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diff --git a/20634.txt b/20634.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2b5b48 --- /dev/null +++ b/20634.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3887 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sleeping Bard, by Ellis Wynne, Translated +by George Borrow + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Sleeping Bard + or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell + + +Author: Ellis Wynne + + + +Release Date: February 20, 2007 [eBook #20634] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLEEPING BARD*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1860 John Murray edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org. Many thanks to Birmingham Library, England, for the +generous provision of the material from which this transcription was +made. http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/libraries.bcc. + + + + + +THE SLEEPING BARD; +OR +Visions of the World, Death, and Hell, +BY +ELIS WYN. + + +TRANSLATED FROM THE CAMBRIAN BRITISH +BY +GEORGE BORROW, + +AUTHOR OF +"THE BIBLE IN SPAIN," "THE GYPSIES OF SPAIN," ETC. + +LONDON: +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. +1860. + + + + +Preface. + + +The Sleeping Bard was originally written in the Welsh language, and was +published about the year 1720. The author of it, Elis Wyn, was a +clergyman of the Cambro Anglican Church, and a native of Denbighshire, in +which county he passed the greater part of his life, at a place called Y +las Ynys. Besides the Sleeping Bard, he wrote and published a book in +Welsh, consisting of advice to Christian Professors. The above scanty +details comprise all that is known of Elis Wyn. Both his works have +enjoyed, and still enjoy, considerable popularity in Wales. + +The Sleeping Bard, though a highly remarkable, is not exactly entitled to +the appellation of an original work. There are in the Spanish language +certain pieces by Francisco Quevedo, called "Visions or Discourses;" the +principal ones being "The Vision of the Carcases, the Sties of Pluto, and +the Inside of the World Disclosed; The Visit of the Gayeties, and the +Intermeddler, the Duenna and the Informer." With all these the Visions +of Elis Wyn have more or less connection. The idea of the Vision of the +World, was clearly taken from the Interior of the World Disclosed; the +idea of the Vision of Death, from the Vision of the Carcases; that of the +Vision of Hell, from the Sties of Pluto; whilst many characters and +scenes in the three parts, into which the work of Elis Wyn is divided, +are taken either from the Visit of the Gayeties, the Intermeddler, or +others of Quevedo's Visions; for example Rhywun, or Somebody, who in the +Vision of Death makes the humorous complaint, that so much of the +villainy and scandal of the world is attributed to him, is neither more +nor less than Quevedo's Juan de la Encina, or Jack o' the Oak, who in the +Visit of the Gayeties, is made to speak somewhat after the following +fashion:-- + + "O ye living people, spawn of Satan that ye are! what is the reason + that ye cannot let me be at rest now that I am dead, and all is over + with me? What have I done to you? What have I done to cause you to + defame me in every thing, who have a hand in nothing, and to blame me + for that of which I am entirely ignorant?" "Who are you?" said I with + a timorous bow, "for I really do not understand you." "I am," said + he, "the unfortunate Juan de la Encina, whom, notwithstanding I have + been here many years, ye mix up with all the follies which ye do and + say during your lives; for all your lives long, whenever you hear of + an absurdity, or commit one, you are in the habit of saying, 'Juan de + la Encina could not have acted more like a fool;' or, 'that is one of + the follies of Juan de la Encina.' I would have you know that all you + men, when you say or do foolish things, are Juan de la Encina; for + this appellation of Encina, seems wide enough to cover all the + absurdities of the world." + +Nevertheless, though there is a considerable amount of what is Quevedo's +in the Visions of Elis Wyn, there is a vast deal in them which strictly +belongs to the Welshman. Upon the whole, the Cambrian work is superior +to the Spanish. There is more unity of purpose in it, and it is far less +encumbered with useless matter. In reading Quevedo's Visions, it is +frequently difficult to guess what the writer is aiming at; not so whilst +perusing those of Elis Wyn. It is always clear enough, that the Welshman +is either lashing the follies or vices of the world, showing the +certainty of death, or endeavouring to keep people from Hell, by +conveying to them an idea of the torments to which the guilty are +subjected in a future state. + +Whether Elis Wyn had ever read the Visions of Quevedo in their original +language, it is impossible to say; the probability however is, that he +was acquainted with them through the medium of an English translation, +which was published in London about the beginning of the eighteenth +century; of the merits of that translation the present writer can say +nothing, as it has never come to his hand: he cannot however help +observing, that a person who would translate the Visions of Quevedo, and +certain other writings of his, should be something more than a fair +Spanish scholar, and a good master of the language into which he would +render them, as they abound not only with idiomatic phrases, but terms of +cant or Germania, which are as unintelligible as Greek or Arabic to the +greater part of the Spaniards themselves. + +The following translation of the Sleeping Bard has long existed in +manuscript. It was made by the writer of these lines in the year 1830, +at the request of a little Welsh bookseller of his acquaintance, who +resided in the rather unfashionable neighbourhood of Smithfield, and who +entertained an opinion that a translation of the work of Elis Wyn, would +enjoy a great sale both in England and Wales. On the eve of committing +it to the press however, the Cambrian Briton felt his small heart give +way within him: "Were I to print it," said he, "I should be ruined; the +terrible descriptions of vice and torment, would frighten the genteel +part of the English public out of its wits, and I should to a certainty +be prosecuted by Sir James Scarlett. I am much obliged to you, for the +trouble you have given yourself on my account--but Myn Diawl! I had no +idea till I had read him in English, that Elis Wyn had been such a +terrible fellow." + +Yet there is no harm in the book. It is true that the Author is any +thing but mincing in his expressions and descriptions, but there is +nothing in the Sleeping Bard which can give offence to any but the over +fastidious. There is a great deal of squeamish nonsense in the world; +let us hope however that there is not so much as there was. Indeed can +we doubt that such folly is on the decline, when we find Albemarle Street +in '60, willing to publish a harmless but plain speaking book which +Smithfield shrank from in '30? + + + + +The Vision of the Course of the World. + + +One fine evening of warm sunny summer, I took a stroll to the top of one +of the mountains of Wales, carrying with me a telescope to assist my +feeble sight by bringing distant objects near, and magnifying small ones. +Through the thin, clear air, and the calm and luminous heat, I saw many +delightful prospects afar across the Irish sea. At length, after +feasting my eyes on all the pleasant objects around me, until the sun had +reached his goal in the west, I lay down upon the green grass, +reflecting, how fair and enchanting, from my own country, the countries +appeared whose plains my eyes had glanced over, how delightful it would +be to obtain a full view of them, and how happy those were who saw the +course of the world in comparison with me: weariness was the result of +all this toiling with my eyes and my imagination, and in the shadow of +Weariness, _Mr. Sleep_ came stealthily to enthrall me, who with his keys +of lead, locked the windows of my eyes, and all my other senses securely. +But it was in vain for him to endeavour to lock up the soul, which can +live and toil independently of the body, for my spirit escaped out of the +locked body upon the wings of Fancy, and the first thing which I saw by +the side of me was a dancing ring, and a kind of rabble in green +petticoats and red caps dancing away with the most furious eagerness. I +stood for a time in perplexity whether I should go to them or not, +because in my flurry I feared they were a gang of hungry gipsies, and +that they would do nothing less than slaughter me for their supper, and +swallow me without salt: but after gazing upon them for some time, I +could see that they were better and handsomer than the swarthy, lying +Egyptian race. So I ventured to approach them, but very softly, like a +hen treading upon hot embers, that I might learn who they were; and at +length I took the liberty of addressing them in this guise, with my head +and back lowered horizontally: "Fair assembly, as I perceive that you are +gentry from distant parts, will you deign to take a Bard along with you, +who is desirous of travelling?" At these words the hurly-burly was +hushed, and all fixed their eyes upon me: "_Bard_," squeaked +one--"_travel_," said another--"_along with us_," said the third. By +this time I saw some looking particularly fierce upon me; then they began +to whisper in each others ears certain secret words, and to look at me; +at length the whispering ceased, and each laying his gripe upon me they +raised me upon their shoulders, as we do a knight of the shire, and then +away with me they flew like the wind, over houses and fields, cities and +kingdoms, seas and mountains; and so quickly did they fly that I could +fasten my sight upon nothing, and what was worse, I began to suspect that +my companions, by their frowning and knitting their brows at me, wanted +me to sing blasphemy against my King and Maker. + +"Well," said I to myself, "I may now bid farewell to life, these cursed +witches will convey me to the pantry or cellar of some nobleman, and +there leave me, to pay with my neck for their robberies; or they will +abandon me stark naked, to freeze to death upon the sea-brink of old +Shire Caer, {3} or some other cold, distant place;" but on reflecting +that all the old hags whom I had once known had long been dead and +buried, and perceiving that these people took pleasure in holding or +waving me over hollow ravines, I conjectured that they were not witches +but beings who are called fairies. We made no stop until I found myself +by the side of a huge castle, the most beautiful I had ever seen, with a +large pool or moat surrounding it: then they began to consult what they +should do with me; "shall we go direct to the castle with him?" said one. +"No, let us hang him or cast him into the lake, he is not worth being +shown to our great prince," said another. "Did he say his prayers before +he went to sleep?" said a third. At the mention of prayers, I uttered a +confused groan to heaven for pardon and assistance; and as soon as I +recollected myself, I saw a light at a vast distance bursting forth, Oh, +how glorious! As it drew nigh, my companions were darkening and +vanishing, and quickly there came floating towards us a form of light +over the castle, whereupon the fairies abandoned their hold of me, but as +they departed they turned upon me a hellish scowl, and unless the angel +had supported me, I should have been dashed into pieces small enough for +a pasty, by the time I reached the ground. + +"What is your business here?" said the angel. "In verity my lord," I +replied, "I do not know what place _here_ is, nor what is my business, +nor what I am myself, nor what has become of my other part; I had four +limbs and a head, and whether I have left them at home, or whether the +fairies, who have certainly not acted fairly with me, have cast me into +some abyss, (for I remember to have passed over several horrid ravines,) +I cannot tell, sir, though you should cause me to be hung." "Fairly +indeed," said he, "they would have acted with you, if I had not come just +in time to save you from the clutches of these children of hell." + +"Since you have such a particular desire to see the course of the _little +world_," said he, "I have received commands to give you a sight of it, in +order that you may see your error in being discontented with your +station, and your own country. Come with me," he added, "for a +peregrination," and at the word he snatched me up, just as the dawn was +beginning to break, far above the topmost tower of the castle; we rested +in the firmament upon the ledge of a light cloud to gaze upon the rising +sun; but my heavenly companion, was far more luminous than the sun, but +all his splendour was upward, by reason of a veil which was betwixt him +and the nether regions. When the light of the sun became stronger, I +could see, between the two luminaries, the vast air-encircled world, like +a little round bullet, very far beneath us. "Look now," said the angel, +giving me a different telescope from that which I had on the mountain. +When I peeped through this I saw things in a manner altogether different +from that in which I had seen them before, and in a much clearer one. I +saw a city of monstrous size, and thousands of cities and kingdoms within +it; and the great ocean, like a moat, around it, and other seas, like +rivers, intersecting it. + +By dint of long gazing I could see that it was divided into three +exceedingly large streets; each street with a large, magnificent gate at +the bottom, and each gate with a fair tower over it. Upon each tower +there was a damsel of wonderful beauty, standing in the sight of the +whole street; and the three towers appeared to reach up behind the walls +to the skirts of the castle afore-mentioned. Crossing these three huge +streets I could see another; it was but little and mean in comparison +with them, but it was clean and neat, and on a higher foundation than the +other streets, proceeding upward towards the east, whilst the three +others ran downward towards the north to the great gates. I now ventured +to enquire of my companion whether I might be permitted to speak. +"Certainly," said the angel, "speak out! but listen attentively to my +answers, so that I may not have to say the same thing to you more than +once." "I will, my lord," said I. "Now pray, what place is the castle +yonder in the north?" "The castle above in the air," said he, "belongs +to Belial, prince of the power of the air, and governor of all the great +city below: it is called Delusive Castle, for Belial is a great deluder, +and by his wiles he keeps under his banner all you see, with the +exception of the little street yonder. He is a great prince, with +thousands of princes under him--what were Caesar or Alexander the Great +compared with him? What are the Turk and old Lewis of France, but his +servants? Great, yea, exceeding great, are the power, subtlety, and +diligence of the prince Belial; and his armies in the country below are +innumerable." "For what purpose," said I, "are the damsels standing +yonder, and who are they?" "Softly," said the angel, "one question at +once: they are there to be loved and to be adored." "And no wonder +indeed," said I, "since they are so amiable; if I possessed feet and +hands as formerly, I would go and offer love and adoration to them +myself." "Hush, hush," said he, "if you would do so with your members, +it is well that you are without them; know, thou foolish spirit, that +these three princesses are only three destructive deluders, daughters of +the prince Belial, and all their beauty and affability, which are +irradiating the streets, are only masks over deformity and cruelty; the +three within are like their father, replete with deadly poison." "Woe's +me; is it possible," said I, quite sad, and smitten with love of them! +"It is but too true, alas," said he. "Thou admirest the radiance with +which they shine upon their adorers; but know that there is in that +radiance a very wondrous charm; it blinds men from looking back, it +deafens them lest they should hear their danger, and it burns them with +ceaseless longing for more of it; which longing, is itself a deadly +poison, breeding, within those who feel it, diseases not to be got rid +of, which no physician can cure, not even death, nor anything, unless the +heavenly medicine, which is called repentance, is procured, to cast out +the evil in time, before it is imbibed too far, by excessive looking upon +them." "But how is it," said I, "that Belial does not wish to have these +adorers himself?" "He has them," said the angel; "the old fox is adored +in his daughters, because, whilst a man sticks to these, or to one of the +three, he is securely under the mark of Belial, and wears his livery." + +"What are the names," said I, "of those three deceivers?" "The farthest, +yonder," said he, "is called _Pride_, the eldest daughter of Belial; the +second is _Pleasure_; and _Lucre_ is the next to us: these three are the +trinity which the world adores." "Pray, has this great, distracted +city," said I, "any better name than _Bedlam the Great_?" "It has," he +replied, "it is called _The City of Perdition_." "Woe is me," said I, +"are all that are contained therein people of perdition?" "The whole," +said he, "except some who may escape out to the most high city above, +ruled by the king Emmanuel." "Woe's me and mine," said I, "how shall +they escape, ever gazing, as they are, upon the thing which blinds them +more and more, and which plunders them in their blindness?" "It would be +quite impossible," said he, "for one man to escape from thence, did not +Emmanuel send his messengers, early and late, from above, to persuade +them to turn to him, their lawful King, from the service of the rebel, +and also transmit to some, the present of a precious ointment, called +_faith_, to anoint their eyes with; and whosoever obtains this _true_ +ointment, (for there is a counterfeit of it, as there is of every thing +else, in the city of Perdition,) and anoints himself with it, will see +his wounds, and his madness, and will not tarry a minute longer here, +though Belial should give him his three daughters, yea, or the fourth, +which is the greatest of all, to do so." + +"What are those great streets called?" said I. "Each is called," he +replied, "by the name of the princess who governs it: the first is the +street of _Pride_, the middle one the street of _Pleasure_, and the +nearest, the street of _Lucre_." "Pray tell me," said I, "who are +dwelling in these streets? What is the language which they speak? What +are the tenets which they hold; and to what nation do they belong?" +"Many," said he, "of every language, faith, and nation under the Sun, are +living in each of those vast streets below; and there are many living in +each of the three streets alternately, and every one as near as possible +to the gate; and they frequently remove, unable to tarry long in the one, +from the great love they bear to the princess of some other street; and +the old fox looks slyly on, permitting every one to love his choice, or +all three if he pleases, for then he is most sure of him." + +"Come nearer to them," said the angel, and hurried with me downwards, +shrouded in his impenetrable veil, through much noxious vapour which was +rising from the city; presently we descended in the street of Pride, upon +a spacious mansion open at the top, whose windows had been dashed out by +dogs and crows, and whose owners had departed to England or France, to +seek there for what they could have obtained much easier at home; thus, +instead of the good, old, charitable, domestic family of yore, there were +none at present but owls, crows, or chequered magpies, whose hooting, +cawing and chattering were excellent comments on the practices of the +present owners. There were in that street, myriads of such abandoned +palaces, which might have been, had it not been for Pride, the resorts of +the best, as of yore, places of refuge for the weak, schools of peace and +of every kind of goodness; and blessings to thousands of small houses +around. + +From the summit of this ruin, we had scope and leisure enough to observe +the whole street on either side. There were fair houses of wondrous +height and magnificence--and no wonder, as there were emperors, kings, +and hundreds of princes there, and thousands of nobles and gentry, and +very many women of every degree. I saw a vain high-topt creature, like a +ship at full sail, walking as if in a frame, carrying about her full the +amount of a pedlar's pack, and having at her ears, the worth of a good +farm, in pearls; and there were not a few of her kind--some were singing, +in order that their voices might be praised; some were dancing, to show +their figures; others were painting to improve their complexions; others +had been trimming themselves before the glass, for three hours, learning +to smile, moving pins and making gestures and putting themselves in +attitudes. There was many a vain creature there, who did not know how to +open her lips to speak, or to eat, nor, from sheer pride, to look under +her feet; and many a ragged shrew, who would insist that she was as good +a gentlewoman as the best in the street; and many an ambling fop, who +could winnow beans with the mere wind of his train. + +Whilst I was looking, from afar upon these, and a hundred such, behold! +there passed by towards us, a bouncing, variegated lady with a lofty +look, and with a hundred folks gazing after her; some bent themselves as +if to adore her; some few thrust something into her hand. Being unable +to imagine who she was, I enquired. "Oh," replied my friend, "she is one +who has all her portion in sight, yet you see how many foolish people are +seeking her, and the meanest of them in possession of all the attainments +she can boast of. _She will not have what she can gain_, _and will never +gain what she desires_, and she will speak to no one but her betters, on +account of her mother's telling her, 'that a young woman cannot do a +worse thing, than be humble in her love.'" Thereupon came out from +beneath us a pillar of a man, who had been an alderman, and in many +official situations; he came spreading his wings as if to fly, though he +could scarcely draw one knee after the other, on account of the gout, and +various other genteel disorders: notwithstanding which, you could not +obtain from him, but through a very great favour, a glance or a nod, +though you should call him by his titles and his offices. + +From this being I turned my eyes to the other side of the street, where I +beheld a lusty young nobleman, with a number of people behind him; he had +a sweet smile and a condescending air to every one who met him. "It is +strange," said I, "that this young man and yonder personage should belong +to the same street." "Oh, the same princess Pride rules them both," +answered the angel,--"this young man is only speaking fair on account of +the errand he comes upon; he is seeking popularity at present, with the +intent to raise himself thereby to the highest office in the kingdom--it +is easy for him to lament to the people how much they are wronged by the +oppression of bad masters; but his own exaltment, and not the weal of the +kingdom, is the heart of the matter." After gazing for a long time, I +perceived at the gate of Pride, a fair city upon seven hills, and on the +top of its lofty palace there was a triple crown, with swords and keys +crossed. "Lo! there is Rome," said I, "and therein dwells the Pope." +"Yes, most usually," said the angel; "but he has a palace in each of the +other streets." Over against Rome, I could see a city with an +exceedingly fair palace, and upon it was mounted on high, a half-moon on +a banner of gold, and by that I knew that the Turk was there. Next to +the gate after those, was the palace of Lewis XIV., of France, as I +understood by his arms, three fleurs-de-lis upon a silver banner hanging +aloft. Whilst looking on the height and majesty of these palaces, I +perceived that there was much passing and repassing from the one to the +other, and I asked what was the cause thereof? "Oh, there is many a dark +cause," said the angel, "why those three crafty, powerful heads should +communicate; but though they account themselves fully adapted to espouse +the three princesses above, their power and subtlety are nothing when +compared with these; yes, Belial the Great does not esteem the whole +city, (though so numerous be its kings), as equivalent to his daughters. +Notwithstanding that he offers them in marriage to everybody, he has +still never given one entirely to anybody yet. There has been a rivalry +between these three concerning them:--the Turk, who calls himself _God +upon earth_, wished for the eldest, Pride, in marriage. 