Poetry · Chapter
A Hasty Inference explained
Satan, covered in grime from the Pit, requests a consultation with Saint Peter and the Master.
What happens
Satan, covered in grime from the Pit, requests a consultation with Saint Peter and the Master. He argues that after ten million years of being deemed immoral, he deserves equal status in Heaven, pointing out that wealthy and corrupt figures like Stanford, Crocker, and Huntington have been allowed to flourish despite their crimes. The Master responds with disdain, and Satan expresses his confusion, believing that the Master's tolerance of such corruption implies a conversion to Satan's own way of thinking.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Corruption
Satan accuses the Master of hypocrisy for condemning him while allowing corrupt industrialists like Stanford and Crocker to prosper in Heaven.
Deception and Self-Deception
Satan's hasty inference that the Master's tolerance of corruption implies a change in moral standards reflects a self-serving misinterpretation of divine justice.
Characters to notice
- Jack Satan
The Devil, who comes from the Pit to petition for equal status in Heaven, citing the hypocrisy of the Master's tolerance of corrupt wealthy men.
- Saint Peter
The gatekeeper who admits Satan for a consultation with the Master.
- The Master
The divine authority who rebuffs Satan's request and is accused of hypocrisy for allowing corrupt figures like Stanford and Crocker to thrive.
- Leland Stanford
Mentioned by Satan as an example of a corrupt individual who has been allowed to flourish in Heaven.
Key passages
“For ten million years I’ve been kept in a stew Because you have thought me immoral; And though I have had my opinion of you, You’ve had the best end of the quarrel.”
Satan complains that for eons he has been tormented by being considered evil, and though he has his own criticisms of the Master, the Master has always come out ahead in their dispute.
Satan opens his argument by highlighting the long-standing imbalance in their conflict.
“Why, sure you can’t mean it! said Satan. I’ve seen How Stanford and Crocker you’ve nourished, And Huntington—bless me! the three like a green Umbrageous great bay-tree have flourished.”
Satan exclaims in disbelief, pointing out that the Master has nurtured and allowed Stanford, Crocker, and Huntington to grow rich and powerful like a thriving tree.
Satan uses the example of these wealthy industrialists to accuse the Master of hypocrisy.
“What of that? cried the Father of Sin; Why, I thought when I saw you were winking At crimes such as theirs that perhaps you had been Converted to my way of thinking.”
Satan retorts that he assumed the Master's tolerance of such crimes meant he had adopted Satan's own moral standards.
Satan's hasty inference forms the core of the poem's satirical argument.