Dialogues with the Devil

He had never been here before, for it was a mighty planet newly born, innocent of all but the gentlest life in the form of beast and creature and bird. Its beauty delighted him, for its airs were softly rose and gilt, its sky of pellucid mauve—for Tau Ceti was as a great lavender prism turning rapidly on its axis—its thick soft grass gleaming with a magenta tinge, its peaks white and gilded or brilliant blue, its hills folded as if in azure velvet, its rivers and seas purely silver with lilac crests, its lakes violet. The climate was sweet, fragrant with the scents of fruits, plumed amethystine trees, fields of flowers as yet unnamed, and dewy turf, and tumultuous with the joyous songs of gorgeously colored birds.

He was with them, but not of them, and Michael remembered that it was always so, even in Heaven. He loved them, but it was with a condescending love, for he was greater than all and the oldest, and in many ways he possessed more wisdom

Only the strong can protect the weak. Only the noble of heart can inspire other men to nobility, to sacrifice, to self-discipline, to love. Only a Godly man can know God

Useless have been her warnings and her tears, and her love for her fellowman, as useless as the Sacrifice of her Son. Her name, and His, are coupled in contempt among men, and for that alone I would destroy Terra

Slavery is an evil, but it is the evil of the slave and not the slave-master. The oppressed are guilty of their oppression, the anxious of their anxiety, the despairing of their despair. They needed only to be men, as Our Father made them. Evil governments are not the fault of a few, or even the ambition of a few. Their people acceded to them, and consented to be governed by them, because they were cowards. There was only one true Victim on Terra. The endless multitudes of humanity who have wailed through the centuries that they were helpless “victims,” did not appear to know that they devised their own victimization, through pusillanimity, carelessness, excessive optimism, a belief in the “innate goodness of man,” and through lack of imagination or a sound mistrust of their fellows. A city which surrenders has only itself to blame for its chains. It should have preferred death, for death is nothing, but dishonor is immortal. Yet, how often you have whispered to man that it is better to live on his knees than to die like a man on his feet! You have told man that mere bodily existence is the utmost value, and that he must cuddle and warm and feed and pamper and decorate and shelter his flesh at all costs, even at the cost of his manhood. There is no greater debasement of the human spirit.

I am more persuasive than you. You inspire only the fear of God in men. I inspire men with the possible glorification of man. What man can resist that? What man can resist the illusion that he has been called by God, Himself, to improve the lot and the lives of others?

The intelligent are the easiest to seduce, for they can conjure up a thousand arguments against one question, or in behalf of it. Intelligence does not always produce steadfastness and resolution. On the contrary! As it is open to many conjectures and cannot decide among them, it is filled with irresolution. And, unfortunately, tolerance

That which is born in the gutter must return to the gutter, and no efforts of well-born gentlemen will ever elevate a pig to the mind of a man

Did they think that by the scratching of their passionate pens they could raise the stature of men by one cubit? They had the words of the Christ: “Who, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature?”

Loving and anxious hands must not only give bread, but they must be lifted in prayer and in the knowledge that all secular things pass away on Terra and no morrow is born of today, and no improvement in the temporal lot of man can be lasting until first the favor of God is sought and received, and in the full knowledge that your deathly spirit can only be lifted from the world through God’s intervention—as it has been prophesied, and will come to pass on the Day He alone knows.