'No,' said the +king of France, 'she belongs to me, as I keep all my subjects in her +street, and likewise bring many to her from England and other countries.' +Spain would have the princess Lucre, in despite of Holland and all the +Jews. England would have the princess Pleasure, in despite of the +Pagans. But the Pope would have the whole three, and with better reason +than all the rest together, therefore Belial has stationed him next to +them in the three streets." "And is it on this account that there is +this intercourse at present," said I. "No;" he replied, "Belial has +arranged the matter between them for some time; but at present he has +caused them to lay their heads together, how they may best destroy the +cross street yonder, which is the city of Emmanuel, and particularly one +great palace which is there, out of sheer venom at perceiving that it is +a fairer edifice than exists in all the city of Perdition. Belial +moreover has promised to those who shall accomplish its destruction, the +half of his kingdom during his life, and the whole when he is dead. But, +notwithstanding the greatness of his power and the depth of his wiles; +notwithstanding the multitude of crafty emperors, kings, and rulers, who +are beneath his banner in the vast city of Perdition; and notwithstanding +the bravery of his countless legions on the outer side of the gates in +the world below; notwithstanding all this," said the angel, "he shall see +that it is a task above his power to perform. Yes; however great Belial +may be, he shall find that there is One greater than he, in the little +street yonder." + +I was unable to hear his angelic reasons completely, from the tumbling +there was along this slippery street every hour, and I could see some +people with ladders scaling the tower, and having reached the highest +step fall headlong to the bottom. "To what place are those fools seeking +to get?" said I. "To a place high enough," said he; "they are seeking to +break into the treasury of the princess." "I will warrant it is full +enough," said I. "It is," he replied; "and with every thing which +belongs to this street, for the purpose of being distributed amongst the +inhabitants. There you will find every species of warlike arms to subdue +and to over-run countries; every species of arms of gentility, banners, +escutcheons, books of pedigree, stanzas and poems relating to ancestry, +with every species of brave garments; admirable stories, lying portraits; +all kinds of tints and waters to embellish the countenance; all sorts of +high offices and titles; and, to be brief, there is every thing there +that is adapted to cause a man to think better of himself, and worse of +others than he ought. The chief officers of this treasury are masters of +ceremonies, vagabonds, genealogists, bards, orators, flatterers, dancers, +tailors, mantua-makers, and the like." From this great street we +proceeded to the next, where the princess Lucre reigns; it was a full and +prodigiously wealthy street, yet not half so splendid and clean as the +street of Pride, nor its people half so bold and lofty looking; for they +were skulking mean-looking fellows, for the most part. + +There were in this street thousands of Spaniards, Hollanders, Venetians, +and Jews, and a great many aged, decrepit people were also there. "Pray, +sir," said I, "what kind of men are these?" "They have all gain in +view," said he. "At the lowest extremity, on one side, you will still +see the Pope; also subduers of kingdoms and their soldiers, oppressors, +foresters, shutters up of the common foot-paths, justices and their +bribers, and the whole race of lawyers down to the catchpole. On the +other side," said he, "there are physicians, apothecaries, doctors, +misers, merchants, extortioners, usurers, refusers to pay tithes, wages, +rents, or alms which were left to schools and charity houses; purveyors +and chapmen who keep and raise the market to their own price; shopkeepers +(or sharpers) who make money out of the necessity or ignorance of the +buyer; stewards of every degree, sturdy beggars, taverners who plunder +the families of careless men of their property, and the country of its +barley for the bread of the poor. All these are thieves of the first +water," said he; "and the rest are petty thieves, for the most part, and +keep at the upper end of the street; they consist of highway robbers, +tailors, weavers, millers, measurers of wet and dry, and the like." In +the midst of this discourse, I heard a prodigious tumult at the lower end +of the street, where there was a huge crowd of people thronging towards +the gate, with such pushing and disputing as caused me to imagine that +there was a general fray on foot, until I demanded of my friend what was +the matter. "There is an exceeding great treasure in that tower," said +the angel, "and all that concourse is for the purpose of choosing a +treasurer to the princess, in lieu of the Pope, who has been turned out +of that office." So we went to see the election. + +The men who were competing for the office were the _Stewards_, the +_Usurers_, the _Lawyers_, and the _Merchants_, and the richest of the +whole was to obtain it, because the more you have the more you shall +crave, is the epidemic curse of the street. The Stewards were rejected +at the first offer, lest they should impoverish the whole street, and, as +they had raised their palaces on the ruins of their masters, lest they +should in the end turn the princess out of her possession; then the +dispute arose between the three others; the Merchants had the most silks, +the Lawyers most mortgages on lands, and the Usurers the greatest number +of full bags, and bills and bonds. "Ha! they will not agree to night," +said the angel, "so come away; the Lawyers are richer than the Merchants, +the Usurers are richer than the Lawyers, and the Stewards than the +Usurers, and Belial than the whole, for he owns them all, and their +property too." + +"For what reason is the princess keeping these thieves about her?" I +demanded. "What can be more proper," said he, "when she herself is the +arrantest of thieves." I was astonished to hear him call the princess +thus, and the greatest potentates thieves of the first water. "Pray, my +lord," said I, "how can you call those illustrious people greater thieves +than robbers on the highway?" "You are but a dupe," said he; "is not the +villain who goes over the world with his sword in his hand and his +plunderers behind him, burning and slaying, wresting kingdoms from their +right owners, and looking forward to be adored as a conqueror, worse than +the rogue who takes a purse upon the highway? What is the tailor who +cabbages a piece of cloth, to the great man who takes a piece out of the +parish common? Ought not the latter to be called a thief of the first +water, or ten times more a rogue than the other?--the tailor merely takes +snips of cloth from his customer, whilst the other takes from the poor +man the sustenance of his beast, and by so doing the sustenance of +himself and his little ones--what is taking a handful of flour at the +mill, to keeping a hundred sacksfull to putrify, in order to obtain +afterwards a four-fold price?--what is the half-naked soldier who takes +your garment away with his sword, to the lawyer, who takes your whole +estate from you with a goose's quill, without any claim or bond upon +it?--and what is the pickpocket who takes five pounds, to the cogger of +dice who will cheat you of a hundred in the third part of a night?--and +what is the jockey who tricks you in some old unsound horse, to the +apothecary who chouses you of your money, and your life also with some +old unwholesome physic?--and yet what are all these thieves to the +mistress-thief there, who takes away from the whole all these things, and +their hearts and their souls at the end of the fair?" From this dirty, +disorderly street we proceeded to the street of the princess Pleasure, in +which I beheld a number of Britons, French, Italians, Pagans, &c. She +was a princess exceedingly beautiful to the eye, with a cup of drugged +wine in the one hand, and a crown and a harp in the other. In her +treasury there were numberless pleasures and pretty things to obtain the +custom of every body, and to keep them in the service of her father. Yea! +there were many who escaped to this charming street, to cast off the +melancholy arising from their losses and debts in the other streets. It +was a street prodigiously crowded, especially with young people; and the +princess was careful to please every body, and to keep an arrow adapted +to every mark. If you are thirsty, you can have here your choice of +drink; if you love dancing and singing, you can get here your fill. If +her comeliness entice you to lust for the body of a female, she has only +to lift up her finger to one of the officers of her father, (who surround +her at all times, though invisibly), and they will fetch you a lass in a +minute, or the _body_ of a harlot newly buried, and will go into her in +lieu of a _soul_, rather than you should abandon so good a design. + +Here there are handsome houses with very pleasant gardens, teeming +orchards, and shadowy groves, adapted to all kinds of secret meetings, in +which one can hunt birds and a certain fair coney; here there are +delightful rivers for fishing, and wide fields hedged around, in which it +is pleasant to hunt the hare and fox. All along the street you could see +farces being acted, juggling going on, and all kinds of tricks of +legerdemain; there was plenty of licentious music, vocal and +instrumental, ballad singing, and every species of merriment; there was +no lack of male and female beauty, singing and dancing; and there were +here many from the street of Pride, who came to receive praise and +adoration. In the interior of the houses I could see people on beds of +silk and down, wallowing in voluptuousness; some were engaged at billiard- +playing, and were occasionally swearing or cursing the table keeper; +others were rattling the dice or shuffling the cards. My guide pointed +out to me some from the street of Lucre, who had chambers in this street; +they had run hither to reckon their money, but they did not tarry long +lest some of the innumerable tempting things to be met with here should +induce them to part with their pelf, without usury. I could see throngs +of individuals feasting, with something of every creature before them; +oh, how every one did gorge, swallowing mess after mess of dainties, +sufficient to have feasted a moderate man for three weeks, and when they +could eat no more, they belched out a thanks for what they had received, +and then gave the health of the king and every jolly companion; after +which, they drowned the savour of the food, and their cares besides, in +an ocean of wine; then they called for tobacco, and began telling stories +of their neighbours--and, I observed, that all the stories were well +received, whether true or false, provided they were amusing and of late +date, above all if they contained plenty of scandal: there they sat, each +with his clay pistol puffing forth fire and smoke, and slander to his +neighbour. At length I was fain to request my guide to permit me to move +on; the floor was impure with saliva and spilt drink, and I was +apprehensive that certain heavy hiccups which I heard, might be merely +the prelude to something more disagreeable. + +From thence we went to a place where we heard a terrible noise, a medley +of striking, jabbering, crying and laughing, shouting and singing. +"Here's Bedlam, doubtless," said I. By the time we entered the den the +brawling had ceased. Of the company, one was on the ground insensible; +another was in a yet more deplorable condition; another was nodding over +a hearthful of battered pots, pieces of pipes, and oozings of ale. And +what was all this, upon enquiry, but a carousal of seven thirsty +neighbours--a goldsmith, a pilot, a smith, a miner, a chimney-sweeper, a +poet, and a parson who had come to preach sobriety, and to exhibit in +himself what a disgusting thing drunkenness is. The origin of the last +squabble was a dispute which had arisen among them, about which of the +seven loved a pipe and flagon best. The poet had carried the day over +all the rest, with the exception of the parson, who, out of respect for +his cloth, had the most votes, being placed at the head of the jolly +companions--the poet singing:-- + + "Oh, where are there seven beneath the sky, + Who with these seven for thirst can vie? + But the best for good ale, these seven among, + Are the jolly divine, and the son of song." + +Disgusted with these drunken swine, we went nearer to the gate, to take a +peep at the follies of the palace of _Love_, the purblind king; it is a +place easy to enter and difficult to escape from, and in it there is a +prodigious number of chambers. In the hall opposite to the door was +insane Cupid, with his two arrows upon his bow, shooting tormenting +poison, which is called _bliss_. Upon the floor I could see many fair +damsels, finely dressed, walking about, and behind them a parcel of +miserable youths gazing upon their beauty, and each eager to obtain a +glance from his mistress, fearing her frown far worse than death. One +was bending to the ground and placing a letter in the hands of his +goddess; another a piece of music, all in fearful expectation, like +school-boys showing their tasks to their master; and the damsels would +glance back upon them a smile, to keep up the fervour of their adorers, +but nothing more, lest they should lose their desire, become cured of +their wound and depart. On going forward to the parlour, I beheld +females learning to dance and to sing, and to play on instruments, for +the purpose of making their lovers seven times more foolish than they +were already: on going to the buttery, I found them taking lessons in +delicacy and propriety of eating: on going to the cellar, I saw them +making up potent love drinks, from nail-parings and the like: on going to +the chambers, we beheld a fellow in a secret apartment, putting himself +into all kinds of attitudes, to teach his beloved elegant manners; +another learning in a glass to laugh in a becoming manner, without +showing to his love too much of his teeth; another we found embellishing +his tale before going to her, and repeating the same lesson a hundred +times. Tired of this insiped folly, I went to another chamber, where +there was a nobleman, who had sent for a bard from the street of Pride, +to compose a eulogistic strain on his angel, and a laudatory ode on +himself; the bard was haranguing upon his talent--"I can," said he, +"compare her to all the red and white under the sun, and say that her +hair is a hundredfold more yellow than gold; and as for your ode, I can +carry your genealogy through the bowels of an infinity of knights and +princes, and through the waters of the deluge, even as high up as Adam." +"Lo!" said I, "here is a bard who is a better inventor than myself." +"Come away, come away," said the angel, "these people are thinking to +bamboozle the woman, but when they go to her, they will be sure to obtain +from her as good as they bring." + +On leaving these people, we caught a glimpse of some cells, where more +obscene practices were going on than modesty will suffer me to mention, +which caused my companion to snatch me away in wrath, from this palace of +whimsicality and wantonness, to the treasury of the princess, (because we +went where we pleased, in spite of doors and locks.) There we beheld a +multitude of beautiful damsels, all sorts of drink, fruit, and dainties; +all kinds of instruments and books of music, harps, pipes, poems, carols, +&c.; all kinds of games of chance, draught-boards, dice-boxes, dice, +cards, &c.; all kinds of models of banquets and mansions, figures of men, +contrivances and amusements; all kinds of waters, perfumes, colors and +salves to make the ugly handsome, and the old look young, and to make the +harlot and her putrid bones sweet for a time. + +To be brief, there were here all kinds of _shadows_ of pleasure, all +kinds of _seeming_ delight; and to tell the truth, I believe this place +would have ensnared me, had not my friend, without ceremony, snatched me +far away from the three deceitful towers, to the upper end of the street, +and set me down by a castellated palace of prodigious size, and very +agreeable at first sight, but vile and terribly revolting on the farthest +side, though it was only seen with great difficulty on the side of its +deformity; it had a multitude of doors, and all the doors were splendid +on the outside, but filthy within. "Pray, my lord," said I, "if it +please you, what is this wonderful place?" "This," said he, "is the +palace of another daughter of Belial, who is called _Hypocrisy_; she here +keeps her school; there is not a youth or damsel within the whole city, +that has not been her scholar, and the people in general, have so well +imbibed what she has taught, that her lessons have become a second +nature, and intertwined with all their thoughts, words and actions, +almost since the time of their childhood." After I had inspected for a +time the falsehood of every corner of the edifice, a procession passed by +with a deal of weeping and groaning, and many men and horses dight in +habits of deep mourning. Presently came a wretched widow, closely +muffled, in order that she might look no more on this vile world; she was +feebly crying, and groaning slowly in the intervals of fainting +fits--verily, I could not help weeping myself, out of pity. "Pooh, +pooh," said the angel, "keep your tears for something more worthy; these +faintings are only a lesson of Hypocrisy, and in her great school these +black garments were fashioned. There is not one of these people weeping +seriously; the widow, before the body left the house, had wedded another +man, in her heart; and if she could get rid of the expense attending the +body, she would not care a rush if the soul of her husband were at the +bottom of hell; nor would her relations, more than herself; because when +his disease was hardest upon him, instead of giving him salutary counsel +and praying fervently, for the Lord to have mercy upon him, they only +talked to him about his effects, and about his testament, or his +pedigree, or what a handsome vigorous man he had been, and the like; so +all this lamenting is mere sham--some are mourning in obedience to custom +and habit, others for company's sake, and others for hire." + +Scarcely had this procession passed by, when, lo, another crowd came in +sight. A certain nobleman, prodigiously magnificient, and his lady at +his side, were going along in state; many respectable men were capping +them, and there were a thousand also behind them, shewing them every kind +of submission and reverence, and by the _favours_, I perceived that it +was a wedding: "He must be a very exalted nobleman," said I, "who merits +so much respect from all these people." "If you should consider the +whole, you would say something quite different," said my guide; "that +nobleman is one from the street of Pleasure; and the female, is a damsel +from the street of Pride, and the old man yonder, who is speaking with +him, is one from the street of Lucre, who has lent money upon nearly all +the land of the nobleman, and is to-day come to settle accounts." We +drew nigh to hear the conversation. + +"Verily, sir," says the usurer, "I would not for all I possess, that you +should want any thing that I can offer, in order that you may appear to- +day like yourself, especially since you have met with a lady so amiable +and illustrious as this." (The subtle old dog knowing perfectly well +what she was all the time.) "By the Lord above," said the nobleman, "the +next greatest pleasure, to looking at her beauty, is to listen to your +obliging discourse; I would rather pay you usury than obtain money gratis +from any one else." "Of a surety, my lord," said one of his principal +associates, who was called flatterer, "my uncle shows you no respect but +what is fully your right; but with your permission, I will assert, that +he has not bestowed half the commendation on her ladyship which she +deserves. I cannot myself produce, and I will defy any man to produce +one lovelier than herself, in the whole street of Pride; nor one more +gallant than you, my lord, in the whole street of Pleasure; nor one more +courteous than you, dear uncle, in the whole street of Lucre." "Oh, that +is only your good opinion," replied the lord, "but I certainly believe +that two never came together with more mutual love than we." As they +proceeded, the crowd increased, and every one had a fair smile and a low +bow for the other, and forward they ran to meet each other with their +noses to the ground, like two cocks going to engage. "Know now," said +the angel, "that you have not yet seen a _bow_ here, nor heard a _word_, +that did not belong to the lessons of Hypocrisy. There is not here one, +after all this courtesy, that has a farthing's worth of love for the +other; indeed they are for the most part enemies to one another. The +nobleman here is only a butt amongst them, and every one has his hit at +him. The lady has her mind fixed upon his _grandeur_ and his _nobility_, +whereby she hopes to obtain precedence over many of her acquaintances. +The miser has his eye upon his _land_, for his own son; and the others, +to a man, on the money, which he is to receive as her portion, because +they are all his subjects, that is, his merchants, his tailors, his +shoemakers, or his other tradesmen, who have arrayed him and maintained +him in all this great splendour, without yet obtaining one farthing, nor +any thing but fair words, and now and then, threats perhaps. Now observe +how many masks, how many twists, Hypocrisy has given to the face of the +truth? He is promising grandeur to his love, having already disposed of +his land; and she is promising portion and purity, whereas she has no +purity, but purity of dress, and as for her portion it will not be long +in existence, there being an inveterate cancer in it, even as there is in +her own body." + +"Well, here is a proof," said I, "that one never ought to judge by +appearances." "Yes," said he, "but come away, and I will show you +something more." Whereupon he transported me up to where stood the +churches of the city of Perdition, for every body in it had an appearance +of faith, even in the age of Disbelief. First we went to the temple of +Heathenism, where I could see some adoring the form of a man, others that +of the sun, others that of the moon, and an innumerable quantity of +similar other gods, even down to leek and garlick, and a great goddess +termed _Delusion_, obtaining general adoration, although you might see +something of the remnants of the Christian faith amongst some of these +people. Thence we went to a meeting of Dummies, where there was nothing +but groaning, and shivering, and beating the breast. "Though there is +here," said the angel, "an appearance of repentance and great submission, +there is nothing in reality, but opinionativeness and obstinacy, and +pride, and thick, thick darkness. Notwithstanding they talk so much +about their _internal light_, they have not even the spectacle-glasses of +nature which the heathens have, whom you lately saw." From these dumb +dogs we chanced to turn to a large church open at the top, with a +prodigious number of sandals {23} at the gate, by which I knew that it +was the temple of the Turks; these people had only a dim and motley +colored spectacle glass, which they called the Koran, yet through this +they were always gazing up to the top of the church for their prophet, +who, according to the promise which he gave them, ought to have returned +to them long ago, but has not yet made his appearance. From there we +went to the church of the Jews, people who had failed to find the way of +escape from the city of Perdition, although they possessed a pure, clear +spectacle glass, on account of a film having come over their eyes from +long gazing, for want of having anointed them with the precious ointment, +_faith_. We next went to that of the Papists. "Behold," said the angel, +"the church which _deceiveth the nations_! Hypocrisy has built this +church at her own expense; for the Papists permit, yea enjoin the +breaking of any oath made to a heretic, although it were taken upon the +sacrament." From the chancel we passed through key-holes to the upper +end of a cell which stood apart, full of burning candles at mid-day, +where we perceived a priest with his crown shaven, walking about as if he +were in expectation of visitors; presently there came a rotund figure of +a woman, and a very pretty girl behind her, and they went upon their +knees before him to confess their sins. "My spiritual father," said the +good woman, "I labour under a burden too heavy to be borne, unless you in +your mercy will lighten it; I married a member of the church of England, +and"--"What," said the shaven crown, "married a heretic! married an +enemy! there is no pardon for you, now or ever." At this word she +fainted, and he vociferated curses at her. "Oh, and what is worse," said +she when she revived. "I have killed him!" "O, ho! you have killed him, +well that is something towards obtaining reconciliation with the church; +but I assure you, that unless you had killed him, you would never have +got absolution, nor purgatory, but would have gone plump to the devil. +But where is your offering to the cloister?" said he, snarling. "Here," +she replied, and handed him a pretty big purse of money. "Well," said +he, "I will now make your peace, and your penance is to remain a widow as +long as you live, lest you should make another bad bargain." As soon as +she had departed, the damsel came forward to make her confession. "Your +pardon, my father confessor," said she, "I have borne a child and +murdered it." "Very fair, in troth," said the confessor, "and who was +the father?" "Verily," said she, "it was one of your monastery"--"Hush, +hush," said he, "no scandal against the men of the church: but where is +your atonement to the church?" "There," said she, handing him a gold +coin. "You must repent, and your penance is to watch to night by my +bedside," said he, smiling archly upon her. + +At this moment appeared four other bald-pates, hauling in a lad to the +confessor, the poor fellow looking as pleased as if he were going to the +gallows. "We have brought you a cub," said one of the four, "that you +may award him a proper punishment for revealing the secrets of the +catholic church." "What secrets?" said the confessor, looking towards a +murky cell which was nigh at hand. "But confess villain, what did you +say?" "In truth," said the wretch, "one of my acquaintances asked me, if +I had seen the _souls_ shrieking beneath the altar, _on the day of the +festival of the dead_? And I said, that I had heard the voice, but that +I had seen nothing." "Ah, sir, say the whole," said one of the others. +"But I added," said he, "that I had heard that you were only deceiving us +ignorant people, and that instead of souls shrieking, there were only sea- +crabs crackling beneath the carpet,"--"O son of the fiend! blasphemous +monster!" said the confessor; "but proceed caitiff."