; why should we
think the _Devil_ alone should stand at a stay, has taken no Steps to
his farther Accomplishment, and made no useful Discoveries in his Way?
That he alone should stand at a Stay, and be just the same unimprov'd
Devil that he was before? No, no, as the World is improv'd every Day,
and every Age is grown wiser and wiser than their Fathers; so, no doubt,
he has bestirr'd himself too, in order to an encrease of Knowledge and
Discovery, and that he finds every Day a nearer Way to go to work with
Mankind than he had before.

Besides, as Men in general seem to have alter'd their manner, and that
they move in a higher and more exalted Sphere, especially as to Vice and
Virtue; so the _Devil_ may have been obliged to change his Measures, and
alter his Way of working; particularly, those Things which would take in
former Times, and which a stupid Age would come easily into, won't go
down with us now: As the taste of Vice and Virtue alters, the _Devil_ is
forc'd to bait his Hook with new Compositions; the very Thing call'd
Temptation is alter'd in its Nature, and that which serv'd to delude our
Ancestors, whose gross Conceptions of Things caused them to be
manageable with less Art, will not do now; the Case is quite alter'd; in
some Things, perhaps, as I hinted above, we come into Crime with ease,
and may be led by a Finger; but when we come to a more refin'd Way of
sinning, which our Ancestors never understood, other and more refin'd
Politics must be made Use of, and the _Devil_ has been put upon many
useful Projects and Inventions, to make many new Discoveries and
Experiments to carry on his Affairs; and to speak impartially, he is
strangely improv'd either in Knowledge or Experiment, within these few
Years; he has found out a great many new Inventions to shorten his own
Labour, and carry on his Business in the World currently, which he never
was master of before, or at least we never knew he was.

No wonder then that he has chang'd Hands too, and that he has left of
pawawing in these Parts of the World; that we don't find our Houses
disturb'd as they used to be, and the Stools and Chairs walking about
out of one Room into another, as formerly; that Children don't vomit
crooked Pins and rusty stub Nails, as of old, the Air is not full of
Noises, nor the Church-Yard full of Hobgoblins; Ghosts don't walk about
in Winding-Sheets, and the good old scolding Wives visit and plague
their Husbands after they are dead, as