In Act One, Hale arrives as a self-proclaimed expert on
the Devil and all of his wiles. He bears books, which, in his words, are "weighted with
authority" and information regarding all of the guises of the devil and his minions. It
is clear he feels he has significant experience in this whole area of dealing with the
devil and his works. The part of the text you are referring to comes when he begins his
efforts to discern what is going on with Betty Parris and Parris, scared, asks why the
Devil should choose his house to strike and not any other house with less godly people
in it. Hale responds as follows:
What victory would the Devil have to win a soul
already bad? It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the
minister?
Thus we see the
thinking and logic of Hale. If the Devil is going to choose this village to attack, he
is not going to bother working in a household with people whose soul is already bad - he
will want to attack "the best" from God's perspective and thus it is entirely fitting
that he would go for the minister's household in his quest for
domination.
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