res still more terrible to narrate. He was
present when one of the spirits asked--Where is Ardiaeus the Great?
(This Ardiaeus was a cruel tyrant, who had murdered his father, and his
elder brother, a thousand years before.) Another spirit answered,
'He comes not hither, and will never come. And I myself,' he added,
'actually saw this terrible sight. At the entrance of the chasm, as we
were about to reascend, Ardiaeus appeared, and some other sinners--most
of whom had been tyrants, but not all--and just as they fancied that
they were returning to life, the chasm gave a roar, and then wild,
fiery-looking men who knew the meaning of the sound, seized him and
several others, and bound them hand and foot and threw them down, and
dragged them along at the side of the road, lacerating them and carding
them like wool, and explaining to the passers-by, that they were going
to be cast into hell.' The greatest terror of the pilgrims ascending was
lest they should hear the voice, and when there was silence one by one
they passed up with joy. To these sufferings there were corresponding
delights.

On the eighth day the souls of the pilgrims resumed their journey,
and in four days came to a spot whence they looked down upon a line of
light, in colour like a rainbow, only brighter and clearer. One day
more brought them to the place, and they saw that this was the column
of light which binds together the whole universe. The ends of the column
were fastened to heaven, and from them hung the distaff of Necessity,
on which all the heavenly bodies turned--the hook and spindle were of
adamant, and the whorl of a mixed substance. The whorl was in form
like a number of boxes fitting into one another with their edges
turned upwards, making together a single whorl which was pierced by the
spindle. The outermost had the rim broadest, and the inner whorls were
smaller and smaller, and had their rims narrower. The largest (the fixed
stars) was spangled--the seventh (the sun) was brightest--the eighth
(the moon) shone by the light of the seventh--the second and fifth
(Saturn and Mercury) were most like one another and yellower than the
eighth--the third (Jupiter) had the whitest light--the fourth (Mars)
was red--the sixth (Venus) was in whiteness second. The whole had one
motion, but while this was revolving in one direction the seven inner
circles were moving in the opposite, with various degrees of swiftness
and slowness. The spindle turned on th