He is a great prince, with
thousands of princes under him--what were Caesar or Alexander the Great
compared with him? What are the Turk and old Lewis of France, but his
servants? Great, yea, exceeding great, are the power, subtlety, and
diligence of the prince Belial; and his armies in the country below are
innumerable." "For what purpose," said I, "are the damsels standing
yonder, and who are they?" "Softly," said the angel, "one question at
once: they are there to be loved and to be adored." "And no wonder
indeed," said I, "since they are so amiable; if I possessed feet and
hands as formerly, I would go and offer love and adoration to them
myself." "Hush, hush," said he, "if you would do so with your members,
it is well that you are without them; know, thou foolish spirit, that
these three princesses are only three destructive deluders, daughters of
the prince Belial, and all their beauty and affability, which are
irradiating the streets, are only masks over deformity and cruelty; the
three within are like their father, replete with deadly poison." "Woe's
me; is it possible," said I, quite sad, and smitten with love of them!
"It is but too true, alas," said he. "Thou admirest the radiance with
which they shine upon their adorers; but know that there is in that
radiance a very wondrous charm; it blinds men from looking back, it
deafens them lest they should hear their danger, and it burns them with
ceaseless longing for more of it; which longing, is itself a deadly
poison, breeding, within those who feel it, diseases not to be got rid
of, which no physician can cure, not even death, nor anything, unless the
heavenly medicine, which is called repentance, is procured, to cast out
the evil in time, before it is imbibed too far, by excessive looking upon
them." "But how is it," said I, "that Belial does not wish to have these
adorers himself?" "He has them," said the angel; "the old fox is adored
in his daughters, because, whilst a man sticks to these, or to one of the
three, he is securely under the mark of Belial, and wears his livery."

"What are the names," said I, "of those three deceivers?" "The farthest,
yonder," said he, "is called _Pride_, the eldest daughter of Belial; the
second is _Pleasure_; and _Lucre_ is the next to us: these three are the
trinity which the world adores." "Pray, has this great, distracted
city," said I, "any better name than _Bedlam the Great_?" "It has," he
replied, "it is call