evils, and were almost frightened out of their wits
by the diabolical scenes they saw where

"Forth from the depths of flame that singed the gloom Despairing
wails and piercing shrieks were heard."

Several popes openly preached in behalf of this gross imposition;
and the Church virtually authorized it by receiving the large
revenues accruing from it, until at last outraged common sense
demanded its repudiation and suppression.15

Few persons now, as they walk the streets and fields, are much
disturbed by the thought that, not far below, the vivid lake of
fire and brimstone, greedily roaring for new food, heaves its
tortured surges convulsed and featured with souls. Few persons now
shudder at a volcanic eruption as a premonishing message freshly
belched from hell.16 In fact, the old belief in a local physical
hell within the earth has almost gone from the public mind of to
day. It arose from pagan myths and figures of speech based on
ignorant observation and arbitrary fancy, and with the growth of
science and the enlightenment of reason it has very extensively
fallen and faded away. No honest and intelligent inquirer into the
matter can find the slightest valid support for such a notion. It
is now a mere tradition, upheld by groundless authority. And yet
the dim shadow of that great idea of a subterranean hell which
once burned so fierce and lurid in the brain of Christendom still
vaguely haunts the modern world. The dogma still lies in the
prevalent creeds, and is occasionally dragged out and brandished
by fanatic preachers. The transmitted literature and influences of
the past are so full of it that it cannot immediately cease.
Accordingly, while the common understanding no longer grasps it as
a definite verity, it lingers in the popular fancy as a half
credible image. The painful attempts made now and then by some
antiquated or fanatical clergyman to compel attention to it and
belief in it as a tangible fact of science, as well as an
unquestionable revelation of Scripture, scarcely win a passing
notice, but provoke a significant smile. Father Passaglia, an
eminent Jesuit theologian, in 1856 published in Italy a work on
the Literality of Hell Fire and the Eternity of the Punishments of
the Damned. He says, "In this world fire burns by chemical
operations; but in hell it burns by the breath of the Lord!" The
learned and venerable Faber, a voluminous author and distinguished
English divine, published in the year 18