foot or a wooden leg; but that the Devil may be known where-ever he goes, he is bound to fhew his foot: they might as well oblige him to fet bill upon his cap, as folks do house to be let, and have it written in capital letters, "I AM THE DEVIL."

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It must be confeffed this is very particular, and would be very hard upon the Devil, if it had not another article in it, which is fome advantage to him; and that is, that the fact is not true: but the belief of this is fo univerfal, that all the world runs away with it by T

which mistake the good people mifs the Devil many times where they look for him, and meet him as often where they did not expect him, and when, for want of this cloven foot, they did not know him.

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Upon this very account, I have fometimes thought, not that this has been put upon him by mere fancy, and the cheat of an heavy imagination, propagated by fable and chimney-corner divinity, but that it has been a contrivance of his own; and that, in fhort, the Devil raised the scandal upon himself, that he might keep his difguife the better, and might go a-vifiting among his friends without being known; for were it really fo, that he could go nowhere without this particular brand of infamy, he could not come into company, could not dine with my lord mayor, nor drink tea with the ladies; could not go to the drawing-r; could not have gone to Fontainbleau to the king of France's wedding, or to the diet of Poland, to prevent the grandees there coming to an agreement; nay, which would be ftill worse than all, he could not go to the mafquerade, nor to any of our balls: the reafon is plain, he would be always difcovered, expofed, and forced to leave the good company, or, which would be as bad, the company would all cry out, the Devil! and run out of the room as they were frighted: nor could all the help of invention do him any fervice; no dress he could put on would cover him; not all our friends at Taviftock-corner could furnish him with an habit that would disguise or conceal him; this unhappy foot would spoil all. Now this would be fo great a lofs to him, that I question whether he could carry on any of his moft important affairs in the world without it; for though he has access to mankind in his complete difguife, I mean that of his invifibility, yet the learned very much agree in this, that his corporeal prefence in the world is abfo. tely neceffary, upon many occafions, to fupport his reft, and keep up his correfpondences, and particu y to encourage his friends, when numbers are requie to carry on his affairs; but this part I fhall have