Prev | Current Page 161 | Next

Wynne, Ellis, 1671-1734

"The Visions of the Sleeping Bard"

What good wouldst thou be,
Asmodai, or ye, chief damned evils, were I not? I, who keep the windows
open and unguarded that ye may enter into the man when ye will, through
his eyes, his ears and his mouth. I will go and roll them all over the
precipice unto you in their sleep."
Then Satan, the devil of delusion, who was on Lucifer's left hand, arose,
and turning his grim visage to the king, began: "It is unnecessary for
me to recount my deeds to thee, Oh lost Archangel, or to you, swarthy
princes of Destruction: for 'twas I who dealt the first blow to man, and
mighty was that blow, to be the cause of death from the beginning of the
world to its end. Is it likely that I, who erst ravaged all the earth,
could not now give advice that would serve one little isle? Could not I,
who deceived Eve in Paradise, overcome Anne in Britain? If inborn craft
and continuous experience for five thousand years profit aught, my advice
is that you adorn your daughter Hypocrisy to deceive Britain and its
queen: you have no other as serviceable as she; her sway extends more
widely than that of all the rest of your daughters, and her subjects are
more numerous.


Pages:
149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173