In 1792, when she was 42, Joanna Southcott began writing down her prophecies, sealing them against the day they were to occur. In 1801 her publications began to appear, written in a combination of prose - sometimes plain, sometimes incantatory - and primitive verse. This pamphlet of 1802 is a sample of the flood of writings which she poured forth until her death in 1814.

Joanna is visited by Satan, or Apollyon, or a Friend of Satan, and disputes with him; she triumphs; she recounts her dreams of a flying horseman, a balloon, fires in the sky. A farmer's daughter and one-time servant, she is a descendant of Bunyan in the period of Blake. Unlike Blake she reaches a wide audience, speaking most directly to the poor and to women. Visionary, deluded, or mad, she was the object of veneration and focus of a large and devoted cult.