--"and that it was a +wire which turned the image of saint Peter," said the fellow, "and that +it was by the wire that the Holy Ghost descended from the gallery of the +cross upon the priest." "O heritage of hell!" said the confessor. "So +ho here! take him torturers, and cast him into the smoky chimney yonder +for telling tales." "Here you see," said the angel, "the church which +Hypocrisy desires should be called the Catholic Church, and the members +of which she would fain have the world consider, as the only people +destined to be saved; it must be owned, indeed, that they had the true +spectacle-glass, but they spoiled it by cutting upon the glass numerous +images; and they had true faith, but they mingled that precious ointment +with their own novel inventions, so that at present they see no more than +the heathen." Thence we went to a barn, where stood a pert, conceited +fellow preaching with great glibness, frequently repeating the same thing +three times. "This man and his hearers," said the angel, "possess the +true spectacle-glass, to see the things which pertain to their peace, but +they lack now in their old age, a very essential matter which is called +perfect love. Various are the causes which drive folks hither; some come +out of respect to their forefathers, some out of ignorance, and many for +worldly advantage. They will make you believe with their faces that they +are being strangled, but they can swallow a toad if necessary; and thus +the princess Hypocrisy does not disdain to teach some in barns." "Pray," +said I, "where now is the _Church of England_?" "O," said he, "in the +city high above, it constitutes a great part of the _Catholic Church_, +and in the city here below, there are some probationary churches +belonging to it, where the English and Welsh are under probation for a +time, in order to become qualified to have their names written in the +book of the Catholic Church, and they who become so, _blessed are they +for ever_. But alas, there are but very few who are adapting themselves +to obtain honour above; because, instead of looking thitherward, too many +suffer themselves to be blinded by the three princesses below, and +Hypocrisy keeps many with one eye upon the city above, and the other on +that below; yea, Hypocrisy has succeeded in enticing many from their +path, after they have overcome the three other deceivers. Come in here," +said he, "and you will see something more;" whereupon he carried me to +the gallery of one of the churches in Wales, the people being in the +midst of the service. And lo! some were whispering, talking and +laughing; some looking upon the pretty women; others were examining the +dress of their neighbours from top to toe; some were pushing themselves +forward and snarling at one another about rank; some were dozing; others +were busily engaged in their devotions, but many of these were playing a +hypocritical part. "You have not seen yet," said the angel, "no, not +amongst the infidels, shamelessness as open and barefaced as this: but +thus, alas, we see _that the corruption of the best thing is the +corruption worst of all_." The congregation then proceeded to take the +sacrament, and every one displayed reverential feelings at the altar. + +However, (through the glass of my companion,) I could see one receiving +the bread into his belly, under the figure of a _mastiff_, another under +that of a _swine_, another like a _mole_, another like a _winged +serpent_, and a few, O how very few, receiving a ray of celestial light +with the bread and the wine. "Yonder," said he, "is a roundhead who is +about to become sheriff, and because the law enjoins, that every one +shall receive the communion in the church before he obtains the office, +he has come hither rather than lose it; but though there are many here +who rejoice at seeing him, there has been no joy amongst us for his +conversion, for he has only turned for the time; and thus you see how +bold Hypocrisy must be to present herself at the altar before Emmanuel, +who is not to be deceived. But however great she be in the city of +Perdition, she can effect nothing in the city of Emmanuel, above the wall +yonder." + +Thereupon we turned our faces from the great city of Perdition, and went +up to the other little city. In going along I could see at the upper end +of the streets, many turning half-way from the temptations of the _gates +of Perdition_, and seeking for the _gate of Life_; but whether it was +that they failed to find it, or grew tired upon the way, I could not see +that any went through, except one sorrowful faced man, who ran forward +resolutely, while thousands on each side of him were calling him fool, +some scoffing him, others threatening, him and his friends laying hold +upon him, and entreating him not to take a step by which he would lose +the whole world at once. "I only lose," said he, "a very small portion +of it, and if I should lose the whole, pray what loss is it? For what is +there in the world so desirable, unless a man should desire deceit, and +violence, and misery, and wretchedness, giddiness and distraction. +_Contentment and tranquillity_," said he, "constitute the happiness of +man; but in your city there are no such things to be found. Because who +is there here content with his station? _Higher_, _higher_, is what +every one endeavours to be in the street of _Pride_; give, give us a +little more, says every one in the street of _Lucre_; sweet, sweet, pray +give me some more of it, is the cry of every one in the street of +_Pleasure_. And as for tranquillity, where is it? and who obtains it? If +you be a great man, flattery and envy are killing you; if you be poor, +every one is trampling upon and despising you; after having become an +inventor, if you exalt your head and seek for praise, you will be called +a boaster and a coxcomb; if you lead a godly life and resort to the +church and the altar, you will be called a hypocrite; if you do not, then +you are an infidel or a heretic; if you be merry, you will be called a +buffoon; if you are silent, you will be called a morose wretch; if you +follow honesty, you are nothing but a simple fool; if you go neat, you +are proud, if not, a swine; if you are smooth speaking, then you are +false, or a trifler without meaning; if you are rough, you are an +arrogant, disagreeable devil. Behold the world that you magnify," said +he, "pray take my share of it." Whereupon he shook himself loose from +them all, and away he went undauntedly to the narrow gate, and in spite +of every obstacle he pushed his way through, we following him; while many +men dressed in black upon the walls, on both sides of the gate, kept +inviting the man and praising him. "Who," said I, "are the men above +dressed in black?" "The watchmen of the king Emmanuel," replied the +angel, "who, in the name of their master, are inviting people and +assisting them through this gate." + +By this time we were by the gate; it was very low and narrow, and mean in +comparison with the lower gates. On the two sides of the door were the +_ten commandments_; upon the first slab on the right side was written, +"_love the Lord with thy whole heart_, _&c._," and upon the second slab +on the other side, "love thy neighbour as thyself;" and above the whole, +"_love not the world nor the things which are therein_." I had not +looked long before the watchmen began to cry out to the men of Perdition, +"Flee! flee, for your lives!" Only a very few turned towards them once, +some of whom asked, "flee from what?" "From the prince of this world, +who reigns in the children of disobedience," said the watchman; "flee +from the pollutions which are in the world through the lusts of the +flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the vanities of life; flee from the +wrath which is coming to overwhelm you!" "What," exclaimed the other +watchman, "is your beloved city but a vast glowing roof cast over Hell, +and if you were here, you might see the fire on the farther side of your +walls kindling, to burn you down into Hell." Some mocked them, others +threatened to stone them unless they ceased their unmannerly prate; but +some few asked, "whither shall we fly?" "Hither," said the watchman, +"fly hither to your lawful king, who yet offers you pardon through us, if +you return to your obedience, and abandon the rebel Belial and his +deceitful daughters. Though their appearance is so splendid, it is only +deception; Belial at home is but a very poor prince, he has only you for +fuel, and only you as roast and boiled to gnaw, and you are never +sufficient, and there will never be an end to his hunger and your +torments. And who would serve such a malicious butcher, in a temporary +delirium here, and in eternal torments hereafter, who could obtain a life +of happiness under a king merciful and charitable to his subjects, who is +ever doing towards them the good offices of a shepherd, and endeavouring +to keep them from Belial, in order finally to give to each of them the +kingdom in the country of Light? O fools! will ye take the horrible +enemy whose throat is burning with thirst for your blood, instead of the +compassionate prince who has given his own blood to assist you?" But it +did not appear that these reasonings, which were sufficient to soften a +rock, proved of much advantage to them, and the principal cause of their +being so unsuccessful was, that not many had leisure to hear, the greater +part being employed in looking at the gates; and of those who did hear, +there were not many who heeded, and of those there were not many who long +remembered; some would not believe that it was Belial whom they were +serving, others could not conceive that yonder little, untrodden passage +was the gate of Life, and would not believe that the three other +glittering gates were delusion, the castle preventing them from seeing +their destruction till they rushed upon it. + +At this moment there came a troop of people from the street of Pride, and +knocked at the gate with great confidence but they were all so +stiffnecked, that they could never go into a place so low, without +soiling their perriwigs and their plumes, so they walked back in great +ill humour. At the tail of these came a party from the street of Lucre. +Said one, "is this the gate of Life?" "Yea," replied the watchmen who +were above. "What is to be done," said he, "in order to pass through?" +"Read on each side of the door, and you will learn." The miser read the +ten commandments. "Who," he cried, "will say, that I have broken one of +these?" But on looking aloft and seeing, "_love not the world_, _nor the +things that are therein_," he started, and could not swallow that +difficult sentence. There was among them an envious pig-tail who turned +back on reading, "_love thy neighbour as thyself_;" and a perjurer, and a +slanderer turned abruptly back on reading, "_bear not false witness_;" +some physicians on reading, "_thou shalt commit no murder_," exclaimed +"this is no place for us." To be brief, every one saw there something +which troubled him, so they all went back to chew the cud. I may add, +that there was not one of these people, but had so many bags and writings +stuck about him, that he could never have gone through a place so narrow, +even if he had made the attempt. + +Presently there came a drove from the street of Pleasure walking towards +the gate. "Please to inform us," said one to the watchman, "to what +place this road is leading?" "This is the road," said the watchman, +"which leads to eternal joy and happiness;" whereupon they all strove to +get through, but they failed, for some had too much belly for a place so +narrow; others were too weak to push, having been enfeebled by women, who +impeded them moreover with their foolish whims. "O," said the watchman +who was looking upon them, "it is of no use for you to attempt to go +through with your vain toys; you must leave your pots, and your dishes, +and your harlots, and all your other ware behind you, and then make +haste." "How should we live then?" said the fiddler, who would have been +through long ago, but for fear of breaking his instrument. "O," said the +watchman, "you must take the word of the king, for sending you whatsover +things may be for your advantage." "Hey, hey," said one, "_a bird in the +hand is worth two in the bush_;" and thereupon they all unanimously +turned back. + +"Come through now," said the angel, and he drew me in, and the first +thing I saw in the porch was a large baptismal font, and by the side of +it a spring of saline water. "Why is this here at the entrance of the +road?" said I. "It is here," said the angel, "because every one must +wash himself therein, previous to obtaining honour in the palace of +Emmanuel; it is termed the _fountain of repentance_." Above I could see +written, "_this is the gate of the Lord_, &c." The porch and also the +street expanded, and became less difficult as one went forward. When we +had gone a little way up the street I could hear a soft voice behind me +saying, "_this is the road_, _walk in it_." The street was up-hill but +was very clean and straight, and though the houses were lower here than +in the city of _Perdition_, yet they were more pleasant. If there is +here less wealth, there is also less strife and care; if there are fewer +dishes, there are fewer diseases; if there is less noise, there is also +less sadness, and more pure joy. I was surprised at the calmness and the +delightful tranquillity that reigned here, so little resembling what I +had found below. Instead of swearing and cursing, buffoonery, +debauchery, and drunkenness; instead of pride and vanity, torpor in the +one corner, and riot in the other; instead of all the loud broiling, and +the boasting and bustling, and chattering, which were incessantly +stupifying a man yonder; and instead of the numberless constant evils to +be found below, you here saw sobriety, affability and cheerfulness, peace +and thankfulness, clemency, innocence, and content upon the face of every +body. No weeping here, except for the pollutions pervading the city of +the enemy; no hatred or anger, except against sin; and that same hatred +and anger against sin, always accompanied with a certainty of being able +to subdue it; no fear but of incensing the King, who was ever more ready +to forgive than be angry with his subjects; and here there was no sound +but of psalms of praise to the heavenly guardian. + +By this time we had come in sight of a building superlatively beautiful. +O, how glorious it was! No one in the city of Perdition--neither the +Turk nor the Mogul, nor any of the others, possessed any thing equal to +it. "Behold the _Catholic Church_!" said the angel. "Is it here that +Emmanuel keeps his court?" said I. "Yes," he replied, "this is his only +terrestrial palace." "Has he any crowned heads under him?" said I. "A +few," was the answer. "There are your good queen Anne, and some princes +of Denmark and Germany, and a few of the other small princes." "What are +they," said I, "compared with those who are under Belial the Great? He +has emperors and kings without number." "Notwithstanding all this;" said +the angel, "not one of them can move a finger without the permission of +Emmanuel, nor Belial himself either, because Emmanuel is his lawful king; +Belial rebelled, and for his rebellion was made a captive, with +permission however to visit for a little time the city of Perdition, and +delude any one he could into his own rebellion and a share of his +punishment. So great is his malice, that he is continually using this +permission, though aware that by so doing he will only add to his own +misery; and so great is his love of wickedness, that he takes advantage +of his half liberty, to seek to destroy this city and this edifice, +though he has long known that their guardian is invincible." + +"Pray, my lord," said I, "may we approach and take a more minute view of +this magnificent palace?" for my heart had warmed towards the place at +the first sight. "Certainly you may," said the angel, "because there I +have my place, charge, and employment." The nearer we went to it, the +more I wondered, seeing how lofty, strong, beautiful, pure, and lovely +every part of it was; how accurate was the workmanship, and how fair were +its materials. A rock wrought with immense labour, and of prodigious +strength was the foundation stone; living stones were placed upon this +rock, and were cemented in so admirable a manner, that it was impossible +for one stone to be so beautiful in another place, as it was in its own. +I could see one part of the _church_ which cast out a very fair and +remarkable cross, and the angel perceiving me gazing upon it asked me "if +I knew that part." I did not know what to answer. "That is the _Church +of England_," said he. These words made me observe it with more +attention than before, and on looking up I could perceive queen Anne, on +the pinnacle of the building, with a sword in each hand. With the one in +her left, which is called Justice, she preserves her subjects from the +men of the city of Perdition; and with the other in her right, which is +the sword of the Spirit, or the word of God, she preserves them from +Belial and his spiritual evils. Under the left sword were the _Laws of +England_; under the other was a large _Bible_. The sword of the Spirit +was fiery and of prodigious length, it would kill at a distance to which +the other sword could not reach. I observed the other princes with the +same arms, defending their portions of the church; but I could see that +the portion of my queen was the fairest, and that her arms were the most +bright. By her right hand, I could see a multitude of people in +black--archbishops, bishops, and teachers, assisting her in sustaining +the sword of the Spirit; and some of the soldiers and civil officers, and +a few, very few of the lawyers, supporting, along with her, the other +sword. I obtained permission to rest a little by one of the magnificent +doors, whither people were coming to obtain the dignity of the _universal +church_; a tall angel was keeping the door, and the church within side +was so vividly light, that it was useless for _Hypocrisy_ to show her +visage there--she sometimes appeared at the door, but never went in. +After I had been gazing about a quarter of an hour, there came a +_papist_, who imagined that the Pope possessed the catholic church, and +he claimed his share of dignity. "What proof of your dignity have you?" +said the porter. "I have plenty," said he, "of _traditions of the +fathers_, and _acts of the congresses of the church_; but what further +assurance do I need, than the word of the Pope, who sits upon the +infallible chair?" Then the porter proceeded to open an exceedingly +large Bible. "Behold," said he, "the only Statute Book which we use +here, prove your claim out of that, or depart;" whereupon he departed. + +At this moment there came a drove of Quakers, who wanted to go in with +their hats upon their heads, but they were turned back for their +unmannerly behaviour. After that, some of the children of the barn, who +had been there for some time, began to speak. "We have," said they, "no +other statute than you, therefore show us our dignity." "Stay," said the +glittering porter, looking them fixedly in the face, "and I will show you +something. Do you see yonder," said he, "the rent which you made in the +church, that you might go out of it, without the slightest cause or +reason? and now, what do you want here? Go back to the narrow gate, wash +yourselves well in the fountain of repentance, in order to free +yourselves from some of the kingly blood, in which you steeped yourselves +formerly; bring some of that water to moisten the clay, to close up the +rent yonder, and then, and then only, you shall be welcome." But before +we had proceeded a rood farther towards the west, we heard a buzz amongst +the princes above, and every one, great and small, seized his arms, and +proceeded to harness himself as if for battle; and before we had time to +espy a place to flee to, the whole air became dark, and the city was more +deeply over-shadowed than during an eclipse; the thunder began to roar, +and the lightnings to dart forkedly, and a ceaseless shower of mortal +arrows, was directed from the gates below, against the catholic church; +and unless every one had had a shield in his hand to receive the fiery +darts, and unless the foundation stone had been too strong for any thing +to make an impression upon it, you would have seen the whole in +conflagration. But alas! this was but the prologue, or a foretaste of +what was to follow; for the darkness speedily became seven times blacker, +and _Belial_ himself appeared upon the densest cloud, and around him were +his choicest warriors, both terrestrial and infernal, to receive and +execute his will, on their particular sides. He had enjoined the Pope, +and the king of France, his other son, to destroy the church of England +and its queen; and the Turk and the Muscovite, to break to pieces the +other parts of the Church, and to slay the people; the queen and the +other princes, were by no means to be spared; and the Bible was to be +burned in spite of every thing. The first thing which the queen and the +other saints did, was to fall upon their knees, and complain of their +wrongs to the King of kings, in these words:--"_The spreading of his +wings covereth the extent of thy land_, _O Emmanuel_!" Isaiah 8. iii. +This complaint was answered by a voice, which said, "_resist the devil +and he will flee from you_;" and then ensued the hardest and most +stubborn engagement, which had ever been upon the earth. When the _sword +of the Spirit_ began to be waved, Belial and his infernal legions began +to retreat, and the Pope to falter. The king of France, it is true, held +out; yet even he nearly lost heart, for he saw the queen and her subjects +united and prosperous, whilst his own ships were sunk, his soldiers +slaughtered, and thousands of his subjects rebelling. The very Turk was +becoming as gentle as a lamb; but just at that moment my heavenly +associate quitted me, darting up towards the firmament, to myriads of +other shining powers, and my dream was at an end. Yes, just as the Pope +and the other terrestrial powers, were beginning to sneak away, and to +faint, and the potentates of hell to fall by tens of thousands, each +making, to my imagination's ear, as much noise as if a huge mountain had +been precipitated into the depths of the sea, my companion quitted me, +and there was an end of my dream; for what with the noise made by the +fiends, and the agitation which I felt at losing my companion, I awoke +from my sleep, and returned with the utmost reluctance to my sluggish +clod, thinking how noble and delightful it was to be a _free_ spirit, to +wander about in angelic company, quite secure, though seemingly in the +midst of peril. I had now nothing to console me, save the Muse, and she +being half angry, would do nothing more than bleat to me the following +strains. + + + +The Perishing World. + + +O man, upon this building gaze, +The mansion of the human race, +The world terrestrial see! +Its architect's the King on high, +Who ne'er was born and ne'er will die-- +The blest Divinity. +The world, its wall, its starlights all, +Its stores, where'er they lie, +Its wondrous brute variety, +Its reptiles, fish, and birds that fly, + +And cannot number'd be, +The God above, to show his love, +Did give, O man, to thee. +For man, for man, whom he did plan, +God caus'd arise +This edifice, +Equal to heaven in all but size, +Beneath the sun so fair; +Then it he view'd, and that 'twas good +For man, he was aware. + +Man only sought to know at first +Evil, and of the thing accursed +Obtain a sample small. +The sample grew a giantess, +'Tis easy from her size to guess +The whole her prey will fall. +Cellar and turret high, +Through hell's dark treachery, +Now reeling, rocking terribly, +In swooning pangs appear; +The orchards round, are only found +Vile sedge and weeds to bear; +The roof gives way, more, more each day, +The walls too, spite +Of all their might, +Have frightful cracks, down all their height, +Which coming ruin show; +The dragons tell, that danger fell, +Now lurks the house below. + +O man! this building fair and proud, +From its foundation to the cloud, +Is all in dangerous plight; +Beneath thee quakes and shakes the ground; +'Tis all, e'en down to hell's profound, +A bog that scares the sight. +The sin man wrought, the deluge brought, +And without fail +A fiery gale, +Before which every thing shall quail, +His deeds shall waken now; +Worse evermore, till all is o'er, +Thy case, O world, shall grow. +There's one place free, yet, man for thee, +Where mercies reign, +A place to which thou may'st attain, +Seek there a residence to gain +Lest thou in caverns howl; +For save thou there shalt quick repair, +Woe to thy wretched soul! + +Towards yon building turn your face! +Too strong by far is yonder place +To lose the victory. +'Tis better than the reeling world; +For all the ills by hell uphurl'd +It has a remedy. +Sublime it braves the wildest waves; +It is a refuge place +Impregnable to Belial's race, +With stones, emitting vivid rays, +Above its stately porch; +Itself, and those therein, compose +The universal church. +Though slaves of sin we long have been, +With faith sincere +We shall win pardon there; +Then in let's press, O, brethren dear, +And claim our dignity! +By doing so, we saints below +And saints on high shall be. + + + + +A Vision of Death in his Palace Below. + + +In one of the long, black, chilly nights of winter, when it was much +warmer in a kitchen of Glyn-cywarch, than on the summit of Cadair Idris, +and much more pleasant to be in a snug chamber, with a warm bed-fellow, +than in a shroud in the church yard, I was mussing upon some discourses +which had passed between me and a neighbour, upon _the shortness of human +life_, and how certain every one is of dying, and how uncertain as to the +time. Whilst thus engaged, having but newly laid my head down upon the +pillow, and being about half awake, I felt a great weight coming +stealthily upon me, from the crown of my head to my heel, so that I could +not stir a finger, nor any thing except my tongue, and beheld a lad upon +my breast, and a lass mounted upon his back. On looking sharply, I +guessed, from the warm smell which came from him, his clammy locks, and +his gummy eyes, that the lad must be _master Sleep_. "Pray, sir," said +I, squealing, "what have I done to you, that you bring that witch here to +suffocate me?" "Hush," said he, "it is only my sister _Nightmare_; we +are both going to visit our brother _Death_, and have need of a third, +and lest you should resist, we have come upon you without warning, as he +himself will sometime; therefore you must come, whether you will or not." +"Alas!" said I, "must I die?" "O no," said _Nightmare_; "we will spare +you this time." "But with your favour," said I, "your brother Death +never spared any one yet who was brought within reach of his dart; the +fellow even ventured to fling a fall with the Lord of Life himself, +though it is true he gained very little by his daring." At these words +_Nightmare_ arose full of wrath and departed. "Hey," said _Sleep_, "come +away, and you shall have no cause to repent of your journey." "Well," +said I, "may there never be night to _saint Sleep_, and may _Nightmare_ +never obtain any other place to crouch upon than the top of an awl, +unless you return me to where you found me." Then away he went with me, +over woods and precipices, over oceans and valleys, over castles and +towers, rivers and crags; and where did we descend, but by one of the +gates of the daughters of Belial, on the posterior side of the _city of +Perdition_, and I could there perceive, that the three gates of Perdition +contracted into one on the hinder side, and opened into the same place--a +place foggy, cold, and pestilential, replete with an unwholesome vapour, +and clouds, lowering and terrible. "Pray, sir," said I, "what dungeon of +a place is this?" "_The chambers of Death_," said _Sleep_. I had +scarcely time to enquire, before I heard some people crying, some +screaming, some groaning, some talking deliriously, some uttering +blasphemies in a feeble tone: others in great agony, as if about to give +up the ghost. Here and there one, after a mighty shout would become +silent, and then forthwith I could hear a key revolving in a lock; I +turned at the sound to look for the door, and by dint of long gazing, I +could see tens of thousands of doors, apparently far off though close by +my side notwithstanding. "Please to inform me, master Sleep," said I, +"to what place these doors open?" "They open," he replied, "into the +_land of Oblivion_, a vast country under the rule of my brother Death; +and the great wall here, is the limit of the immense eternity." As I +looked I could see a little death at each door, all with different arms, +and different names, though evidently they were all subjects of the same +king. Notwithstanding which, there was much contention between them +concerning the sick; for the one wished to snatch the sick through his +door, and