"
After him arose Asmodai, the devil of lust: "'T is not unknown to you,
mightiest King of the deep, nor to you, princes of the land of despair,
how many of the gulfs of hell have I filled through voluptuousness and
lewdness. What of the time I kindled such a flame of lust over all the
world that the deluge had needs be sent to clear the earth of men, and to
sweep them all into our unquenchable fire? What of Sodoma and Gomorrah,
fine and fair cities, which I so consumed with licentiousness that a
hell-shower blazed in their infernal lusts and beat them down here alive,
to burn for ages on ages. And what of the great hosts of the Assyrians,
who were all slain in one night on my account? I disappointed Sarah of
seven husbands' {108a} and Solomon and many a thousand other kings did I
bring to shame through women. Wherefore let me and this sweet sin go,
and I will kindle the hellish spark so generally that it will at length
become one with this inextinguishable flame, for scarce one will ever
return from following me to walk in the paths of life." At that he sat
down.
Then Belphegor, chief of sloth and idleness, stood up and spake thus: "I
am the great prince of listlessness and sloth, who have great influence
upon millions of all sorts and conditions of men; I am that stagnant pond
where the spawn of every evil is bred, where the dregs of every
corruption and baleful slime grows rank.
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