o the devil Leviathan, his favourite, he added, "I choose
thee, the subtlest seducer, the deadliest hater of the human race, to
ascend and purchase for me, by thy dangerous services, the soul of this
desperado. Only thou canst chain, satiate, and then, drive to despair,
his craving heart and his proud and restless spirit. Quick, quick!
ascend! dispel the vapours of school-wisdom from his brain. Consume with
the fire of voluptuousness the noble feelings of his heart. Disclose to
him the treasures of nature, and hurry him into life, that he may the
sooner grow tired of it. Let him see evil arise from good, vice
rewarded, justice and innocence trodden under foot, as is the custom of
men. Conduct him through the wild and terrible scenes of human life; let
him mistake its aim, and lose among its horrors the guiding thread of
virtue. And when he stands separated from all natural and heavenly ties,
in doubt concerning the noble destination of his race,--when even
pleasure and enjoyment have left him, and the inward worm awakes,--then
depict to him, with infernal bitterness, the consequences of his deeds
and delusions, and unfold to him all their links, extending to remotest
generations. If despair should then seize him, hurl him down, and return
in triumph to hell."

_Leviathan_. Wherefore, O Satan, dost thou impose this work upon me?
Thou knowest that I have long ago had enough of men, and of their
playground,--the world. What is to be made out of wretches who, as thou
hast observed, have strength neither for good nor evil? Gold, ambition,
or pleasure, can quickly make rascals of them, who have for a short
period pursued the phantom virtue; and if any one should move boldly at
first along the path of vice, he will be driven back when half-way by the
spectres of his crazy imagination. If, indeed, it were a proud
hot-headed Spaniard, a revengeful assassinating Italian, or even a wild
lascivious Frenchman, whom you wanted me to catch--but a German, one of
those thick-pated swine, who slavishly bend before rank, riches, and all
the artificial distinctions of men, who believe that their lords and
princes are made of superior materials to themselves, and have a right to
dispose of them just as they please, either in fighting their own
battles, or those of other sovereigns! Hast thou heard from them for
centuries a single word of rebellion against tyranny, or of shedding
blood for the rights of man? Not one of them has,