the other would fain have him through his own. On drawing +near, we could see above every door, the name of the death written, who +kept it; and likewise by every door, hundreds of various things left +scattered about, denoting the haste of those who went through. Over one +door I could see _Famine_, though purses and full bags were lying on the +ground beside it, and boxes nailed up, standing near. "That," said he, +"is the gate of the _misers_." "To whom," said I, "do these rags +belong?" "Principally to misers," he replied; "but there are some there +belonging to lazy idlers, and to ballad singers, and to others, poor in +every thing, but spirit, who preferred starvation to begging." In the +next door was the death of the _Ruling Passion_, and parallel with it I +could hear many voices, as of men in the extremity of cold. By this door +were many books, some pots and flaggons, here and there a staff and a +walking stick, some compasses and charts, and shipping tackle. "This is +the road by which scholars go," said I. "Some scholars go by it," said +he, "solitary, helpless wretches, whose relations have stripped them of +their last article of raiment; but people of various other descriptions +go by it also. Those," said he, (speaking of the pots,) "are the relics +of jolly companions, whose feet are freezing under benches, whilst their +heads are boiling with drink and uproar; and the things yonder belong to +travellers of snowy mountains, and to traffickers in the North sea." + +Next at hand was a meagre skeleton of a figure, called the _death of +Fear_. Through his exterior you might see that he did not possess any +heart; and by his door there were bags, and chests also, and locks and +castles. By this gate went usurers, bad governors and tyrants, and some +of the murderers, but the plurality of the latter were driven past to the +next gate, where there was a death called _Gallows_, with his cord ready +for their necks. + +Next was to be seen the _death of Love_, and by his feet were hundreds of +instruments, and books of music, and verses, and love letters, and also +ointments and colors to beautify the countenance, and a thousand other +embellishing wares, and also some swords. "With some of those swords," +said my companion, "bandits have been slain whilst fighting for women, +and with others, love-lorn creatures have stabbed themselves." I could +perceive that this death was purblind. + +At the next door, was a death who had the most repulsive figure of all: +his entire liver was consumed. He was called the _death of Envy_. "This +one," said Sleep, "assaults losing gamesters, slanderers, and many a +female rider, who repineth at the law which rendered the wife subject to +her husband." "Pray, sir," said I, "what is the meaning of female +rider?" "Female rider," said he, "is the term used here, for the woman +who would ride her husband, her neighbours, and her country too, if +possible, and the end of her long riding will be, that she will ride the +Devil, from that door, down to hell." + +Next stood the door of the _death of Ambition_, and of those who lift +their nostrils on high, and break their shins for want of looking beneath +their feet. Beside this door were crowns, sceptres, banners, all sorts +of patents and commissions, and all kinds of heraldric and warlike arms. + +But before I could look on any more of these countless doors, I heard a +voice commanding me by my name to prepare. At this word, I could feel +myself beginning to melt, like a snow ball in the heat of the sun; +whereupon my master gave me some soporific drink, so that I fell asleep, +but by the time I awoke, he had conveyed me to a considerable distance, +on the other side of the wall. I found myself in a valley of pitchy +darkness, and as it seemed to me, limitless. At the end of a little +time, I could see by a dim light, like that of a dying candle, +innumerable human shades--some on foot, and some on horseback, running +through one another like the wind, silently and with wonderful solemnity. + +It was a desert, bare, and blasted country, without grass, or vegetation, +or woods, and without animals, with the exception of deadly monsters, and +venomous reptiles of every kind; serpents, snakes, lice, toads, +maw-worms, locusts, ear-wigs, and the like, which all exist on human +corruption. Through myriads of shades, and creeping things, graves, +sepulchres, and cemeteries, we proceeded, without interruption, to +observe the country. At last I perceived some of the shades turning and +looking upon me; and suddenly, notwithstanding the great silence that had +prevailed before, there was a whispering from one to the other that there +was a _living man_ at hand. "A living man," said one; "a living man," +said the other; and they came thronging about me like caterpillars from +every corner. "How did you come hither, sirrah?" said a little morkin of +a death who was there. "Truly sir," said I, "I know no more than +yourself." "What do they call you?" he demanded. "Call me what you +please, here in your own country," I replied, "but at home I am called +_the Sleeping Bard_." + +At that word I beheld a crooked old man, with a double head like to a +rough-barked thorn tree, raising himself erect, and looking upon me worse +than the black devil himself; and lo! without saying a word, he hurled a +large human skull at my head--many thanks to a tombstone which shielded +me. "Pray be quiet, sir," said I. "I am but a stranger, who was never +here before, and you may be sure I will never return, if I can once reach +home again." "I will give you cause to remember having been here," said +he; and attacked me with a thigh-bone, like a very devil, whilst I +avoided his blows as well as I could. "By heavens," said I, "this is a +most inhospitable country to strangers. Is there a justice of the peace +here?" "Peace!" said he, "what peace do you deserve, who will not let +people rest in their graves?" "Pray, sir," said I, "may I be allowed to +know your name, because I am not aware of ever having disturbed any one +in this country." "Sirrah," said he, "know that not you are the Sleeping +Bard, but that I am that person; and I have been allowed to rest here for +nine hundred years, by every one but yourself." And he attacked me +again. + +"Forbear, my brother," said Merddyn, who was near at hand, "be not too +hot; rather be thankful to him for keeping an honorable remembrance of +your name upon earth." "Great honor forsooth," said he, "I shall receive +from such a blockhead as this. Sirrah! can you sing in the +four-and-twenty measures? Can you carry the pedigree of Gog and Magog, +and the genealogy of Brutus ap Sylfius, up to a millenium previous to the +fall of Troy? Can you narrate when, and what will be the end of the +combats betwixt the lion and the eagle, and betwixt the dragon and the +red deer?" "Hey, hey! let me ask him a question," said another, who was +seated beside a large cauldron which was boiling, and going, bubble, +bubble, over a fire. "Come nearer," said he, "what is the meaning of +this?" + + "I till the judgment day + Upon the earth shall stray; + None knows for certainty + Whether fish or flesh I be." + +"I will request the favor of your name, sir," said I, "that I may answer +you in a suitable manner." "I," said he, "am Taliesin, {49} the prince +of the Bards of the West, and that is a piece of my composition." "I +know not," said I, "what could be your meaning, unless it was, that the +yellow plague {50} which destroyed Maelgwn of Gwynedd, put an end to you +on the sea-shore, and that your body was divided amongst the crows and +the fishes." "Peace, fool!" said he, "I was alluding to my two callings, +of man of the law and poet. Please to tell me, has a lawyer more +similitude to a raven, than a poet to a whale? How many a one doth a +single lawyer divest of his flesh, to swell out his own craw; and with +what indifference does he extract the blood, and leave a man half alive! +And as for the poet, where is the fish which is able to swallow like him? +he is drinking oceans of liquor at all times, but the briny sea itself +would not slack his thirst. And provided a man be a poet and a lawyer, +how is it possible to know whether he be fish or flesh, especially if he +be a courtier to boot, as I was, and obliged to vary his taste to every +ones palate. But tell me," said he, "whether there are at present, any +of those fellows upon the earth?" "There's plenty of them," said I; "if +one can patch together any nonsensical derry, he is styled a graduate +bard. But as for the others; there is such a plague of lawyers, petty +attornies, and scribes, that the locusts of Egypt bore light upon the +country, in comparison with them. In your time, sir, there were but +bargains of tofts and crofts, and a hand's breadth of writing for a farm +of a hundred pounds, and a raising of cairns and crosses, as memorials of +the purchase and boundaries. There is no longer any such security, but +there is far more craft and deceit, and a tombstone's breadth of written +parchment to secure the bargain; and for all that, it is a wonder if a +flaw be not in it, or said to be at least." "Well then," said Taliesin, +"I should not be worth a straw in the world at present. I am better +where I am. Truth will never be had where there are many poets, nor fair +dealing where there are many lawyers; no, nor health where there are many +physicians." At this moment, a little grey-headed hobgoblin, who had +heard that a living man was arrived, flung himself at my feet, weeping +abundantly. "Dear me," said I, "what are you?" "One who is grievously +wronged every day in the world," said he. "May God move your soul to +procure justice for me." "What is your name?" said I. "I am called +_Somebody_," he replied, "and there is scarcely a piece of pimping, or a +calumny, or a lie, or tale, to set people at loggerheads, but must be +laid upon me. 'Verily,' says one, 'she is a prodigious fine girl, and +she was praising you before somebody, notwithstanding that some very +great person is paying his suit to her.' 'I heard somebody,' says +another, 'reckoning that this estate was mortgaged nine hundred pounds +deep.' 'I saw some one yesterday,' says the beggar, 'with a chequered +slop, like a sailor, who had come with a large ship load of corn, to the +neighbouring port.' And thus every ragged dog mangles me for his own +wicked purposes. Some call me Friend--'I was informed by a friend,' says +one, 'that so and so has no intention of leaving a farthing to his wife, +and that there is no affection between them.' Some others vilify me yet +more, and call me Bird--'A bird whistled in my ear, that there are bad +practices going on there,' say they. It is true, some call me by the +more respectable name of Old Person; yet, not half the omens, prophecies, +and counsels, which are attributed to the Old Person, belong to me. I +have never bidden people to follow the old road, provided the new one be +better, nor a hundred similar things. But Somebody is my common name," +he continued, "him you will most frequently hear, to have been concerned +in every atrocious matter. Because, ask a person wherever a vile, +slanderous falsehood has been uttered, who it was who said it, and he +will reply, 'Truly I don't know who, but somebody in the company said +it;' question then every one in the company concerning the fable, and +every one will say he heard it from somebody, but no one knows from whom. +Is not this a shameful injury?" he demanded. "Be so good as to inform +every one whom you may hear naming me, that I have never said any one of +these things, nor have ever invented nor uttered a lie to slander any +one, nor a story to set relations by the ears; that I do not go near +them; that I know nothing of their history, nor of their affairs, nor of +their accursed secrets; and that they ought not to fling their wickedness +upon me, but on their own corrupt brains." + +At this moment there came a little death, one of the secretaries of the +king, desiring to know my name, and commanding master Sleep, to carry me +instantly before the king. I was compelled to go, though utterly against +my will, by the power, which, like a whirlwind carried me away, betwixt +high and low, thousands of miles back to the left hand, until we came +again in sight of the boundary wall, and reached a narrow corner. Here +we perceived an immense, frowning, ruinous palace, open at the top, +reaching to the wall where were the innumerable doors, all of which led +to this huge, terrific court. The walls were constructed with the sculls +of men, which grinned horribly with their teeth. The clay was black, and +was prepared with tears and sweat; and the mortar on the outside was +variegated with phlegm and pus, and on the inside with black-red blood. +On the top of each turret, you might see a little death, with a smoking +heart stuck on the point of his dart. + +Around the palace was a wood, consisting of a few poisonous yews and +deadly cypresses, and in these, owls, blood crows, vultures and the like +were nestling; and croaking continually for flesh, though the whole place +was nothing but a stinking shamble. We entered the gate. All the +pillars of the hall were made of human thigh bones; the pillars of the +parlour were of shank bones; and the floors were one continued layer of +every species of offal. It was not long before I came in sight of a vast +and frightful altar, where I beheld the king of Terrors swallowing human +flesh and blood, and a thousand petty deaths, from every hole, feeding +him with fresh, warm flesh. "Behold," said the death who brought me +there, addressing himself to the king, "a spark, whom I found in the +midst of the land of Oblivion; he came so light footed, that your majesty +never tasted a morsel of him." "How can that be?" said the king, and +opened his jaws as wide as an earthquake to swallow me. Whereupon I +turned all trembling to Sleep. "It was I," said Sleep, "who brought him +here." "Well," said the meagre, grizly king, turning to me, "for my +brother Sleep's sake, you shall be permitted to return this time, but +beware of me the next." After having employed himself for a considerable +time in casting carcasses into his insatiable paunch, he caused his +subjects to be called together, and moved from the altar to a terrific +throne of exceeding height, to pronounce judgment on the prisoners newly +arrived. In an instant came innumerable multitudes of the dead, making +their obeisance to their king, and taking their stations in remarkable +order. And lo! king Death was in his regal vest of flaming scarlet, +covered all over with figures of women and children weeping, and men +uttering groans; about his head was a black-red three-cornered cap (which +his friend Lucifer had sent as a present to him,) and upon its corners +were written _misery_, _wailing_, and _woe_. Above his head were +thousands of representations of battles on sea and land, towns burning, +the earth opening, and the great water of the deluge; and beneath his +feet nothing was to be seen but the crowns and sceptres of the kings whom +he had overcome from the beginning. On his right hand Fate was sitting, +seemingly engaged in reading, with a murky look, a huge volume which was +before him; and on his left was an old man called _Time_, licking +innumerable threads of gold, and silver, and copper, and very many of +iron. Some few of the threads were growing better towards their end, and +thousands growing worse. Along the threads were hours, days, and years; +and Fate, according as his volume directed him, was continually breaking +the threads of life, and opening the doors of the boundary wall, betwixt +the two worlds. + +We had not looked around us long, before we heard four fiddlers, newly +dead, summoned to the bar. "How comes it," said the king of Terrors, +"that loving merriment as ye do, ye kept not on the other side of the +gulf, for there has never been any merriment on this side." "We have +never done," said one of the musicians, "harm to any body, but have +rendered people joyous, and have taken quietly what they gave us for our +pains." Said Death, "did you never keep any one from his work, and cause +him to lose his time; or did you never keep people from church? ha!" "O +no!" said another, "perhaps now and then on a Sunday, after service, we +may have kept some in the public house till the next morning, or during +summer tide, may have kept them dancing in the ring on the green all +night; for sure enough, we were more liked, and more lucky in obtaining a +congregation than the parson." "Away, away with these fellows to the +country of Despair!" said the terrific king, "bind the four back to back +and cast them to their customers, to dance bare-footed on floors of +glowing heat, and to amble to all eternity without either praise or +music." + +The next that came to the bar was a certain king, who had lived very near +to Rome. "Hold up your hand, prisoner," said one of the officers. "I +hope," said he, "that you have some better manners and favour to show to +a king." "Sirrah," said Death, "why did you not keep on the other side +of the gulf where all are kings? On this side there is none but myself, +and another down below, and you will soon see, that neither he nor I will +rate you according to the degree of your majesty, but according to the +degree of your wickedness, in order to adapt your punishment to your +crimes, therefore answer to the interrogation." "Sir," he replied, "I +would have you know, that you have no authority to detain me, nor to +interrogate me, as I have a pardon for all my sins under the Pope's own +hand. On account of my faithful services, he has given me a warrant to +go straight to Paradise, without tarrying one moment in Purgatory." At +these words the king and all the haggard train gave a ghastly grin, to +escape from laughing outright; but the other full of wrath at their +ridicule, commanded them aloud to show him the way. "Peace, thou lost +fool!" cried Death, "Purgatory lies behind you, on the other side of the +wall, for you ought to purify yourself during your life; and on the right +hand, on the other side of that gulf is Paradise. But there is no road +by which it is possible for you to escape, either through the gulf to +Paradise, or through the boundary wall back to the world; and if you were +to give your kingdom, (supposing you could give it,) you would not obtain +permission from the keepers of those doors, to take one peep through the +key hole. It is called the irrepassable wall, for when once you have +come through you may abandon all hope of returning. But since you stand +so high on the books of the Pope, you shall go and prepare his bed, +beside that of the Pope who was before him, and there you shall kiss his +toe for ever, and he the toe of Lucifer." + +Immediately thereupon, four little deaths raised the poor king up, who +was by this time shivering like the leaf of an aspen, and snatched him +out of sight like lightning. Next after him came a young fellow and +woman. He had been a jolly companion and she a lady of pleasure, or one +free of her person; but they were called here by their naked names, +drunkard and harlot. "I hope," said the drunkard, "I shall find some +favour with you; I have sent to you many a bloated booty in a torrent of +good ale; and when I failed to kill others, I came myself, willingly, to +feed you." "With the permission of the court," said the harlot, "you +have not sent half as much as I, and my offerings were burning +sacrifices, rich roast meat ready for the board." "Hey, hey!" said +Death, "all this was done for your own accursed passions' sake and not to +feed me. Bind the two face to face, as they are old acquaintances, and +cast them into the land of Darkness, and let each be a torment to the +other, until the day of judgment." They were then snatched away, with +their heads downwards. + +Next to these there came seven recorders. Having been commanded to raise +their hands to the bar, they would by no means obey, as the rails were +greasy. One began to wrangle boisterously; "we ought to obtain a fair +citation to prepare our answer;" said he, "instead of being rushed upon +unawares." + +"But are we bound to give you that same specific citation," answered +Death, "since you obtain in every place, and at every period of your +life, warning of my coming. How many sermons have you not heard upon the +mortality of man? How many books have you not seen? How many graves, +how many sculls, how many diseases, how many messages and signs have you +not had? What is your Sleep, but my own brother? What are sculls, but +my visage? What does your daily food consist of but dead creatures? Seek +not to cast your neglect upon me. Speak not of summons, when you have +obtained it a hundred times." "Pray," said one red recorder, "what have +you to advance against us?" "What?" said Death. "Drinking the sweat and +blood of the poor, and levying double your wages." "Here is an honest +man," replied the recorder, pointing to a pettifogger behind him, "who +knows that we have never done any thing but what was fair; and it is not +fair of you to detain us here, without a specific crime to prove against +us." "Hey, hey!" said Death, "you shall prove against yourselves. Place +these people," said he, "on the verge of the _precipice_ before the +tribunal of _Justice_, they shall obtain equity there though they never +practiced it." + +There were still seven other prisoners remaining, and these kept up a +prodigious bustle and noise. Some were flattering, others quarrelling, +some blustering, some counselling, &c. Scarcely had they been called to +the bar, when lo! the entire palace became seven times more horribly dark +than before, and there was a shivering and a great agitation about the +throne, and Death became paler than ever. Upon enquiring what was the +matter, one of the messengers of Lucifer stepped forward with a letter +for Death, concerning these seven prisoners, and Fate presently caused +the letter to be read publicly, and these were the words, as far as I can +remember. + + "_Lucifer_, _King of the kings of the world_, _prince of Hell_, _and + ruler of the Deep_, _to our natural son_, _the most mighty and + terrible king Death_, _greeting_, _pre-eminence_, _and eternal spoil_. + + "For as much as we have been informed by some of our nimble + messengers, who are constantly abroad to obtain information, that + seven prisoners, of the seven most villainous and dangerous species in + the world, have arrived lately at your royal palace, and that it is + your intention to hurl them over the cliff into my kingdom. I hereby + counsel you to try every possible means, to let them loose back again + upon the world; they will do you there more service in sending you + food, and sending me better company, for I would rather want than have + them; we have had but too much plague with their companions for a long + time, and my dominion is still disturbed by them. Therefore turn them + back, or keep them with you. For, by the infernal crown, if you send + them here, I will undermine the foundations of your kingdom, until it + falls down into my own immense dominion. + + "_From the burning hall of assembly_, _at our royal palace in the pit + of Hell_, _in the year of our reign_, 5425." + +King Death, hereupon, stood for some time with his visage green and pale, +in great perplexity of mind. But whilst he was meditating, behold +_Fate_, turned upon him such an iron-black scowl, as made him tremble. +"Sirrah," said he, "look to what you do. It is not in my power to send +any one back, through the boundary of eternity, the irrepassable wall, +nor in yours to harbour them here; therefore forward them to their +destruction, in spite of the Arch Fiend. He has been able hitherto, in a +minute to allot his proper place to every individual, in a drove of a +thousand, nay, even of ten thousand captured souls; and what difficulty +can he have with seven, however dangerous they may be. But though these +seven should turn the infernal government topsy-turvy, do you drive them +thither instantly, for fear I should receive commands to annihilate you +before your time. As for _his_ threats, they are only lies; for although +thy end, and that of the old man yonder, (looking at Time,) are nigh at +hand, being written only a few pages further on, in my unerring volume, +yet you have no cause to be afraid of sinking to Lucifer; though every +one in the abyss would be glad to obtain thee, yet they never, never +shall. For the rocks of steel and eternal adamant, which form the roof +of Hell, are too strong for anything to crumble them." Whereupon, Death, +considerably startled, called to one of his train, to write for him the +following answer. + + "_Death_, _the king of Terror and Conqueror of conquerors_, _to his + revered friend and neighbour Lucifer_, _king of Eternal Night_, + _sovereign of the Bottomless Pool_, _sends greeting_. + + "After due reflection on your regal desire, it has appeared to us more + advantageous, not only to our own dominion, but likewise to your own + extensive kingdom, to send these prisoners, as far as possible from + the doors of the irrepassable wall, lest their putrid odour should + terrify the whole city of Destruction, so that no man should come to + all eternity, to my side of the gate; and neither I obtain any thing + to cool my sting, nor you a concourse of customers from earth to hell. + Therefore I will leave to you to judge them, and to hurl them into + such cells, as you may deem the most proper and secure for them. + + "_From my nether palace in the great gate of Perdition_, _over + Destruction_. _In the year_, _from the renewal of my kingdom_, 1670." + +At hearing all this, I felt a great curiosity to know who these seven +people could be, whom the devils themselves held in so much dread. But +ere a minute had elapsed, the clerk of the crown called their names, as +follows:--Master Meddler, alias _Finger in Every Dish_; but he was so +vehement and busy in advising the others, that he could not get a +moment's time to answer for himself, until Death threatened to transfix +him with his dart. + +Then _master Slanderer_ was called, alias _Enemy of Fair Fame_; but there +was no answer. "He is too modest to hear his titles," said the third, +"and he never can bear his nicknames." "Do you suppose," said the +_Slanderer_, "that you yourself have no _titles_. Call for," said he, +"_master Coxcomb_, alias _Smooth Gullet_, alias _Poison Smile_." "Ready," +said a woman who was there, pointing to the Coxcomb. "O," said he, +"_madam Bouncer_! Your humble servant, I am overjoyed at seeing you +well. I have never seen a woman look handsomer in breeches. But, oh! to +think how miserable the country must be behind you, for want of its +admirable she-governor; yet your delightful company will make hell itself +something better." "O son of the arch fiend!" said she. "With you there +is no need of another hell, you are yourself enough." Then the cryer +called _Bouncer_, or _mistress Breeches_. "Ready," said another. But +she said not a word, for want of being called madam. Next was called +_Contriver of