Having thus articl'd with the _Devil_ for liberty of speech, I shall talk of him sometimes in the singular, as a person, and sometimes in the plural, as an host of _Devils_ or of infernal Spirits, just as occasion requires, and as the history of his affairs makes necessary.
But before I enter upon any part of his history, the nature of the thing calls me back, and my Lord B---- of ---- in his late famous orations in defence of liberty, summons me to prove that there is such a thing or such a person as _the Devil_; and in short, unless I can give some evidence of his existence, as my Lord ---- said very well, I am talking of _nobody_.
D--m me, Sir, says a graceless comrade of his to a great man, _your Grace_ will go to _the Devil_.
D--m ye, Sir, says the D----, then I shall go _no where_; I wonder where you intend to go?
Nay, to _the D----l_ too I doubt, _says Graceless_, for I am almost as wicked as my _Lord Duke_.
_D._ Thou ar't a silly empty Dog, says the D--, and if there is such a place as _a Hell_, tho' I believe nothing of it, 'tis a place for fools, such as thou art.
_Gr._ I wonder then, what Heaven the great wits go to, such as my _Lord Duke_; I don't care to go there, let it be where it will; they are a tiresome kind of people, there's no bearing them, they'll make _a Hell_ wherever they come.
_D._ Prithee hold thy fool's tongue, I tell thee, if there is any such place as we call NO WHERE; that's all the Heaven or Hell that I know of, or believe any thing about.
_Gr._ Very good, my Lord--; so that _Heaven_ is _no where_, and _Hell_ is _no where_, and the _Devil_ is _nobody_, according to my _Lord Duke_!
_Gr._ And you are to go _no where_ when you die, are you?
_D._ Yes, you Dog, don't you know what that incomparable noble genius my Lord _Rochester_ sings upon the subject, I believe it unfeignedly,
After death nothing is, And nothing death.
_Gr._ You believe it, my Lord, you mean, you would fain believe it if you could; but since you put that great genius my Lord _Rochester_ upon me, let me play him back upon _your Grace_; I am sure you have read his fine poem upon _nothing_, in one of the stanzas of which is this beautiful thought,
And to be part of [2] thee The wicked wisely pray.