he
poor soul struggles and wrestles in the grasp of the mighty demon
which has hold of it, and whose every touch is torment. 'Oh,
atrocious!' it shrieks, in agony, and in anger too, as if the
very keenness of the infliction were a proof of its injustice.
'A second! and a third! I can bear no more! Stop, horrible fiend!
give over: I am a man, and not such as thou! I am not food for
thee, or sport for thee! I have been taught religion; I have had
a conscience; I have a cultivated mind; I am well versed in science
and art; I am a philosopher, or a poet, or a shrewd observer of men,
or a hero, or a statesman, or an orator, or a man of wit and humor.
Nay, I have received the grace of the Redeemer; I have attended the
sacraments for years; I have been a Catholic from a child; I died
in communion with the Church: nothing, nothing which I have ever
been, which I have ever seen, bears any resemblance to thee, and
to the flame and stench which exhale from thee: so I defy thee,
and abjure thee, O enemy of man!'

"Alas! poor soul! and, whilst it thus fights with that destiny
which it has brought upon itself and those companions whom it has
chosen, the man's name perhaps is solemnly chanted forth, and his
memory decently cherished, among his friends on earth. Men talk of
him from time to time; they appeal to his authority; they quote
his words; perhaps they even raise a monument to his name, or
write his history. 'So comprehensive a mind! such a power of
throwing light on a perplexed subject and bringing conflicting
ideas or facts into harmony!' 'Such a speech it was that he made
on such and such an occasion: I happened to be present, and never
shall forget it;' or, 'A great personage, whom some of us knew;'
or, 'It was a rule with a very worthy and excellent friend of
mine, now no more;' or, 'Never was his equal in society, so just
in his remarks, so lively, so versatile, so unobtrusive;' or, 'So
great a benefactor to his country and to his kind;' or, 'His
philosophy so profound.' 'Oh, vanity! vanity of vanities! all is
vanity! What profiteth it? What profiteth it? His soul is in hell,
O ye children of men! While thus ye speak, his soul is in the
beginning of those torments in which his body will soon have part,
and which will never die!" 10

Some theologians do not hesitate, even now, to say that "in hell
the bodies of the damned shall be nealed, as we speak of glass, so
as to endure the fire without being annihilated thereby.