Contrivances_, alias _Jack of all Trades_; but he returned +no answer either, for he was busied in devising a way to escape. "Ready, +ready," said one behind, "here he is, looking out for an opportunity to +break through your palace, and unless you take care, he will have some +notable contrivance to baulk you." Said the Contriver, "call him, I +beseech you, _master Impeacher of his Brother_, alias _Searcher of +Faults_, alias _Framer of Complaints_." "Ready, ready, this is he," said +a litigious pettifogger, for every one knew the name of the other, but +would not acknowledge his own. "You shall be called," said the +Impeacher, "_master Litigious Pettifogger_, alias _the Courts +Comprised_." "Bear witness, I pray you all," said the Pettifogger, "as +to what the knave called me." "Ho, ho!" said Death, "not by the +baptismal font, but by his sins, is every one called in this country; +and, with your permission, master Pettifogger, the names of your sins are +those which shall stick to you henceforth for ever." "Hey," said the +Pettifogger, "I swear by the Devil that I will make you smart for this. +Though you are empowered to kill me, you have no authority to bestow +nicknames upon me. I will file a complaint against you for defamation, +and another for false imprisonment, against you and your friend Lucifer, +in the court of Justice." + +By this time, I beheld the legions of Death, formed in order and armed, +with their eyes fixed upon the king, awaiting the word. "There," said +the king, standing erect upon his regal throne, "my terrible and +invincible hosts, spare neither care nor diligence in removing these +prisoners from out of my boundaries, lest they prove the ruin of my +country; cast them bound, over the precipice of Despair, with their heads +downward. But for the seventh, this Courts Comprised, who threatens me, +leave him free over the chasm, beneath the court of _Justice_, and let +him try whether he can make his complaint good against me." Then Death +reseated himself. And lo! all the deadly legions, after surrounding the +prisoners and binding them, led them away to their couch. I also went +out, and peeped after them. "Come away," said Sleep, and snatched me up +to the top of the highest turret of the palace. Thence I could see the +prisoners proceeding to their eternal perdition. Presently a whirlwind +arose, and dispersed the pitch-black cloud, which was spread universally +over the face of the land of Oblivion, and by the light of a thousand +candles, which were burning with a blue flame, at a particular place, I +obtained a far distant view of the verge of the _Bottomless Gulf_, a +sight exceedingly horrible; and also of a spectacle above, still more +appalling, namely _Justice_ upon his _supreme seat_, holding the keys of +Hell, at a separate and distinct tribunal over the chasm, to pronounce +judgment upon the damned as they came. I could see the prisoners cast +headlong down the gulf, and Pettifogger rushing to fling himself over the +terrific brink, rather than look once on the court of _Justice_. For oh! +there was there a spectacle too severe for a guilty countenance. I +merely gazed from _afar_, but I beheld more terrific horror, than I can +at present relate, or I could at that time support, for my spirit +struggled and fluttered at the awful sight, and wrestled so strenuously, +that it burst all the bands of Sleep, and my soul returned to its +accustomed functions. And exceedingly overjoyed I was to see myself +still amongst the living. I instantly determined upon reforming myself, +as a hundred years of affliction in the paths of righteousness, would be +less harrowing to me, than another glance on the horrors of this night. + + + +Death the Great. + + +Leave land and house we must some day, +For human sway not long doth bide; +Leave pleasures and festivities, +And pedigrees, our boast and pride. + +Leave strength and loveliness of mien, +Wit sharp and keen, experience dear; +Leave learning deep, and much lov'd friends, +And all that tends our life to cheer. + +From Death then is there no relief? +That ruthless thief and murderer fell, +Who to his shambles beareth down +All, all we own, and us as well. + +Ye monied men, ye who would fain +Your wealth retain eternally, +How brave 'twould be a sum to raise, +And the good grace of Death to buy! + +How brave! ye who with beauty beam, +On rank supreme who fix your mind, +Should ye your captivations muster, +And with their lustre king Death blind. + +O ye who are at foot most light, +Who are in the height now of your spring, +Fly, fly, and ye will make us gape, +If ye can scape Death's cruel fling. + +The song and dance afford, I ween, +Relief from spleen, and sorrows grave; +How very strange there is no dance, +Nor tune of France, from Death can save! + +Ye travellers of sea and land, +Who know each strand below the sky; +Declare if ye have seen a place, +Where Adam's race can Death defy! + +Ye scholars, and ye lawyer crowds, +Who are as gods reputed wise; +Can ye from all the lore ye know, +'Gainst Death bestow some good advice? + +The world, the flesh, and Devil, compose +The direst foes of mortals poor; +But take good heed of Death the Great, +From the Lost Gate, Destruction o'er. + +'Tis not worth while of Death to prate, +Of his Lost Gate and courts so wide; +But O reflect! it much imports, +Of the two courts in which ye're tried. + +It here can little signify +If the street high we cross, or low; +Each lofty thought doth rise, be sure, +The soul to lure to deepest woe. + +But by the wall that's ne'er re-pass'd, +To gripe thee fast when Death prepares, +Heed, heed thy steps, for thou mayst mourn +The slightest turn for endless years. + +When opes the door, and swiftly hence +To its residence eternal flies +The soul, it matters much, which side +Of the gulf wide its journey lies. + +Deep penitence, amended life, +A bosom rife of zeal and faith, +Can help to man alone impart, +Against the smart and sting of Death. + +These things to thee seem worthless now, +But not so low will they appear +When thou art come, O thoughtless friend! +Just to the end of thy career. + +Thou'lt deem, when thou hast done with earth, +These things of worth unspeakable, +Beside the gulf so black and drear, +The gulf of Fear, 'twixt Heaven and Hell. + + + + +A Vision of Hell. + + +One fair morning of genial April, when the earth was green and pregnant, +and Britain, like a paradise, was wearing splendid liveries, tokens of +the smile of the summer sun, I was walking upon the bank of the Severn, +in the midst of the sweet notes of the little songsters of the wood, who +appeared to be striving to break through all the measures of music, +whilst pouring forth praise to the Creator. I too occasionally raised my +voice, and warbled with the feathered choir, though in a manner somewhat +more restrained than that in which they sang; and occasionally read a +portion of the book of the Practice of Godliness. Nevertheless, my +former visions would not depart from my remembrance, but continually +troubled me by coming across all other thoughts. And they persisted in +doing so, until, by arguing the matter minutely with myself, I reflected +that there is no vision but what comes from above, to warn one to be upon +one's guard, and that consequently it was my duty to write mine down, +that they might serve as a warning to others also. I therefore returned +to my home, and whilst overwhelmed with melancholy, I was endeavouring to +collect some of my frightful reminiscences, I happened to give a yawn +over my paper, and this gave master Sleep an opportunity to glide upon +the top of me. Scarcely had Sleep closed my senses, when, behold! a +glorious apparition came towards me, in the shape of a young man, tall +and exceedingly beautiful; his garments were seven times more white than +snow, his countenance was so lustrous that it rendered the very sun +obscure, and his curling locks of gold parted in two lovely wreaths upon +his head, in the form of a crown. "Come with me, mortal man," said he on +coming up. "Who art thou, my lord?" said I. "I am," he replied, "the +angel of the countries of the North, the guardian of Britain and its +queen. I am one of the princes who are stationed beneath the throne of +the Lamb, who receive commands for the protection of the gospel, against +all its enemies in Hell and in Rome, in France and Constantinople, in +Africa and in India, and wheresoever else they are devising artifices for +its destruction. I am the angel who conducted thee below to castle +Belial, and who showed thee the vanity and madness of the whole world, +the city of Destruction, and the excellence of the city of Emmanuel, and +I am come once more by his command, to show thee other things, because +thou art seeking to turn to account what thou hast seen already." "How, +my lord," said I, "will your illustrious majesty, which superintends +kings and kingdoms, condescend to associate with such a poor worm as +myself?" "O," said he, "we respect more the virtue of a beggar than the +grandeur of a sovereign. What if I be greater than the kings of the +earth, and higher than many of the countless potentates of heaven? As my +wonderful master deigned to humble himself so inexpressibly as to wear +one of your bodies, and to live among you, and to die for your salvation, +how should I presume to be dissatisfied with my duty in serving you, and +the vilest of the human race, since ye are so high in favour with my +master? Come out, spirit, and free thyself from thy clay," said he, with +his eyes directed upwards. And with that word, I could feel myself +becoming extricated from every part of my body. No sooner was I free, +than he snatched me up to the firmament of heaven, through the region of +lightning and thunder, and all the glowing armories of the sky, +innumerable degrees higher than I had been with him before, whence I +could scarcely descry the earth, which looked no wider than a croft. +After permitting me to rest a short space, he again lifted me up a +million of miles, until I could see the sun far below us; we rushed +through the milky way and past the Pleiades, and many other exceedingly +large stars, till we caught a distant view of other worlds. At length, +by dint of journeying, we reached the confines of the awful eternity, and +were in sight of the two palaces of the mighty king Death, which stand +one on the right hand and the other on the left, and are at a great +distance from each other, as there is an immense void between them. I +enquired whether we should go to see the right hand palace, because it +did not appear to me to resemble the other which I had seen before. "You +will probably see," he replied, "sometime, still more of the difference +which is between the one palace and the other; but at present it is +necessary for us to sail another course." Whereupon we turned away from +the little world, and having arrived over the intervening gap, we let +ourselves down to the country of Eternity, between the two palaces, into +the horrible void; an enormous country it was, exceedingly deep and +dark--without order and without inhabitants--now hot, now cold--sometimes +silent, sometimes noisy, with the sound caused by cataracts of water +tumbling upon the flames and extinguishing them; which cataracts, +however, did not long continue, for presently might be seen a puff of +fire bursting out and consuming the water. There was here no course, nor +whole, nothing living, nothing shapely; but a giddy discord and an +amazing darkness which would have blinded me for ever, if my companion +had not again displayed his heavenly garment of splendour. By the light +which it cast I could see the country of Oblivion, and the edges of the +wilds of Destruction in front, on the left hand; and on the right the +lowest skirts apparently of the walls of Glory. "Behold the great gulf +between Abraham and Dives," said my guide, "which is termed the place of +Chaos. It is the region of the elements which God created first; it is +the place wherein are the seeds of every living thing, from which the +Almighty word made your world and all that therein is--water, fire, air, +earth, animals, fishes and creeping things, winged birds, and human +bodies, but not your souls, for they are of an origin and generation +higher and more exalted." Through the vast, frightful place of Chaos we +at length broke out to the left hand, and before travelling any distance +there, where every thing was ever becoming more frightful, I could feel +my heart at the top of my throat, and my hair standing like the prickles +of the hedge-hog, even before seeing any thing; but when I _did_ see--oh! +spectacle too much for tongue to relate, or for the spirit of man to +behold. I fainted. Oh, the amazing and monstrous abyss, opening in a +horrible manner into the other world! Oh, the continual crackling of the +terrible flames, darting over the sides of the accursed precipice, and +the flashes of linked lightning rending the black, thick smoke, which the +unsightly orifice was casting up! My dear companion, having brought me +to myself again, gave me some spiritual water to drink; O how excellent +it was in its taste and color! After drinking of the heavenly water, I +could feel a wonderful strength diffusing itself through me, bringing +with it sense, heart, faith, and various other heavenly virtues. By this +time I had approached with him unterrified to the edge of the steep, +enveloped in the veil, the flames parting on both sides and avoiding us, +not daring to come in contact with the inhabitants of the supreme abodes. +Then from the summit of the terrific precipice we darted down, like two +stars falling from the firmament of heaven, a thousand million of miles, +over many a brimstone crag, and many a furious, ugly cataract and glowing +precipice, every thing that we passed looking always frowningly downward; +yet every thing noxious avoided us, except once, when having thrust my +nose out of the veil, I was struck by such a suffocating, strangling +exhalation as would have put an end to me, if my guide had not instantly +assisted me with the water of life. By the time that I had recovered, I +perceived that we had arrived at a kind of standing place; for in all +this loathsome chasm it was impossible to obtain any rest before, owing +to the steepness and slipperiness of its sides. There my guide permitted +me to take some further rest; and during this respite, it happened that +the thunders and the hoarse whirlwinds became silent for a little while, +and in spite of the din of the raging cataracts, I heard from afar a +sound louder than the whole--a sound of horrible harsh voices, of +shouting, bellowing, and strong groans, swearing, cursing, and +blaspheming, till I would have consented to part with mine ears, that I +might not hear. Ere we moved a foot farther, we could hear a terrible +tumbling sound, and if we had not suddenly slipped aside, hundreds of +unfortunate men would have fallen upon us, who were coming headlong, in +excessive hurry, to take possession of their bad purchase, with a host of +devils driving them. "O, sir," said one devil, "take it easy, lest you +should ruffle your curling locks. Madam, do you wish for an easy +cushion? I am afraid that you will be out of all order by the time you +come to your couch," said he to another. + +The strangers were exceedingly averse to going forward, insisting that +they were out of their road; but notwithstanding all they could say, go +they did, and we behind them, to a black flood of great magnitude, and +through it they went, and we across it, my companion holding the +celestial water continually to my nostrils, to strengthen me against the +stench of the river, and against the time when I should see some of the +inhabitants of the place, for hitherto I had not beheld so much as one +devil, though I had heard the voices of many. "Pray, my lord," said I, +"what is the name of this putrid river?" "The river of the Fiend," said +he, "in which all his subjects are bathed, in order that they may be +rendered fit for the country. For this accursed water changes their +countenance, and washes away from them every relic of goodness, every +semblance of hope and of comfort." And, indeed, on gazing upon the host +after it had come through, I could distinguish no difference in deformity +between the devils and the damned. Some of the latter would fain have +sculked at the bottom of the river, and have lain there to all eternity, +in a state of strangulation, lest they should get a worse bed father on; +but here the proverb was verified, that "he must needs run whom the Devil +drives," for with the devils behind, the damned were compelled to go +forward unto the beach, to their eternal damnation; where I at the first +glance saw more pains and torments than the heart of man can imagine or +the tongue relate; a single one of which was sufficient to make the hair +stand erect, the blood to freeze, the flesh to melt, the bones to drop +from their places--yea, the spirit to faint. What is empaling or sawing +men alive, tearing off the flesh piecemeal with iron pincers, or broiling +the flesh with candles, collop fashion, or squeezing heads flat in a +vice, and all the most shocking devices which ever were upon earth, +compared with one of these? Mere pastime! Here were a hundred thousand +shoutings, hoarse sighs, and strong groans; yonder a boisterous wailing +and horrible outcry answering them, and the howling of a dog is sweet, +delicious music, when compared with these sounds. When we had proceeded +a little way onward from the accursed beach, towards the wild place of +Damnation, I perceived, by their own light, innumerable men and women +here and there; and devils without number and without rest, incessantly +employing their strength in tormenting. Yes, there they were, devils and +damned, the devils roaring with their own torments, and making the damned +roar, by means of the torments which they inflicted upon them. I paid +particular observation to the corner which was nearest me. There I +beheld the devils with pitch-forks, tossing the damned up into the air, +that they might fall headlong on poisoned hatchels or barbed pikes, there +to wriggle their bowels out. After a time the wretches would crawl in +multitudes, one upon another, to the top of one of the burning crags, +there to be broiled like mutton; from there they would be snatched afar, +to the top of one of the mountains of eternal frost and snow, where they +would be allowed to shiver for a time; thence they would be precipitated +into a loathsome pool of boiling brimstone, to wallow there in +conflagration, smoke, and the suffocation of horrible stench; from the +pool they would be driven to the marsh of Hell that they might embrace +and be embraced by its reptiles many times worse than serpents and +vipers; after allowing them half an hour's dalliance with these +creatures, the devils would seize a bundle of rods of steel, fiery hot +from the furnace, and would scourge them till their howlings, caused by +the horrible inexpressible pain which they endured, would fill the vast +abode of darkness, and when the fiends deemed that they had scourged them +enough, they would take hot irons and sear their bloody wounds. + +There was here no fainting, nor swooning to evade a moment of suffering, +but a continual strength to suffer and to feel, though you would have +imagined after one horrible cry, that it would be utterly impossible +there should be strength remaining to give another cry so frightfully +loud; the damned never lowered their key, and the devils kept replying, +"behold your welcome for ever and ever." And it almost seemed that the +sauciness and bitterness of the devils, in jeering and mocking their +victims, were worse to bear than the pain itself. What was worst of all, +their conscience was at present utterly aroused, and was tearing them +worse than a thousand of the infernal lions. We proceeded farther and +farther downward, and the farther we proceeded, the more horrible was the +work which was going on; the first place we came to in our progress was a +frightful prison, in which were many human beings under the scourge of +the devils, shrieking most shockingly. "What place is this?" said I. +"That," said the angel, "is the couch of those who cry 'woe is me that I +did not--!' Hark to them for a moment!" "Woe is me that I did not +purify myself in time from every kind of sin!" says one. "Woe is me that +I did not believe and repent before coming here!" says the other. + +Next to the cell of too late repentance, and of debate after judgment had +been passed, was the prison of the procrastinators, who would be every +time promising amendment, without ever fulfilling their promise. "When +this business is over," says one, "I will turn over another leaf." "When +this obstacle is removed, I will become a new man yet," says the other. +But when the obstacle is removed, they are not a bit the nearer to +reformation, for some other obstacle is always found to prevent them from +moving towards the gate of Righteousness, and if they do sometimes move a +little, they are sure to turn back. Next to this was the prison of vain +confidence, full of those who, on being commanded to abstain from their +luxuriousness, drunkenness, or avarice, would say, "God is merciful, and +better than his word, and will not damn his creature for ever for so +small a matter." But here they were yelping forth blasphemy, and asking +where is that mercy, which was boasted to be immeasurable. "Peace, hell- +dogs," at length said a great lobster of a devil who was hearing them, +"peace! would you have mercy without doing any thing to obtain it? Would +you have the Truth render his word false, for the sake of obtaining the +company of such filthy dross as you? Too much mercy has been shown to +you already. You were given a Saviour, a comforter, and the apostles, +with books, sermons, and good examples, and will you never cease to +deafen us with bawling about mercy, where mercy has never been?" On +going out from this fiery gulf, I could hear one puffing and shouting +terribly, "I knew no better, nothing was ever expended in teaching me my +duty, and I could never find time to read or pray, because I was obliged +to earn bread for myself and my poor family." "Aye," said a little +crooked devil who stood by, "and did you never find time to tell pleasant +stories?--no leisure for self vaunting during long winter evenings when I +was in the chimney corner? Now, why did you not devote some of that time +to learning to read and pray? Who on Sundays used to come with me to the +tavern, instead of going with the parson to church? Who devoted many a +Sunday afternoon to vain prating about worldly things, or to sleep, +instead of meditation and prayer? And have ye merely acted according to +your knowledge and your opportunities? Peace, sirrah, with your lying +nonsense!" "O thou blood of a mad dog!" said the lost man, "it is not +long since you were whispering something very different into my ear, if +you had said that the other day, I should scarcely have come here." "O," +said the devil, "we do not mind telling you the bitter truth here, since +we need not fear that you will go back to tell tales." + +Below this cell I saw a kind of vast pit, and in it what looked like an +infinite quantity of loathsome ordure, burning with a green flame, and on +drawing near, I was aware, from the horrid howling that proceeded from +it, that it was composed of men piled one upon another, the horrible +flames crackling meanwhile through them. "This hollow," said the angel, +"is the couch of those who say after committing some great sin, 'pooh! I +am not the first, I have plenty of companions;' and thus you see, they +_do_ get plenty of companions, to verify their words and to increase +their agony." Opposite to this horrible place was a large cellar, where +I could see men twisted, as tow is twisted, or hemp is spun. "Pray," +said I "who are these?" "Panegyrists," said he, "and out of sheer +mockery to them, the devils are trying whether it is possible to twist +them as flexibly as they twisted their own discourse." A little way +below that cell, I could but just descry a sort of prison-pool, very +dark, and in it things which had been men, having faces like the heads of +wolf-dogs, and up to their jaws in bog, barking blasphemy and lies most +furiously, as long as they could get their sting above the mud. At this +moment a troop of devils happening to pass by, some of these creatures +contrived to bite in the heels, ten or twelve of the devils who had +brought them thither. "Woe and destruction to you hell-dogs!" said one +of the devils who had been bit, "you shall pay for this;" and forthwith +commenced beating the bog, till the wretches were drowned in the stinking +abysses. "Who," he then added, "have deserved hell better than you, who +have been hunting up and devising gossip, and buzzing lies about from +house to house, in order that you might laugh, after having set a whole +country at loggerheads. What more could one of ourselves have done?" +"That," said the angel, "is the bed of the tale-bearers, the slanderers, +and the whisperers, and of all other envious curs, who are continually +wounding people behind their backs with their hands or their tongues." + +From here we passed to a vast dungeon, by far the filthiest that I had +seen yet, and the most replete with toads, adders, and stench. "This," +said my guide, "is the place of the men who expect to get to heaven +because they have no ill intentions, that is, for being neither good nor +bad." Next to this pool of ill savour, I beheld a place where a vast +crowd were sitting, and without any thing visible to torment them, +groaning more piteously than any that I had hitherto heard in Hell. +"Mercy upon us," said I, "what causes these people to complain more than +the rest, when they have neither torture nor devil near them?" "O," said +the angel, "the less torment they have without, the more they have +within. These are refractory heretics, atheists, antichristians, worldly- +wise ones, abjurers of the faith, persecutors of the church, and an +infinity of such like wretches, who are abandoned entirely to the +punishment of conscience, more tormenting than flame or devil, which +domineers over them ceaselessly and without restraint. 