Page:The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Volume 2).djvu/412

398 and being, to salt mixed with water. If not he must send some inferior Angels, either to this or some other planet, first to tempt the Inhabitants to disobey God, and secondly to induce them to reject all terms of salvation; for which latter purpose, it seems equally requisite that he should take up his residence on the spot; nor do I see, how he or God, by whose providence he is permitted, that is to say, compelled to act, could commit a business of such high moment to an inferior Angel. It seems very questionable whether the Devil himself, or only some inferior Devil, tempted and betrayed the people of the Earth; or whether Jupiter, a planet capable of containing a hundred times more inhabitants than the earth,—to mention only the planets of our own system,—or the Sun, which would contain a million times more, were not entitled to the preference.

Any objection that might arise from the multitude of Devils, I think futile. You may suppose a million times as many devils as there are stars. In fact you may suppose anything you like on such a subject. That there are a great number of Devils, and that they go about in legions of six or seven, or more at a time, all mythologists are agreed. Christians, indeed, will not admit the actual substance and presence of the Devils upon Earth in modern times. Or, in proportion as any histories of them approach to the present epoch, or indeed any epoch in which there has been a considerable progress in historical criticism or natural science, they suppose their agency to be obscure and superstitious. There were a number of Devils in Judea in the time of Jesus Christ, and a great reputation was gained both by him and others, by what was called casting them out. A droll story is told us