"I found it was not so easy to imprint right Notions in his Mind about the Devil, as it was about the Being of a God."
— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
W. Taylor
Date
1719
Metaphor
"I found it was not so easy to imprint right Notions in his Mind about the Devil, as it was about the Being of a God."
Metaphor in Context
I found it was not so easy to imprint right Notions in his Mind about the Devil, as it was about the Being of a God. Nature assisted all my Arguments to evidence to him even the Necessity of a great first Cause and over-ruling governing Power, a secret directing Providence, and of the Equity and Justice of paying Homage to him that made us, and the like. But there appear'd nothing of all this in the Notion of an evil Spirit, of his Original, his Being, his Nature, and above all, of his Inclination to do Evil, and to draw us in to do so too. And the poor Creature puzzl'd me once in such a Manner, by a Question meerly natural and innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal to him of the Power of God, his Omnipotence, his dreadful Aversion to Sin, his being a consuming Fire to the Workers of Iniquity; how, as he had made us all, he could destroy us and all the World in a Moment; and he listen'd with great Seriousness to me all the while.
(p. 258)
(p. 258)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS (Prose)
Citation
At least 33 entries in ESTC (1719, 1720, 1722, 1726, 1742, 1744, 1747, 1753, 1761, 1766, 1767, 1772, 1778, 1781, 1784, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1797, 1799, 1800).
See Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years All Alone in an Un-Inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account How He Was at Last As Strangely Deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself (London: W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, 1719). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>
See Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years All Alone in an Un-Inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account How He Was at Last As Strangely Deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself (London: W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, 1719). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
01/13/2004