'I will never +permit myself any more,' says she, 'to be drowned in ale, nor to be +blinded by bribes, nor deafened by music and company, nor lulled nor +confounded by careless listlessness; for now I _will_ be listened to, and +never shall the clack of the hated truth cease in your ears.' Longing is +ever raging within the wretch for the happiness which he has lost; memory +is ever reproaching him by saying how easy it was to be obtained, and the +understanding showing him the magnitude of his loss, and the certainty +that nothing is now to be obtained, but indescribable gnawing for ever +and ever. So with these three instruments--namely longing, memory, and +understanding--conscience is tearing the lost one, in a manner far worse +than all the devils in Hell could tear him with their claws." + +On coming out of this wonderful nook I heard a confused talking, and +after every word such a ghastly laughter, as if five hundred devils were +casting their horns with laughing. On approaching to see the cause of +such a rarity as laughter in Hell, I discovered that it was only got up +to incense two honorable gentlemen, newly arrived, who were insisting on +being shown respect suitable to their gentility. One of them was a round +bodied squire, having with him a big roll of parchment--namely his map of +pedigree--out of which he recited from which of the fifty tribes of North +Wales he was sprung, and how many justices of the peace, and how many +sheriffs his house had produced. "Come, come," said one of the devils, +"we know the merits of the greater part of your ancestry. If you had +been like your father or your great grandfather, we should not have +ventured to come in contact with you; but you are only the heir of the +pit of darkness, you dirty hell-dog! You are scarcely worthy of a +night's lodging," added he, "and yet we'll grant you some nook, wherein +to await the dawn;" and with that word the goblin with his pitchfork, +gave him more than thirty tosses in the fiery air, until he at length +cast him into an abyss out of sight. "That may do," said the other, "for +a squire of half blood, but I hope you will behave better to a knight, +who has had the honor of serving the king in person, and can name twelve +earls and fifty baronets belonging to his ancient house." "If your +ancestors and your ancient house be all that you can bring in your +defence, you may go the same road as he," said one of the devils, +"because we can scarcely remember one ancient house, of which some +oppressor, murderer, or strong thief did not lay the foundation, and +which he did not transmit to people as froward as himself, or to lazy +drones, or drunken swine, to maintain whose extravagant magnificence, the +vassals and the tenantry must be squeezed to death, whilst every handsome +colt or pretty cow in the neighbourhood must be parted with for the +pleasure of the mistress, and every lass or married woman, may consider +herself fortunate, if she escape the pleasure of the master; the +freeholders, meanwhile, being either obliged to follow him like fawning +hounds, rob themselves for his benefit, and sell their patrimonies at his +pleasure, or be subject to frowns and hatred, and be dragged into every +disagreeable and vexatious employment during their lives. + +"O these little great country folks," continued the devil, "how genteely +they swear in order to obtain credit with their mistresses, or with the +shop-keepers; and when they have decked themselves out, O how insolently +they look upon many of the middling officers of the church and state, and +how much worse on the common people! as if they were a species of +reptiles in comparison with themselves. Woe is me! is not all blood of +the same color? Did you not come all into the world by the same way?" +"But, nevertheless, with your permission," said the knight, "there are +some who are of much purer birth than others." "Destruction take you!" +said the goblin, "there is not one carcass of you all better than the +rest; you are all polluted with radical sin from Adam. But, sir," said +he, "if your blood be better than other blood, less scum will exude from +you when boiling; however, in order to be sure of its quality, it will be +as well to search you with fire as well as water." Thereupon a devil in +the shape of a chariot of fire received him, and the other in mockery +lifted him into it, and away he was hurried like lightning. After a +short time the angel caused me to look, and I could see the wretched +knight suffering a terrible steeping in a frightful boiling furnace, in +company with Cain, Nimrod, Esau, Tarquin, Nero, Caligula, and the others +who were the founders of genealogies, and were the first to set up arms +of nobility. + +A little farther on, my guide caused me to look through the hollow of a +rock, and there I beheld a number of coquettes briskly at work, doing and +repeating all their former follies upon earth. Some were twisting their +mouths, some were pulling their front locks with irons, some were +painting themselves, some patching their faces with sooty ointments, to +make the yellow look more fair; some quite mad at seeing their visages, +after all their pains in coloring and variegating, more hideous than +those of the very devils, were endeavouring to break the mirrors, or were +tearing off with their nails and their teeth the whole artificial +blush--the ointments, skin, and flesh coming off all together. The cries +which they uttered occasionally were most dismal. "The curse of curses," +would one say, "on my father, for making me marry when a girl, an old +sapless stump, whose work in raising desires which he could not gratify +has driven me hither." "A thousand curses on my parents," would another +say, "for sending me to a cloister to learn chastity; they would not have +done worse in sending me to a roundhead to learn generosity, or to a +quaker to learn manners, than to a papist to learn honor." "Destruction," +said another, "seize my mother for her avaricious pride in preventing my +obtaining a husband when I wanted one, and thus obliging me to purloin +the thing I might have honorably come by." "Hell, and double Hell to the +lustful wretch of a gentleman, who first began tempting me," would the +third say; "if he had not, betwixt fair and foul, broken the hedge, I had +not become a cell open to every body, nor had I come to this cell of +devils!" And then they fell to tearing themselves again. + +I was glad to quit such a pack of female dogs. But before I had passed +on many steps, I was surprised to see another shoal of imprisoned +wenches, twice more detestable than they. Some had been changed into +toads, some into dragons, some into serpents who were swimming and +hissing, glavering and butting in a fetid, stagnant pool, much larger +than Llyn Tegid. {84} "In the name of wonder," said I, "what sort of +creatures may these be?" "There are here," said he, "four sorts of +wenches, all notoriously bad. First, there are procuresses, with some of +the principal lasses of their respective bevies about them. Second, +gossiping ladies with a swarm of their news-bearing hags. Third, +bouncing madams, and a pack of sneaking curs on both sides of them, for +no man, but for downright fear of them, would ever go nigh them. Fourth, +scolds, become a hundred times more horrible than vipers, with their +poisonous stings going creak, creak to all eternity." + +"I had imagined that Lucifer had been a king of too much courtesy, to put +a gentlewoman of my rank with such little petty she-devils as these," +said one, something like a winged serpent, only that she was much more +fierce. "O that he would send here, seven hundred of the worst devils in +Hell in exchange for thee, thou poisonous hell-spawn!" said another ugly +viper. "O! many thanks to you," said a gigantic devil who overheard +them, "we set too much value on our place and merits, to condescend to +become mates of yours; and though we are willing to admit that you are +fully as competent to torment people as the best of us, we would, +nevertheless, not yield up our duties to you." "And yet," said the angel +softly, "Lucifer has another reason for keeping such a particular watch +over these; he knows well, that if they should break out, they would turn +all Hell topsy-turvy." From here we went, still going downward, to a +place where I beheld a frightful den, in which was a horrible clamour, +the like of which I had never heard, for swearing, cursing, blaspheming, +snarling, groaning, and crying. "Who is here?" said I. "This," said he, +"is the den of the thieves. Here is a swarm of game-keepers, lawyers, +stewards, and the old Judas in the midst of them; they have been +excessively annoyed at seeing the tailors and weavers above them, in a +more comfortable chamber." Almost before I could turn myself, there came +a horse of a devil, bearing a physician and an apothecary, whom he cast +down amongst the pedlars and the duffers, for selling bad, rotten ware; +but they beginning to fume at being placed in such low company, one of +the devils said, "stay, stay! you _do_ deserve a different place," and +cast them down amongst the conquerors and the murderers. There was a +multitude shut up here, for playing with false dice and concealing cards; +but before I could observe much, I heard, close by the door, a terrible +rush and rustle, with a hie! hie! get on! ho! yo! hip! I turned to see +what it was; but perceiving nothing but horned goblins, I enquired of my +guide whether there were cuckolds amongst the devils? "No," said he, +"they are in a particular cell. These are drovers who would fain escape +to the place of the Sabbath-breakers, and are driven hither against their +will." At that word, I looked, and perceived their polls full of the +horns of sheep and cattle, and those who drove them, casting them down +beneath the feet of the bloodiest robbers. "Crouch there," said one; +"though you feared so much of old the thieves on London road, you were +yourselves the very worst species of highwaymen, living upon the road and +plundering, yes, and murdering poor families. O how many poor creatures +did you not keep, with their hungry mouths open, in vain expectation of +the money for the sale of the beasts, which they had intrusted to you; +and you in the mean time in Ireland, or in the King's Bench laughing at +them, or upon the road in the midst of your wine and harlots." + +On quitting this den of furious heat, I got a sight of a lair, exceeding +all the rest I had seen in Hell, but one, in frightful stinking +filthiness, where was a herd of accursed drunken swine, disgorging and +swallowing, swallowing and disgorging, continually and without rest, the +most loathsome snivel. The next pit was the couch of gluttony, where +Dives and his companions were upon their bellies, eating dirt and fire +alternately, without any liquid ever. A cave or two lower there was an +exceedingly spacious kitchen, in which some were in a state of roasting +and boiling, others frying and burning in an oven half heated. "Behold +the place of the merciless and the unfeeling," said the angel. I then +turned a little to the left hand, where there was a cell more light than +any one which I had yet seen in Hell, and enquired what place it was? +"The abode of the infernal dragons," replied the angel, "who are hissing +and snarling, rushing and preying upon one another every minute." I +approached; and oh! the look which cannot be described was upon them, the +whole light was but the living fire in their eyes. "These are the seed +of Adam," said my guide, "morose wretches, and furious savage men; but, +yonder," said he, "are some of the old seed of the great dragon Lucifer;" +and verily, I could perceive not a whit more amiability in the one sort +than in the other. In the next cellar were the misers, in a state of +horrible agony with their hearts cleaving to coffers of burning treasure, +the rust whereof was ceaselessly cankering them, because those hearts had +been ceaselessly bent upon getting money--O the consuming torment, worse +than frenzy, that was now going on within them, with care and repentance. +Below this there was a hanging ledge, where there were some apothecaries +ground to dust, and stuffed into earthen pots amongst album grecum, dung +of geese and swine, and many an old stinking ointment. + +We were now journeying forward, continually descending, along the +wilderness of Destruction, through innumerable torments, eternal and not +to be described--from cell to cell, from cellar to cellar, and the last +always surpassing the others in horror and ghastliness; at last we +arrived at a vast porch, more cheerless than any thing we had seen +before. It was a very spacious porch, and the pathway through it, which +was frightfully steep, led to a kind of dusky nook of incredible ugliness +and horror, and there the palace was. At the upper end of the accursed +court, among thousands of horrible objects, I could, by means of the +radiance of my heavenly companion, perceive amidst the dreary darkness +two feet of enormous magnitude, reaching to the roof of the whole +infernal firmament. I enquired of my conductor what this horrible thing +might be? "Patience," said he, "you shall obtain a more ample view of +this monster as you return; but move forward now to see the royal +palace." + +Whilst we were proceeding down the porch of Horror, we heard a noise +behind us, as of an immense number of people. Having turned aside to let +them pass forward, we beheld four distinct bands, and soon discovered +that the four princesses of the city of Destruction, were bringing their +subjects as presents to their father. I recognised the princess Pride, +not only by her being before the others, but also by her habit of +stumbling every moment, for want of looking beneath her feet. She had +with her a vast many kings, potentates, courtiers, gentlemen, and pompous +people, many quakers, innumerable females of every rank and degree. + +The princess Lucre was next, with her silly, mean figure, bringing along +with her very many of the money loving race--such as usurers, lawyers, +extortioners, overseers, game-keepers, harlots, and some ecclesiastics +also. Next to these was the amiable princess Pleasure and her daughter +Folly, conducting their subjects--consisting of players at dice, cards, +draughts, games of legerdemain, and of poets, musicians, tellers of old +stories, drunkards, ladies of pleasure, debauches, pretty fellows, with a +thousand million of all kinds of baubles, to serve now as instruments of +punishment for the lost fools. After these three had gone with their +prisoners to the palace, to receive their judgment--behold Hypocrisy, the +last of all, conducting a more numerous rout than any of the others, of +all nations and ages, of town and country, gentle and simple, males and +females. At the tail of the two-faced multitudes we advanced till we +came in sight of the palace, through many dragons and horned sprites, and +warriors of Hell, the black wardens of the gloomy pandemonium, I all the +time crouching very carefully within my veil. We entered the frightful +and awful edifice, every corner of which abounded with horror. The walls +were immense rocks of glowing adamant, the pavement of an insufferably +sharp flint, the roof of burning steel, meeting like an arch of greenish- +blue and dusky-red flames, and in its size and its heat, resembling an +immense vaulted baking oven. + +Opposite to the door, on a flaming throne, the Arch-Fiend was seated, his +principal lost angels on both sides of him, on thrones of fire terrible +to behold--sitting according to their former rank in the regions of +light, when they were amiable messengers. It would only be in vain to +endeavour to relate how obscene and horrible they were; and the longer I +looked at any one of them, seven times more hideous he appeared. In the +midst, above the head of Lucifer, was a vast fist, holding a very +frightful bolt. The princesses, after making their obeisance, returned +to the world to their charges, without making any stay. As soon as they +had departed, a gigantic, wide-mouthed devil, by command of the king, +uttered a shout louder than a hundred discharges of artillery, as loud if +possible as the last trumpet, for the purpose of summoning the infernal +parliament. And lo! the rabble of Hell instantly filled the palace and +the porch in every shape, after the image and similitude of the principal +sin, which each delighted to thrust upon mankind. After commanding +silence, Lucifer, with his look directed to the potentates nearest to +him, began to speak, very graciously, in the following manner:-- + +"Ye potentates of Hell! princes of the black abodes of Despair! Though +by our confederacy we have lost possession of those thrones, from which +we once shone resplendent through the higher regions; our confederacy +was, nevertheless, a glorious one, as we aimed at nothing less than the +whole. And we have not lost the whole either; for lo! the extensive and +profound regions, to the extremest wilds of vast Destruction, are yet +beneath our sway. It is true we reign in horrible agony; but spirits of +our eminence prefer ruling in torment to serving in ease. And besides +this, we are on the eve of obtaining another world, more than three parts +of the earth having been beneath my banner for a long time. + +"And although the Almighty Enemy, sent his own son to die for the beings +of that world; yet I, by my baubles, obtain ten souls, for every one +which he obtains by his crucified son. And although I have not been able +to reach him, who sits in the high places and discharges the invincible +thunderbolts, yet revenge of some kind is sweet. Let us complete the +destruction of the remnant of human beings, still in the favour of our +destroyer. I remember the time, when you caused them to be burnt by +multitudes and cities, and even the whole race of the earth, by means of +the flood, to be swept down to us in the fire. But at present, though +your strength and your natural cruelty are not a whit diminished, yet you +are become in some degree inactive; if that had not been the case, we +might long since have destroyed the few who are godly, and have caused +the earth to be united with this our vast empire. But know, ye black +ministers of my displeasure, that unless ye be more resolute and more +diligent, and make the most of the short time which yet remains to you +for doing evil, ye shall experience the weight of my anger, in torments +new and strange to the oldest of you. This I swear by the deepest Hell, +and the vast, eternal pit of Darkness." And, thereupon, he frowned, till +the palace became seven times more gloomy than before. + +Moloch now arose, one of the infernal potentates, and after making his +obeisance to the king, he said, "O emperor of the Air! mighty ruler of +Darkness! no one ever doubted my propensity to malice and cruelty; the +sufferings of others have been, and still are, my supreme delight. It is +as capital sport to me, to hear the shrieks of infants perishing in the +fire as of old, when thousands of sucklings were sacrificed to me outside +of Jerusalem. When was I ever slack at my work? Since the return of the +crucified Enemy to the supreme abodes, I have employed myself in slaying +and burning his subjects. I did all I could, to destroy the Christians +from the face of the earth, during the reigns of ten emperors; and many +an awful butchery I have made of them in modern times, both in Paris and +England, to say nothing of other places: but what are we the nearer to +our object for all this? The One above has caused the tree to grow, +after its branches have been severed; and all our efforts, are nothing +better than showing one's teeth, without the power of biting." "Pshaw!" +said Lucifer, "a fig for such heartless legions as ye. I will no longer +rely upon you! I will do the work myself, and the glory thereof I will +share with no one. I will go to the earth in my own kingly person, and +will swallow up the whole; not one man, henceforth, shall be found on the +earth to adore the Almighty." Thereupon he gave a furious bound, +attempting to set off, in a firmament of living fire; but, behold! the +fist above his head shook the terrific bolt till he trembled in the midst +of his frenzy, and before he could move far, an invisible hand lugged the +old fox back by his chain, in spite of his teeth. Whereupon he became +seven times more frantic; his eyes were more terrible than lightnings, +black thick smoke burst from his nostrils, and dark green flames from his +mouth and entrails: he gnawed his chain in his agony, and hissed forth +direful blasphemy, and the most frightful curses. + +But perceiving how vain it was to seek to break loose, or to struggle +with the Almighty, he returned to his place and proceeded with his +discourse somewhat more calmly, but with ten times more malice. "The +Omnipotent Thunderer has vanquished me, and he alone could have done so. +To him I submit. Against him all my fury is in vain; I will, therefore, +direct it against nearer and lower objects, and pour it in showers upon +those who are yet under my banner, and within the reach of my chain. +Arise, ye ministers of Destruction! rulers of the unquenchable fire! and +as my wrath and my venom flow forth and my malice boileth out, do ye +assiduously spread the whole tide amongst the damned, particularly the +Christians. Urge the instruments of torture to the utmost--devise as +many more as you can--double the fire and the boiling, until the very +cauldrons be overturned; and when they are in the most extreme, +inexpressible torture, mock, deride, and upbraid them; and when your +whole stock of ironry and bitterness is expended, hasten to me, and you +shall obtain more." + +There had been for some time a comparative silence in Hell, and the more +cruel tortures had been suspended; but now the stillness which Lucifer +had caused was broken, when the ghastly butchers rushed like wild hungry +bears upon their prisoners. O then there arose an oh! oh! oh! a wail, +and universal howling, more loud than the sound of cataracts, or the +tumult of an earthquake, so that Hell became seven times more frightful. +I should have swooned if my dear companion had not rendered me +assistance. "Take now," said he, "plenty of the water, that you may +obtain strength to see things yet more horrible than these." But +scarcely had these words proceeded from his mouth, when, lo! the +celestial Justice, who sits above the precipice keeping the gate of Hell, +came scourging three men with a rod of fiery scorpions. "Ha! ha!" said +Lucifer, "here are three right reverend gentlemen, whom Justice himself +has deigned to conduct to my kingdom." "Oh! woe is me," said one of the +three, "who asked him to trouble himself?" "Be it known," said Justice, +with a glance which made the devils tremble till they knocked one against +another, "that it is the will of the Great Creator, that I should myself +bring these three accursed murderers to their home. Sirrah," said he to +one of the devils, "unbolt for me the prison of the murderers, where are +Cain and Nero, Bonner, Bradshaw, Ignatius, and innumerable others of a +similar description." "Alas, alas! we never killed any body," said one +of the prisoners. "No, because you did not get time and because you were +prevented," said Justice. When the den was opened, there came out such a +horrible puff of bloody flame, and such a yell as if a thousand dragons +were giving their last gasp in their death agony. Into this den Justice +hurled his prisoners; {93} and on his way back he breathed obliquely, +such a tempest of fiery whirlwinds upon the Arch-Fiend and all his +potentates, as he passed by them, that Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan, Moloch, +Abaddon, Asmodeus, Dagon, Apollyon, Belphegor, Mephistophiles, and all +the other principal demons were whisked away, and tumbled headlong into a +kind of gulf, which was opening and closing in the midst of the palace, +and whose aspect was more horrible, and whose steam was more frightful +than the aspect and vapour of any gulf which I had previously seen. +Before I could enquire of the angel as to what it was, he said, "that is +a hole which leads to another vast world." "Pray," said I, "what is the +name of that world?" "It is called," said he, "Unknown, or extremest +Hell, the habitation of the devils, and the place to which they are at +present gone. The vast wilderness, over part of which you have come, is +called the country of Despair, a place intended for the lost until the +Day of Judgment, when it will fall into extremest, bottomless Hell, and +the two will become one. When that has happened one of ourselves will +come and close the gate of the whole region of horror upon the devils and +the damned, which gate shall never, to all eternity, be opened for them. +In the meantime, however, permission is given to the devils to come to +these cooler regions, in order to torment the lost souls. Yea, they +often obtain permission to go even into the air, and about the earth, to +tempt men to the destructive paths, which lead to this dismal prison, +from which there is no escape." In the midst of this history, and whilst +I was in great surprise at seeing the mouth of Unknown, so much +surpassing in horror the jaws of upper Hell, I could hear a prodigious +noise of arms, and loud discharges from one side, answered by what seemed +to be hoarse thunders from the other; the rocks of Death, meanwhile, +rebellowing the tumult. + +"That is the sound of war," said I. "Is there war then in Hell?" "There +is," said the angel; "and it is impossible that there should not be here +continual war." Whilst we were moving out, to see what was the matter, I +beheld the mouth of Unknown opening, and casting up thousands of candles, +burning with a frightful green flame. These were Lucifer and his +potentates, who had contrived to subdue the tempest. But when the Arch +Fiend heard the noise of war, he became more pale than Death, and began +to call and gather together bands of his old experienced soldiers to +quell the tumult. At this moment he stumbled against a little puppy of +an imp, who had escaped between the feet of the combatants. "What is the +matter?" said the king. "Such a matter as will endanger your crown, +unless you look to yourself," said the imp. Close behind him came +another fiendish courier, bawling hoarsely, "you are plotting disquiet +for others, look now to your own repose. Yonder are the Turks, the +Papists, and the bloody-handed Roundheads, in three bands, filling all +the plains of the dark abodes, committing terrible outrages, and turning +every thing topsy-turvy." "How came they out?" said the Arch Fiend, +looking worse than Demigorgon. "The Papists," said the messenger, "broke +out of their Purgatory, I do not know how; and then on account of an old +grudge, they went to attack the back gate of the Paradise of Mahomet, and +let all the Turks out of their prison; and afterwards, in the hubbub, the +seed of Cromwell found some means to break out of their cells." Then +Lucifer turned about and looked under his throne, where were all the lost +kings, and caused Cromwell to be kept close in his kennel; and likewise +all the emperors of the Turks, under watch and ward. He then hastened +with his legions along the black wilds of Darkness, each obtaining light +from the fire which was incessantly tormenting his body. Guided by the +horrid uproar, the fiends advanced courageously towards the combatants; +then silence was enjoined in the name of the king, and Lucifer enquired, +"what is the cause of this disturbance in my kingdom?" "Please, your +infernal majesty," said Mahomet, "a dispute arose between me and pope +Leo, as to whether my Koran or the creed of Rome, had rendered you most +service; and whilst we were at it, a pack of Roundheads broke their +prison and put in their oar; asserting that their league and covenant, +deserved more respect at your hands than either. Thus from disputing we +have come to blows, and from words to arms. But at present, as your +majesty has returned from Unknown, I will refer the matter to yourself." +"Stay, we shall not let you escape thus!" said pope Julius; and to it +again they went, tooth and nail, in the most furious manner, till the +strokes were like an earthquake. O you should have seen the three armies +of the damned, tearing one another to pieces over the expanse of the +burning plains; and each individual body that was rent to pieces, +becoming joined again serpent fashion. At last Lucifer caused his old +soldiers, the champions of Hell, to pull them from each other, and it was +no easy matter to do so. + +When the tumult was hushed, pope Clement began to speak. "O emperor of +Horrors! as no throne has ever performed more faithful and universal +service to the infernal crown, over a great part of the world, for eleven +hundred years, than the papal chair, I hope you will not suffer any one +to contend with us for your favour." "Well," said a Scott of Cromwell's +army, "though the Koran has done great service for eight hundred years, +and the superstition of the Pope for a much longer period, yet has the +covenant done more since it came out, than the other two have ever done. +Moreover it is notorious that, whilst the votaries of those two are every +day rapidly diminishing, the followers of the covenant are increasing in +numbers, over the whole face of the world, and particularly in the island +of your enemies Britain, whose capital, London, the most noble city under +the sun, abounds with them." "Pshaw, pshaw!" said Lucifer, "if I am +rightly informed, the covenant itself is under a cloud, and you are no +longer what you were. And now I have one thing to tell the whole of +you--which is, that, whatever ye may do in other kingdoms, I will not +permit you to trouble mine. Therefore rest peaceably, under penalty of +worse torments corporeal and spiritual." At those words many of the +devils dropped their tails between their hoofs, and all the damned +sneaked away to their holes, for fear of a change for the worse. + +After causing the whole of them to be locked up in their prisons, and the +careless wardens to be deprived of their office, for having permitted +them to break out, Lucifer and his counsellors returned to the palace, +and sat down again, according to their rank, upon their fiery thrones. +After silence had been called and the place cleared, a huge, +wry-shouldered devil, placed a back-load of fresh prisoners before the +bar. "Is this the road to Paradise," said one, (for they all pretended +not to know where they were.) "Or if this be Purgatory," said another, +"we have with us an authority, under the hand of the Pope, to go straight +to Paradise without tarrying any where a minute. Therefore show us the +way, or, by the Pope's toe, we will cause him to punish you." Ha! ha! +ha!