with apparitions, and
every thing that would naturally arise in a deranged and
preternaturally sensitive mind from the chief conceptions then
current concerning the invisible world.39

The principal works of art exposed to the people were such as
served to impress upon their imaginations the Church doctrine of
the future life in all its fearfulness, with its vigorous dramatic
points. In the cathedral at Antwerp there is a representation of
hell carved in wood, whose marvellous elaborateness astonishes,
and whose painful expressiveness oppresses, every beholder. With
what excruciating emotions the pious crowds must have contemplated
the harrowingly vivid paintings of the Inferno, by Orcagna, still
to be seen in the Campo Santo of Pisa! In the cathedral at
Canterbury there was a window on which was painted a detailed
picture of Christ vanquishing the devils in their own domain; but
we believe it has been removed. However, the visitor still sees on
the fine east window of York Cathedral the final doom of the
wicked, hell being painted as an enormous mouth; also in the west
front of Lincoln Cathedral an ancient bas relief representing hell
as a monstrous mouth vomiting flame and serpents, with two human
beings walking into it. The minster at Freyburg has a grotesque
bas relief over its main portal, representing the Judgment. St.
Nicholas stands in the centre, and the Savior is seated above him.
On the left, an angel weighs mankind in a huge pair of scales, and
a couple of malicious imps try to make the human scale kick the
beam. Underneath, St. Peter is ushering the good into Paradise. On
the right is shown a devil, with a pig's head, dragging after him
a throng of the wicked. He also has a basket on his back filled
with figures whom he is in the act of flinging into a reeking
caldron stirred by several imps. Hell is typified, on one side, by
the jaws of a monster crammed to the teeth with reprobates, and
Satan is seen sitting on his throne above them. A recent traveller
writes from

39 De Boismont, Rational Hist. of Hallucivatious, ch. xiv.

Naples, "The favorite device on the church walls here is a
vermilion picture of a male and a female soul, respectively up to
the waist [the waist of a soul!] in fire, with an angel over each
watering them from a water pot. This is meant to get money from
the compassionate to pay for the saying of masses in behalf of
souls in purgatory." Ruskin has described some of the church