the kingdom of Darkness. For what is Tobacco but
one of my meanest instruments, to carry bewilderment into the brain? And
what is the kingdom of _Mammon_, but a branch of my vast domain? Yea, if
I were to recite the ties which I have on the subjects of _Mammon_ and
_Pride_--yea, and on the subjects of _Asmodeus_, _Belphegor_, and
_Hypocrisy_--no man would tarry a minute longer under the rule of one of
them. Therefore," said he, "I am the one to do the work, and let none of
you boast again about his merits." Then Lucifer the Great arose himself
from his burning throne, and with a would-be complaisant but nevertheless
frightful look on both sides,--"Ye master-spirits of eternal Night! ye
supreme possessors of the cunning of Despair!" he said, "though the vast
black gulf and the wilds of Destruction, are indebted to no one for
inhabitants, more than to my own royal majesty since I of yore, failing
to drag the Omnipotent from his possession, drew millions of you, my
swarthy angels to this place of horrors, and have since drawn millions of
men to you; nevertheless, it cannot be denied, that ye too have all done
your part, to sustain this vast infernal empire."

Then Lucifer began to answer them one by one. "For one of late origin, I
will not deny, O _Cerberus_, that thou hast brought to us many a booty
from the island of our enemies, by means of tobacco, a weed the cause of
much deceit; for how much deceit is practiced in carrying it about, in
mixing it, and in weighing it: a weed which entices some people to bib
ale; others to curse, swear, and to flatter in order to obtain it, and
others to tell lies in denying that they use it: a weed productive of
maladies in various bodies, the excess of which is injurious to every
man's body, without speaking of his _soul_: a weed, moreover, by which we
get multitudes of the poor, whom we should never get, did they not set
their love on tobacco, and allow it to master them, and pull the bread
from the mouths of their children.

"And as for you, my brother _Mammon_, your power is so universal, and
likewise so manifest upon the earth, that it has become a proverb that
'_any thing can be got for money_.' And undoubtedly," said he, turning
to Apollyon, "my beloved daughter _Pride_ is of great utility to us; for
what is more capable of injuring a man in his condition, his body, and
his soul, than that _proud_, _haughty idea_, which will make him squander
a _hundred pounds_ for displ