--ho! ho! ho! said eight hundred devils; and Lucifer himself, parted +his jaws half a yard in a kind of bitter laugh. The others were +confounded at this; but one said, "well, if we have lost our way in the +darkness, we would pay any one who would guide us." "Ha! ha!" said +Lucifer, "you will pay the last farthing before ye go." Thereupon each +fell to searching for his money, but found, to his sorrow, that he had +left his breeches behind him. Quoth the Arch Fiend, "you left Paradise +on the left hand, above the lofty mountains; and, notwithstanding, it was +so easy to come down here, it is next to impossible to go back, owing to +the nature of the country, through which the road back lies. For it is a +country abounding with mountains of burning iron, immense dismal crags, +sheets of eternal ice, and roaring, headlong cataracts; a country, in +short, far too difficult for you to travel, unless indeed you have talons +of the true devilish length. Come, come," said he to his myrmidons, +"take these blockheads to our paradise, to their companions." At this +moment I could hear the voice of some people who were coming, swearing +and cursing in a frightful manner. "O the Devil! the blood of the Devil! +a hundred thousand devils! a thousand million devils take me if I will go +farther!" but, nevertheless, they were cast slap down before the judge. +"Here you have," said the carrier, "a load of as good fire wood as the +best in Hell." "What are they?" said Lucifer. "Masters of the genteel +art of cursing and swearing," replied the devil; "men who understand the +language of Hell quite as well as ourselves." "You lie in your mouth, by +the Devil!" said one of them. "Sirrah! do you take my name in vain?" +said the Arch Fiend. "Quick! and hang them by their tongues to the +burning precipice yonder, and if they call for the Devil, be ready to +serve them; yea, if they call for a thousand, let them be satisfied." +When these were gone, lo! a giant of a devil vociferated to have the bar +cleared, and flung down a man whom he bore. "What have you brought +there?" said Lucifer. "A tavern-keeper," replied the other. "What," +said the king, "_one_ tavern-keeper! Why they are in the habit of coming +to the tune of five or six thousand. Have you not been out, sirrah, for +ten years, and yet you bring us but one? and he one who has done us much +more service in the world than yourself, you lazy, stinking dog!" "You +are too ready to condemn me, before listening to me," he replied. "This +fellow only was given to my charge, and, behold! I am clear of him. But +still I have sent to you from his house, many a worthless chap, after +guzzling down the maintenance of his family; many a dicer and +card-player; many a genteel swearer; many a pleasant, good kind of belly +god; and many a careless servant." "Well," said the Arch Fiend, "though +the tavern-keeper has merited to be amongst the flatterers below us, take +him at present to his brethren, in the cell of the liquid murderers; to +the thousands of apothecaries and poisoners, who are there for making +drink to kill their customers--boil him well for not having brewed better +ale." "With your permission," said the tavern-keeper shivering, "I have +deserved no such treatment. Must not every trade live?" "And could you +not live," said the Fiend, "without encouraging dissipation and gaming, +uncleanness, drunkenness, oaths, quarrels, slander and lies? and would +you, hell-hound, live at present better than ourselves! Pray what evil +have we here that you had not at home, the punishment solely excepted? +And having told you this bitter truth, I will add, that the infernal heat +and cold were not unknown to you either. + +"Did you not see sparks of our fire in the tongues of the swearers and of +the scolds, when seeking to get their husbands home? Was there not +plenty of the unquenchable fire in the mouth of the drunkard, and in the +eyes of the brawler? And could you not perceive something of the +infernal cold in the lovingness of the spendthrift, and in your own +civility to your customers, whilst any thing remained with them--in the +drollery of the buffoons, in the praise of the envious and the backbiter, +in the promises of the wanton, or in the shanks of the good companions +freezing beneath your tables? Art thou unacquainted with Hell, when the +house thou didst keep was Hell? Go, hell-dog, to thy punishment." + +At this moment appeared ten devils with their burdens, which they cast +upon the fiery floor, puffing terribly. "What have you there?" said +Lucifer. "We have brought," said one of the fiendish carriers, "five +things which were called kings the day before yesterday." (I looked +attentively and beheld in one of them old Louis of France.) "Fling them +here," said the king; whereupon they were flung to the other crowned +heads, under the feet of Lucifer. + +It was not long before I heard the sound of a brazen trumpet, and a +crying of room! room! room! After waiting a little time, what should be +coming but a drove of sessions folk, the devils carrying six lumps of +justices and a thousand of their fry--consisting of lawyers, attornies, +clerks, recorders, bailiffs, catchpoles, and pettifoggers of the courts. +I was surprised that none of them attempted to cross-question; but they +perceived that the matter was gone against them too far, and so, not one +of these learned disputers opened his mouth; only a pettifogger of the +courts said, that he would lay a plaint of false imprisonment against +Lucifer. "You shall now have cause enough to complain," said the Fiend, +"and yet never have an opportunity of seeing a court with your eyes." +Then, putting on his red cap, Lucifer, with an arrogant, insufferable +look, said, "take the justices to the dungeon of Pontius Pilate and Mr. +Bradshaw, who condemned king Charles. Parch the lawyers in company with +the murderers of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, {100} and their double-tongued +brethren, who dispute with one another, for no other purpose than to be +the ruin of any one who comes betwixt them. Let them greet that +provident lawyer--for they will find him here--who offered on his death +bed a thousand pounds for a clear conscience. Let them greet him, and +ask, whether he is now willing to give any thing more. Roast them with +their own parchment and papers; hang the pettifoggers above them, with +their nostrils downwards, in the roasting chimneys, to receive the smoke, +and to see whether they can get their belly-full of law. As for the +recorders, let them be cast among the forestallers, who detain the corn +or buy it up and mix it, and then sell the unsound for double the price +of the pure corn; just as the former demand double the fees for _wrong_, +which were formerly given for _right_. As for the catchpoles, leave them +at liberty to hunt vermin; or send them to the world, among the dingles +and brakes, to seize the debtors of the infernal crown--for what devil +among you will do the work better than they?" At this moment twenty +devils with packs on their shoulders, like Scotchmen, mounted before the +throne of Despair, and what had they got, on enquiry, but gipsies. "Ho!" +said Lucifer, "how did ye know the fortunes of others so well, without +knowing that your own fortune was leading ye to this prison." But the +gipsies said not a word in reply, being confounded at beholding faces +here more ugly than their own. "Hurl them into our deepest dungeon," +said Lucifer, to the fiends, "and don't starve them; we have here neither +cats nor rush-lights to give them, but let them have a toad between them, +every ten thousand years, provided they are quiet, and do not deafen us +with their gibberish and clibberty clabber." Next to these there came, I +should imagine, about thirty husbandmen. Every one was surprised to see +so many of them, people of their honest calling seldom coming to Hell; +but they were not from the same neighbourhood, nor for the same offences. +Some were for raising the markets; many for refusing to pay tithes, and +cheating the minister of his rights; others for leaving their work, to +follow gentry a hunting, and breaking their legs in endeavouring to leap +with them; some for working on Sundays; some for carrying their sheep and +cattle, in their heads to church, instead of musing on the Word; others +for roguish bargains. When Lucifer began to question them, oh! they were +all as pure as gold; none was aware of having committed any thing which +deserved such a lot. You will not believe what a crafty excuse every one +had to conceal his fault, notwithstanding he was in Hell on account of +it, and this was only done out of malice, to thwart Lucifer and to +endeavour to make the righteous Judge, who had damned them appear unjust. +But you would have been yet more surprised at the dexterity with which +the Arch Fiend laid bare their crimes, and answered their vain excuses +home. But when these were receiving the last infernal sentence, there +came forty scholars before the court, mounted on capering devils, more +ugly, if possible, than Lucifer himself. And when the scholars heard the +husbandmen arguing, they began to excuse themselves the more confidently. +But, oh! how ready the old Serpent was at answering them too, +notwithstanding their craft, and their learning. + +But as it was my fortune to hear similar disputations at another +tribunal, I will there give the history of the whole, in one mass; and +will at present relate to you what I next saw. Scarcely had Lucifer +uttered judgment upon these people, and sent them, for the cool +impertinence of their reasons, to the vast sheet, in the country of the +eternal ice, the teeth of the wretches beginning to chatter before they +saw their prison, when Hell began once more, to resound awfully with +terrible blows, harsh blustering thunders, and every sound of war. I +could see Lucifer turn black, and become like a statue; at this moment, +in rushed a little crooked, horned devil, panting and shivering. "What +is the matter?" said Lucifer. "The most perilous to you of all matters +since Hell has been Hell," said the imp; "all the extremes of the kingdom +of Darkness, have broken out against you, and against one another; +particularly those who had any old field in common. They are now at it, +tooth and nail, so that it is impossible to tear them from each other. + +"The soldiers are at loggerheads with the physicians, for carrying on +their trade of slaughter; there is a swarm of usurers at loggerheads with +the lawyers, for seeking to spoil their trade; the jurymen and the +duffers are pummelling the gentlemen, for swearing and cursing without +necessity; whereas, swearing and cursing formed part of their trade; the +harlots, and their associates, and millions of other old friends and +acquaintances, have fallen out, and are all in shatters. + +"But worse than all, is the contest between the old misers and their own +children, for dissipating their wealth and their money. 'Our property,' +say the pigtails, 'cost us much pain, whilst we were upon the earth, and +is causing us immense suffering _here_ for ever, yet ye have flung it all +away at ducks and drakes.' And the children, on the other hand, are +cursing and tearing the old skin-flints, most furiously, charging their +fathers with being the authors of their misery, by leaving them twenty +times _too much_, to distract them with pride and dissipation; whereas, a +_little_, with a blessing, might have made them happy in both their +states of existence." "Well," said Lucifer, "enough! enough! we have +more need of arms than words. Sirrah, this hubbub is owing to some great +neglect; go back, and pry into every watch, and discover who has been +neglectful; and what dangerous characters have been permitted to escape, +for there are some evils abroad, that are not known." Away he went, at +the word, and in the meanwhile, Lucifer and his potentates arose in +terror, and exceeding consternation, and caused the boldest bands of the +black angels to be assembled. When these were marshalled, he put himself +at the head of his own peculiar band, and marched forth to quell the +insurrection, whilst the potentates went other ways with their legions. + +Before the royal troop had gone any great distance, gleaming like the +lightning of the black abodes, (and we behind them,) behold the hubbub +advanced to meet them. "Silence, in the name of the king," said a +fiendish herald. There was no hearing; it was easier to tear the old +crocodile from his prey than one of these. + +But when the old tried soldiers of Lucifer broke into the midst of them, +the buzzing, the butting, and the blows began to slacken. "Silence, in +the name of Lucifer," said the hoarse cryer again. "What is the matter?" +said the king; "and who are these?" "There is nothing particularly the +matter," was the answer; "but the drovers, happening in the general +commotion to come in contact with the cuckolds, they went mutually to +butting, to try whose horns were hardest; and this butting might have +gone on for ever, if your horned champions had not interfered." "Well," +said Lucifer, "since you are all so ready with your arms, turn along with +me to quell other rioters." But when it was buzzed about among the other +rebels, that Lucifer was coming with three horned legions against them, +each slunk away to his lair. + +Thus Lucifer advanced without opposition, along the wildernesses of +Destruction, endeavouring to ascertain what was the commencement of the +disturbance, but could obtain no information. After a little time, +however, one of the spies of the king returned, quite out of breath. "O +most noble Lucifer!" said he, "prince Moloch has quieted part of the +North and has scattered thousands over the sheets of ice; but three or +four terrible evils are still out on the wind." "Who are they?" said +Lucifer. "_Slanderer_, and _Meddler_, and _Litigious Pettifogger_," said +he, "have broken their prisons and are at liberty." "Then it would be no +wonder," said the Arch Fiend, "if there should be yet more disturbance." + +At this moment there came another, who had been on the look-out towards +the South, with the information that the evil had begun to break out +there; but that three had been taken, who had previously turned every +thing topsy-turvy in the West, and these three were _Madam Bouncer_, +_Contriver_, and_ Coxcomb_. "Well," said Satan, who was standing next +but one to Lucifer, "since I tempted Adam from his garden, I have never +yet seen from his seed, so many evils out upon one piece of business. + +"Bouncer, Coxcomb, and Contriver on the one side," he added, "and on the +other Slanderer, Pettifogger, and Meddler are a compound, enough to make +a thousand devils sweat their bowels out." "It is no wonder," said +Lucifer, "that they are so detested by every body on earth, when they are +able to cause us so much trouble here." A little farther on, a great +bouncing lady struck against the king, as she was moving backwards. "Ho! +my aunt of the breeches," said a hoarse devil, "good night to you." "Yes, +your aunt, indeed! on what side pray?" said she, very wrathful, because +she was not called madam. + +"A pretty king are you, sir Lucifer," said she, "to keep such unmannerly +blockheads; it is a sin that so large a kingdom should be under one so +incompetent to govern them. O that I were made deputy over it!" At this +moment behold the _Coxcomb_, nodding his head in the dark, "Your servant, +sir," he would say to one over his shoulder.--"I hope you are quite +well," said he to another.--"Is there any service which I can render +you," to a third, smiling conceitedly.--"Your beauty ravishes my heart," +said he to the bouncing wench. "Oh! oh! away with this hell-dog," said +she; whilst every one cried, "away with this new tormentor! Hell upon +Hell is he!" "Bind him and her head to tail," said Lucifer. + +After a little time, behold _Courts Comprised_ held betwixt two devils. +"O ho! angel of patience," said Lucifer, "are you come? Hold him fast on +your peril," said he to the satellites. Before we had advanced far, +there came the _Contriver_ and the _Slanderer_ bound betwixt forty +devils, and whispering in each others ears. "O most mighty Lucifer!" +said the _Contriver_, "I am exceedingly grieved to see so much +disturbance in your dominions, but I will teach you a way to prevent such +in future, if you will but grant me a hearing. You only need, under +pretence of a general parliament, to summon all the damned to the glowing +pandemonium, and then cause the devils to cast them headlong into the +throat of _Unknown_, and the gulf to be closed over them, and then, I +warrant you, they will give you no more trouble." "See," said Lucifer, +frowning very horribly on the _Contriver_, "the universal Meddler is +still behind." On returning again to the porch of the infernal palace, +who should come with the fairest face imaginable to meet the king but the +_Meddler_. "O my liege," said he, "I have a word for you." "Perhaps I +have one or two for you," said the Fiend. "I have been," continued the +Meddler, "over half _Destruction_, to observe how your affairs are +standing. You have many officers in the East doing nothing at all; but +sitting still instead of looking to the torments of their prisoners, or +keeping guard over them, and this has been the cause of all this great +disturbance. Besides," said he, "many of your devils, and your damned +too, whom you dispatched to the world to tempt folks, are not returned, +though their time is out; and others have arrived in a sculking manner, +and not given an account of their errands." + +Then Lucifer caused the herald to proclaim another parliament; and lo! +before you could turn your hand, all the potentates and satellites were +met together, to hold the infernal sessions again. The first thing which +was done was to change the officers, and to cause a place to be made +about the throat of Unknown, for the reception of the Coxcomb, the +bouncing lady, and the rest; the two first were tied nose to nose, and +the other rioters tail to tail. Then a law was promulgated, that whoever +should henceforth neglect his duty, whether imp or lost man, should be +cast there among them until the day of judgment. At these words you +might see all the goblins--yea, Lucifer himself--tremble and look +agitated. The next thing was to call some devils and some damned to +reckoning, who had been sent to the world to hunt up recruits: the devils +gave a very good account of themselves; but some of the damned were lame +in their reckoning, and were sent to the hot school, where they were +scourged with twisted fiery serpents, for not learning their lesson +better. + +"Hear my complaint," said a little informing devil. "Here is a pretty +woman when trimmed out, who was sent up to the world, to hunt subjects +for you by means of their hearts; and to whom did she offer herself, but +to a hard-working labourer coming home late from his occupation, who +instead of enjoying himself with her, went upon his knees to pray against +the Devil and his angels: at another time, she went to a sick man." "Ha!" +said Lucifer, "cast her to that lost useless wench, who loved of yore +Einion ab Gwalehmai, {108} of Anglesey." "Stay," said the fair one, +"this is but the first offence. It is not yet above a year, since the +day when I breathed my last, and was damned to your accursed government." +"She speaks true, O king of Torments! It is not yet a year by three +weeks," said the devil who had brought her there. "Therefore," said she, +"how would you have me so well versed as the damned, who have been here +for three hundred, or out abroad depredating for five hundred years. If +you desire from me better service, let me go into the world another time +or two unchastised; and if I do not bring you twenty harlot-mongers, for +every year that I am out, inflict upon me whatever punishment you +please." But the verdict went against her, and she was condemned to +punishment for a hundred long years, that she might remember better the +second time. + +At this moment, behold another devil pushing a fellow forward. "Here you +have," said he, "a pretty dog of a messenger. As he was prowling about +his old neighbourhood, above stairs, the other night, he saw a thief +going to steal a stallion, and could not so much as help him to catch the +horse without showing himself, frightening the thief so by his horrible +appearance, that he took warning and became an honest man from that +time." "With the permission of the court," said the fellow, "if the +thief had got the gift from _above_ to see me, could I help it? But at +worst this is a single peccadillo," said he; "it is not above a hundred +years since the day which terminated my mortal career, yet how many of my +friends and neighbours have I not tempted hither after me, during that +time? May I be in the deepest pit, if I have not as much inclination for +the trade as the best of you; but now and then the craftiest will err." +"Here," said Lucifer, "cast him to the school of the fairies, who are yet +under the rod for their mischievous conduct of old, in strangling some +people and threatening others; startling by such behaviour their +neighbours from their heedlessness, upon whom the terror which they +caused, had probably more effect than twenty sermons would have had." + +Next appeared four catchpoles, an informer, and fifteen damned, hauling +two _devils_ forward. "See," said the informer, "lest you should lay the +blame of all that is mismanaged on the seed of Adam, we bring you two of +your old angels, who have spent their time above, quite as badly as the +two preceding. Here is a fellow who has been making as great a fool of +himself, as the Devil did at Shrewsbury the other day; who, in the midst +of the interlude of Doctor Faustus, whilst some, according to the custom +on such occasions, were committing adultery with their eyes, some with +their hands, others making assignations for the same purpose, and doing +various other things profitable to your kingdom, made his appearance to +play his own part; by which blunder, he drove every one from taking his +pleasure to praying. In like manner did this numskull act; for, whilst +journeying over the world, on hearing two wenches talking of walking +round the church at night, in order to see their sweethearts, he must +needs show himself in the figure he wears at home, to the two fools, who +on recovering their senses, which at first they lost from fright, +solemnly abjured all frivolity for ever. There's a ninny-hammer for you! +Instead of appearing like a devil, he ought to have divided himself and +assumed the forms of two dirty, unlicked boors; for the girls would have +imagined themselves bound to accept them, and then the filthy goblin +might have lived as husband with the two female parties, without +troubling a clergyman to perform the marriage. + +"And here is another," said he, "who went the last dark night, to visit +two young maidens in Wales, who were _turning the shift_; and instead of +enticing the girls to wantonness in the figure of a handsome youth, he +must needs go to one with a _hearse_ to sober her; and to the other with +the _sound of war_ in an infernal whirlwind, to drive her farther from +her senses than she was before, and there was no need for that. But this +is not the whole, for after going into the last girl, he cast her down +and tormented her furiously, so that her parents in horror, sent for some +of our enemies the clergy, to pray over her and cast him out, which they +did. Now, if he had been wise, instead of kicking up such a hubbub, he +would have tempted her quietly to despair, and to make away with herself. +On another time, wishing to gain some of the conventiclers, he went to +preach to them, and revealed the secrets of your kingdom; thus, instead +of hindering, assisting their salvation." At the word _salvation_, I +could see some emitting living fire for madness. "Capital stories both, +I won't deny," said the goblin; "but I hope that Lucifer will not permit +one of Adam's race of dirt, to put himself on an equality with me who am +an angel, of a species and descent far superior." "Ha!" said Lucifer, +"he may be sure of his punishment. But, sirrah, answer to these +accusations speedily and clearly, or by hopeless Destruction I will--" "I +have brought hither," said the goblin, "many a soul since Satan was in +the garden of Eden, and ought to know my trade better than this novice of +an informer." "Blood of an infernal fire-brand!" said Lucifer, "did I +not command you to answer speedily and clearly." "Do but hear me," said +the sprite. "As to preaching, by your own command I have been a hundred +times _preaching_, and have forbidden people to follow several of the +roads which lead to your territories, and yet silently, in the same +breath, have led them hither safe enough, by some other vain paths; as I +have done by preaching lately in Germany, and in one of the Faroe isles, +and various other places. + +"Thus through my preaching," he continued, "have come many of the +_superstitions_ of the papists, and the _old fables_ first to the world, +and the whole under the shape of some goodness. For who ever swallows +the hook without some bait? who ever would believe a story if there were +not some measure of _truth_ mingled with the falsehood; or some semblance +of _good_ to shade the _evil_? Thus if I find an opportunity in +preaching, to push in amongst a hundred correct and salutary counsels, +one of my own, with this one I will do you, either through +_contentiousness_ or _superstition_, more advantage than all the rest of +my counsels will do you harm." "Well," said Lucifer, "since you are of +such utility in your pulpit, I order you for seven years, to take up your +abode in the mouth of one of the barn-preachers, who will be sure to +utter the first thing which comes to his tongue's end. Then you will +find an opportunity to put in a word now and then, to your own purpose." + +There were still many more devils and damned who were twisting through +one another like lightning, around the throne of Terrors, to give an +account of what they had done, and again to receive commissions. But +suddenly and unexpectedly, an order was given to all the messengers and +the prisoners, to go out of the palace, every one to his hole, and to +leave the king and his chief counsellors there alone. "Had we not best +depart," said I to my companion, "lest they should find us?" "You need +not fear," said the angel "no unclean spirit will ever see through this +veil." Thus we continued there invisible, to see what was the matter. +Then Lucifer began to speak graciously to his counsellors, in this +manner:--"O ye, the chief spiritual evils!--ye, who for subtlety are +unequalled in Unknown, I request you in my need, to exert to the +uttermost your malicious wiles. No one here is unaware, that Britain and +the surrounding isles, constitute the kingdom most dangerous to my +authority, and most abounding with my enemies; and what is a hundred +times worse, there is at present there a queen, who does not offer to +turn once hitherward, either by the road of Rome on the one hand, or the +road of Geneva on the other. Notwithstanding, all the service which the +Pope has rendered us there for a long time, and Oliver for some years +past, how far are we from our object? what shall we do now? I am afraid +that we shall lose there our ancient possession, and our market entirely, +if we do not pave immediately some new way for its inhabitants to walk +in, for they know all the old roads which lead hither too well. And, +since yonder invincible fist shortens my chain, and prevents me from +going myself to the earth, counsel me, I pray you, as to whom I shall +make my deputy, to oppose yonder detestable queen, who is the deputy of +our enemy." "O mighty emperor of Darkness!" said Cerberus, the devil of +Tobacco, "make a deputy of me, from whom the crown of Britain derives the +third part of its revenue. I will go and will send to you a hundred +thousand of the souls of your enemies, through the hollow of a pipe." +"Well, well," said Lucifer, "you have done me excellent service, by +causing the proprietors of tobacco in India to be slaughtered, and those +who take it to die of diseases, and sending many to vend it idly from +house to house, and making others to steal in order to obtain it, and +thousands to love it so far, that they cannot be a day without it in +their right senses. + +"Therefore go and do thy best; but, I tell thee, that thou art little +better than nothing in the present exigency." Thereupon Cerberus sat +down, and uprose Mammon, devil of Money, and with a morose sinister look +said:--"I showed men the first mine from which they got money, and +therefore, I am always extolled and worshipped more than God; men undergo +for me trouble and danger, and place their whole mind, their delight, and +their trust upon me: there is no one easy, because he has not obtained +somewhat more of my favour, and the more they obtain the farther are they +ever from rest, until at length by seeking _easy circumstances_, they +arrive at the country of Eternal Torments. How many a crafty old miser +have I not deluded hither, along paths more difficult than those which +lead to the kingdom of Happiness? At fair or market, sessions or +elections, or any other assemblage of people, who has more subjects? who +has more power and authority than I? Cursing, swearing, fighting, +litigating, plotting, deceiving, striking, hoarding, murdering and +robbing, sabbath breaking and uncharitableness, all proceed from me: and +there is no other black mark, which stamps men as belonging to the fold +of Lucifer, which I have not a hand in giving, on which account I am +called 'the root of all evil.' Therefore if it seem good to your +majesty, I will go." And having said that he sat down. + +Then arose Apollyon. "I do not know," said he, "any thing that will +bring the Britons hither, more certainly than what brought +yourselves--that is _Pride_: if she ever plant her pole within them and +inflate them, there is no reason to fear that they will stoop to lift the +cross, or go through the narrow gate. I will go," said he, "with my +daughter Pride, and will cause the Welsh, by gazing on the magnificence +of the English, and the English, by imitating the frivolities of the +French, to tumble into this place before they know where they are." + +Next arose Asmodeus, devil of Wantonness. "You cannot but be aware," +said he, "O most mighty sovereign of the Abyss! and you, ye princes of +the country of Despair! how I have crammed the nooks of Hell through +debauchery and lasciviousness. What need have I to speak of the time, +when I kindled such a flame of lust in the whole world, that it was +necessary to send the flood, to clear the earth of its inhabitants, and +to sweep them to us in the unquenchable fire; or of Sodom and Gomorrah, +fair and pleasant cities, whose people I burnt with wantonness, till +their infernal lusts brought down a fiery shower, which drove them hither +alive to burn to all eternity; or of the vast army of the Assyrians, +which was slain all in one night on account of me? Sarah I disappointed +of seven husbands; Solomon, the wisest of men, and many thousand other +kings I blinded by means of women. Therefore," said he, "suffer me to go +with my _sweet sin_, and I will kindle in Britain the sparks of Hell so +universally, that it shall become one with this place of unextinguishable +flame; for there is not much chance, that any one will return from +following me, to lay hold of the paths of Life." And thereupon he sat +down. + +Then arose Belphegor, prince of _Sloth and Idleness_. "I am," said he, +"the great prince of Listlessness and Laziness; great is my power on +myriads of men of all ages and degrees. I am the still pool, where 'the +root of all evil' is generated; where coagulate the dregs of all +destructive corruption and filthiness. What would you be worth, +Asmodeus; or you, ye other master spirits of evil, without me who keep +the window open for you, without any watch, so that you may go into man +by his eyes, by his ears, by his mouth, and by every other orifice which +he has, whensoever you please. I will go, and will roll to you all the +inhabitants of Britain over the precipice in their sleep." + +Then arose Satan, the devil of _Deceit_, who sat next to Lucifer on his +left hand, and after turning a frightful visage on the king,--"It is +unnecessary for me," he said, "to declare my deeds to you, O lost +archangel! or to you, black princes of Destruction! because it was I who +struck the first blow which man ever received; and a mighty blow it was, +causing him to remain _mortal_, from the beginning of the world to its +end. Do you imagine that I, who despoiled the whole world, cannot at +present give counsel which will serve for a paltry islet? And cannot I, +who cheated _Eve_ in _Paradise_, vanquish _Anne_ in _Britain_? If no +natural craft will avail, and continued experience for more than five +thousand years, my counsel to you is, to dress up your daughter +_Hypocrisy_, to deceive Britain and its queen; you have not a daughter in +the world, so useful to you as she; she has more extensive authority and +more numerous subjects, than all your other daughters. Was it not +through _her_ that I cheated the first woman? It was: and ever from that +time she has remained and increased exceedingly upon the earth. At +present indeed, the whole vast world is but one _Hypocrisy_; and if it +were not for the skill of Hypocrisy, how should any one of us do business +in any corner of the world? Because if people were to see _sin_ in its +own _color_, and under its own _name_, who would ever come in contact +with it? The world would no more do so, than it would embrace the Devil +in his infernal shape and garb. If Hypocrisy were not able to disguise +her _name_, and the _nature_ of every _evil_, under the similitude of +some _good_, and were not able to give some evil nickname to all +_goodness_, no one would approach, and no one would covet evil at all. +Traverse the whole city of Destruction, and you will see her in every +corner. Go to the street of _Pride_, and enquire for an _arrogant man_, +or for a pennyworth of _coquetry_, mixed up by Pride; 'woe's me,' says +Hypocrisy, 'there is no such thing here; nothing at all I assure you in +the whole street but grandeur.' Or go to the street of _Lucre_, and +enquire for the house of the _Miser_; fie, there is no such person in it: +or for the house of the _murderer_ amongst the physicians: or the house +of the _arrant thief_ amongst the drovers, and see how you would fare; +you would sooner get into prison for enquiring, than get any body to +confess his name. Yes, Hypocrisy creeps between man and his own heart, +and conceals every _iniquity_ so craftily, under the name and similitude +of some virtue, that she has made every body almost unable to recognise +himself. _Avarice_ she will call _economy_. In her language +_dissipation_ is _innocent diversion_; _pride_ is _gentility_; a +_perverse_ _man _is a _fine manly fellow_; _drunkenness_ is _good +fellowship_, and _adultery_ is only the _heat of youth_. On the other +hand, if _she_ and her disciples are to be believed, the _devout man_ is +only a _hypocrite_ or a _blockhead_; the _gentle_ but a _sneaking dog_; +the _sober_ a mere _hunks_, and so on. Send her, therefore," he +continued, "thither, in her full array, I will warrant that she will +deceive every body, and that she will blind the counsellors and the +warriors, and all the officers, secular and ecclesiastical, and will draw +them hither in multitudes presently, by means of her _mask of changeable +hue_." And thereupon he sat down. + +Then Beelzebub arose, the devil of _Inconsiderateness_, and with a rough, +bellowing voice,--"I am," said he, "the mighty prince of _Bewilderment_; +to me it pertains to prevent man from reflecting upon and considering his +condition. I am the principal of those wicked, infernal _flies_ which +craze mankind, by keeping them ever in a kind of continual buzz, about +their possessions or their pleasures, without ever leaving them with my +consent, a moment's respite, to think about their courses or their end. +It ill becomes one of you, to attempt to put himself on an equality with +me, for feats useful to 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 display, rather than stoop to give a _crown_ for +peace. _She_ keeps people so stiff-necked, with their sight so intent on +lofty things, that it is a pleasure to see them, by staring and reaching +into the air, falling plump into the abysses of Hell. As for you, +_Asmodeus_, we all remember your great services of yore; no one keeps his +prisoners more firmly under the lock, and no one meets with less rebuke +than yourself--the whole rebuke, indeed, consisting in a little laughing, +at what is called wanton tricks. Yes, Asmodeus, I admit that your power +is very great; though I cannot help reminding you," he added, with a +jocular though truly infernal grin, "that you were all but starved, above +there, during the last dear years. As for you, my son _Belphegor_, lousy +prince of Sloth, nobody has afforded us more pleasure than yourself, so +very great is your authority amongst gentle and simple, even down to the +beggar. Nevertheless, if it were not for the skill of my daughter +_Hypocrisy_, in coloring and disguising, who would ever swallow one of +your hooks? And after all, if it were not for the diligent firmness of +my brother _Beelzebub_, in keeping men in _inconsiderate bewilderment_, I +question whether all of you united would be worth a straw. Now," said +he, "let us review the whole. + +"What would you be worth, Cerberus, with your excessive sucking, if it +were not for the assistance of Mammon? What merchant would ever fetch +your leaves from India, through so many perils, if it were not for the +sake of Mammon? And if it were not for _his_ sake, what king would +receive it, in Britain especially? And who, but for the sake of Mammon, +would carry it to every corner of the kingdom? But, notwithstanding +this, what wouldst thou be worth, Mammon, without Pride to squander thee +upon fine houses, magnificent garments, needless litigations, music, +horses and costly appurtenances, various dishes, beer and ale in a flood, +far above the _means_ and _rank_ of the possessor; for if money were used +within the limits of _necessity_ and _propriety_, of what advantage would +Mammon be to us? Thus you would be worth nothing without _Pride_; and +little would _Pride_ be worth without _Wantonness_, because bastards are +the most numerous and the fiercest subjects, which my daughter _Pride_ +possesses in the world. + +"You too, Asmodeus, prince of _Wantonness_, what would you be worth, if +it were not for _Sloth and Idleness_; where but for them would you get a +night's lodging? You could hardly expect it from a labourer or toiling +student. And you, Belphegor of Idleness, who would welcome you a minute, +attended as you would be with shame and reproach, if it were not for +Hypocrisy, who conceals your ugliness under the name of _internal +sickness_, or of a _well meaning person_, or under the shape of +_despising riches_ and the like. + +"And she too, my dear daughter _Hypocrisy_, what is she worth, or what +would she ever be worth, skilful and resolute sempstress as she is, if it +were not for your help, my eldest brother _Beelzebub_, mighty prince of +_Inconsiderateness_. If he would leave people leisure and respite, to +seriously consider the nature of things and their difference, how often +would they spy holes in the folds of the gold-cloth robe of _Hypocrisy_, +and perceive the hooks through the bait? What man, did not +Inconsiderateness deprive him of his senses, would chase baubles and +pleasures--evanescent, surfeiting, foolish and disgraceful--and prefer +them to _peace of conscience_, and glorious _everlasting happiness_? And +who would hesitate to suffer martyrdom for his faith, for an hour or a +day, or to endure affliction for forty or sixty years, if he would +reflect that his neighbours here are suffering in an hour, more than he +can ever suffer upon the earth? + +"_Tobacco_ then is nothing without _money_, nor money without _Pride_; +and Pride is but feeble without Wantonness, and Wantonness is nothing +without _Idleness_; Idleness without _Hypocrisy_, and Hypocrisy without +_Inconsiderateness_. But," said Lucifer, (and he raised his fiendish +hoofs on the fore claws,) "to speak my own opinion, however excellent all +these may be, I have a _friend_ to send against the she-enemy of Britain, +better than the whole." + +Then I could see all the chief devils, with their ghastly mouths opened +towards Lucifer, in anxious expectation of learning what this friend +might be, whilst I was as impatient to hear as they. "The one I allude +to," said Lucifer, "is called _Ease_; she is one whose merits I have too +long disregarded, and whose merit, Satan, you yourself disregarded of +yore, when in tempting Job you turned the unpleasant side of life towards +him. She is my darling, and her I now constitute deputy, immediately +next to myself, in all matters relating to my earthly government; Ease is +her name, and _she_ has damned more men than all ye together, and very +few would ye catch without _her_. For in _war_, _or danger_, _or +hunger_, _or sickness_, who would value _tobacco_, _or money_, or the +pomposity of Pride, or would entertain a thought of welcoming either +_Wantonness or Sloth_? Or who in such straits, would permit themselves +to be distracted either by _Hypocrisy or Inconsiderateness_? No, no! +they are too awake then, and not one of the infernal _flies of +Bewilderment_, which shows its beak, will buzz, during one of these +storms. But _Ease_, smooth Ease, is the nurse of you all: in her calm +shadow, and in her teeming bosom ye are all bred, and also every other +infernal worm of the conscience, which will come to gnaw its possessor +_here_ for ever, without intermission. + +"As long as _Ease_ lasts, there is no talk but of some species of +diversion, of banquets, bargains, pedigrees, stories, news, and the like. +There is no mention of _God_, except in idle swearing and cursing; +whereas the _poor_ and the _sick_, who know nothing of ease, have God in +their mouths and their hearts every minute. + +"But go ye also in the rear of her, and keep every body in his sleep and +his rest, in prosperity and comfort, abundance and carelessness; and then +you will see the poor honest man, as soon as he shall drink of the +alluring cup of Ease, become a perverse, proud, untractable churl--the +industrious labourer change into a careless, waggish rattler--and every +other person become just what you would desire him. Because pleasant +_Ease_ is what every one seeks and loves; she hears not counsel, fears +not punishment--if good, she will not recognise it--if bad, she will +foster it of her own accord. _She_ is the prime-temptation; the man who +is proof against _her_ tender charms, ye may fling your caps to--for we +must bid farewell for ever to his company. _Ease_, then, is my +terrestrial _deputy_, follow her to Britain, and be as obedient to her as +to our own royal majesty." + +At this moment the huge bolt was shaken, and Lucifer and his chief +counsellors were struck to the vortex of _extremest Hell_; and oh, how +horrible it was to see the throat of Unknown opening to receive them! +"Well," said the angel "we will now return; but you have not yet seen any +thing in comparison with the _whole_, which is within the bounds of +_Destruction_, and if you had seen the whole, it is nothing to the +inexpressible misery which exists in _Unknown_, for it is not possible to +form an idea of the World in extremest Hell." And at that word the +celestial messenger snatched me up to the firmament of the accursed +kingdom of Darkness, by a way I had not seen, whence I obtained, from the +palace along all the firmament of the black and hot _Destruction_, and +the whole _land of Forgetfulness_, even to the walls of the _city of +Destruction_, a full view of the accursed monster of a _giantess_, whose +feet I had seen before--I do not possess words to describe her figure. +But I can tell you that she was a _triple-faced giantess_, having one +very atrocious countenance turned towards the heavens, barking, snorting +and vomiting accursed abomination against the celestial king; another +countenance very fair towards the _earth_, to entice men to tarry in her +shadow; and another, the most frightful countenance of all, turned +towards _Hell_, to torment it to all eternity. She is larger than the +entire earth, and is yet daily increasing, and a hundred times more +frightful than the whole of Hell. She caused Hell to be made, and it is +she who fills it with inhabitants. If _she_ were removed from Hell, Hell +would become Paradise; and if she were removed from the earth, the little +world would become Heaven; and if she were to go to Heaven, she would +change the regions of bliss into utter Hell. There is nothing in all the +universe, (except herself,) that God did not create. She is the mother +of the four female deceivers of the city of Destruction; she is the +mother of _Death_; she is the mother of every _evil_ and _misery_; and +she has a fearful hold on every living man--her name is SIN. "_He who +escapes from her hook_, _for ever blessed is he_!" said the angel. +Thereupon he departed, and I could hear his voice saying, "_write down +what thou hast seen_, _and he who shall read it carefully shall never +have reason to repent_." + + + +The Heavy Heart. + + +Heavy's the heart with wandering below, +And with seeing the things in the country of woe; +Seeing lost men and the fiendish race, +In their very horrible prison place; +Seeing that the end of the crooked track + Is a flaming lake, + Where dragon and snake + With rage are swelling. +I'd not, o'er a thousand worlds to reign, + Behold again, + Though safe from pain, + The infernal dwelling. + +Heavy's my heart, whilst so vividly +The place is yet in my memory; +To see so many, to me well known, +Thither unwittingly sinking down. +To-day a hell-dog is yesterday's man, + And he has no plan, + But others to trepan + To Hell's dismal revels. +When he reach'd the pit he a fiend became, + In face and in frame, + And in mind the same + As the very devils. + +Heavy's the heart with viewing the bed, +Where sin has the meed it has merited; +What frightful taunts from forked tongue, +On gentle and simple there are flung. +The ghastliness of the damned things to state. + Or the pains to relate + Which will ne'er abate + But increase for ever, +No power have I, nor others I wot: + Words cannot be got; + The shapes and the spot + Can be pictured never. + +Heavy's the heart, as none will deny, +At losing one's friend or the maid of one's eye; +At losing one's freedom, one's land or wealth; +At losing one's fame, or alas! one's health; +At losing leisure; at losing ease; + At losing peace + And all things that please + The heaven under. +At losing memory, beauty and grace, + Heart-heaviness + For a little space + Can cause no wonder. + +Heavy's the heart of man when first +He awakes from his worldly dream accursed, +Fain would be freed from his awful load +Of sin, and be reconciled with his God; +When he feels for pleasures and luxuries + Disgust arise, + From the agonies + Of the ferment unruly, +Through which he becomes regenerate, + Of Christ the mate, + From his sinful state + Springing blithe and holy. + +Heavy's the heart of the best of mankind, +Upon the bed of death reclined; +In mind and body ill at ease, +Betwixt remorse and the disease, +Vext by sharp pangs and dreading more. + O mortal poor! + O dreadful hour! + Horrors surround him! +To the end of the vain world he has won; + And dark and dun + The eternal one + Beholds beyond him. + +Heavy's the heart, the pressure below, +Of all the griefs I have mentioned now; +But were they together all met in a mass, +There's one grief still would all surpass; +Hope frees from each woe, while we this side + Of the wall abide-- + At every tide + 'Tis an outlet cranny. +But there's a grief beyond the bier; + Hope will ne'er + Its victims cheer, + That cheers so many. + +Heavy's the heart therewith that's fraught; +How heavy is mine at merely the thought! +Our worldly woes, however hard, +Are trifles when with that compared: +That woe--which is known not here--that woe + The lost ones know, + And undergo + In the nether regions; +How wretched the man who exil'd to Hell, + In Hell must dwell, + And curse and yell + With the Hellish legions! + +At nought, that may ever betide thee, fret +If at Hell thou art not arrived yet; +But thither, I rede thee, in mind repair +Full oft, and observantly wander there; +Musing intense, after reading me, + Of the flaming sea, + Will speedily thee + Convert by appalling. +Frequent remembrance of the black deep + Thy soul will keep, + Thou erring sheep, + From thither falling. + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{3} Probably Cheshire; the North Welsh commonly call Chester Caer. + +{23} It is the custom of Mahometans, to lay aside their sandals, before +entering the Mosque. + +{49} Taliesin lived in the sixth century; he was a foundling, discovered +in his infancy lying in a coracle, on a salmon-weir, in the domain of +Elphin, a prince of North Wales, who became his patron. During his life +he arrogated to himself a supernatural descent and understanding, and for +at least a thousand years after his death he was regarded by the +descendants of the Ancient Britons, as a prophet or something more. The +poems which he produced procured for him the title of "Bardic King;" they +display much that is vigorous and original, but are disfigured by +mysticism and extravagant metaphor. The four lines which he is made to +quote above are from his Hanes, or History, one of the most spirited of +his pieces. When Elis Wynn represents him as sitting by a cauldron in +Hades, he alludes to a wild legend concerning him, to the effect, that he +imbibed awen or poetical genius whilst employed in watching "the seething +pot" of the sorceress Cridwen, which legend has much in common with one +of the Irish legends about Fin Macoul, which is itself nearly identical +with one in the Edda, describing the manner in which Sigurd Fafnisbane +became possessed of supernatural wisdom. + +{50} A dreadful pestilence, which ravaged Gwynedd or North Wales in 560. +Amongst its victims was the king of the country, the celebrated Maelgwn, +son of Caswallon Law Hir. + +{84} Llyn Tegid, or the lake of Beauty, in the neighbourhood of Bala. + +{93} The reader is left to guess what description of people these +prisoners were. They were probably violent fifth monarchy preachers. + +{100} An active London Magistrate, treacherously murdered by a gang of +papist conspirators in the reign of Charles the Second. + +{108} A celebrated Welsh poet, who flourished in the thirteenth century. +A short account of him will be found in Owen's Cambrian Biography. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLEEPING BARD*** + + +******* This file should be named 20634.txt or 20634.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/6/3/20634 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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