10 The greatest foes of man are now
The world, the flesh, the devil;
And yet, ere long, we’ll surely find
In Death a greater evil.
11 How little now it seems to die—
To gain the suit or lose it?
But when the doom is of thyself
How great thy care to chose it?
12 We care, at present, not a jot
Which way our gains may turn us;
Eternal life, howe’er so great,
We think can not concern us.
13 But when thou’rt hedged on every side
And Death himself is nearest,
For one brief, ling’ring space we’ll give
Whate’er to us is dearest.
14 Think not that thou canst make thy terms
For thine eternal dwelling,
On either side of that dread gulf,
With death thy steps compelling.
15 Repentence, faith, and righteousness,
Alone are thy Salvation,
And in the agony of Death
Shall be thy consolation.
16 And when the world is passing by,
Its joys and pleasures ending,
Infinite thou wilt deem their worth
When to the bourne descending!
III.—THE VISION OF HELL.
One April morning, bright and mild, when earth was with verdure laden, and Britain, like a paradise, had donned its brilliant livery, foretelling summer’s sunshine, I sauntered along the banks of the Severn, while around me, chaunting their sweet carols, the forest’s little songsters in rivalry poured forth songs of praise to their Maker; and I, who was far more bounden than they to give praise, at one while lifted up my voice with the gentle winged choristers, and at another read “The Practice of Piety.” [67] For all that, my previous visions would not from my mind, but time after time broke in upon every other thought. They continued to trouble me until after careful reasoning I concluded that every vision is a heaven-sent warning against sin, and that therefore it was my duty to write them down as a warning to others also. And whilst occupied with this work, and sadly endeavouring to recall some of those awful memories, there fell upon me at my task such drowsiness that soon opened the way for Master Sleep to glide in perforce. No sooner had sleep taken possession of my senses than there drew nigh unto me a glorious apparition upon the form of a young man, tall and exceeding fair; his raiments were whiter sevenfold than snow, the brightness of his face darkened the sun, his wavy, golden locks rested on his brow in two shining coronal wreaths. “Come with me, thou mortal being,” he exclaimed, when he had drawn near. “Who art thou, Lord?” said I. “I am the Angel of the realms of the North,” answered he, “guardian of Britain and its queen. I am one of the princes who stand below the throne of the Lamb, receiving his commands to protect the Gospel against all its enemies in Hell, in Rome and in France, in Constantinople, in Africa and in India, and wherever else they may be, devising plans for its destruction. I am the Angel who saved thee beneath the Castle of Belial, and who showed thee the vanity and madness of all the earth, the City of Destruction and the splendor of Emmanuel’s City; and again have I come at his bidding to show thee greater things, because thou art seeking to make good use of what thou hast seen erstwhile.” “How can it be, Lord,” asked I, “that your glorious highness, guardian of kings and kingdoms, does condescend to associate with carrion such as I?” “Ah,” said he, “in our sight a beggar’s virtue is more than a king’s majesty. What if I am greater than all the kings of earth, and supreme to many of the countless lords of heaven? Yet, since our eternal Sovereign vouchsafed to take upon Himself such unutterable humiliation—put on one of your bodies, lived in your midst, and died to save you, how dare I deem it otherwise than too sublime for my office to serve thee and the meanest of men, who are so high in my Master’s favor? Hence, spirit, cast off thine earthy mould!” he cried, gazing upwards: and at the word, I beheld him fall free of all bodily form, and snatch me up to the vault of heaven, through the region of thunder and lightning, and all the glowing armouries of the empyrean; higher, immeasureably higher than I had previously been with him, and where the earth appeared scarcely wider than a stack-yard. Having allowed me to rest awhile, he hurried me upwards a myriad miles, until the sun appeared far beneath us; through the milky way, past Pleiades, and many other stars of appalling magnitude, catching a distant glimpse of other worlds. And after journeying for a long time, we come at last to the confines of the great eternity, in sight of the two courts of the vauntful King of Death—one to the right, the other to the left, but very far apart from one another as there lay an immense void between them. I asked whether I might go and see the court on my right hand, for I observed that this was not at all like the other I had previously seen. “Thou shalt perchance,” said he, “see, somewhile, more of the difference there is between them. But now we must proceed in another direction.” At that we turned away from the little world, and across the intervening space we let ourselves descend into the Eternal Realm between the two courts, into the formless void, a boundless tract, most deep and dark, chaotic and uninhabited, at one time cold, at another hot, [69] now silent, now resounding with the roaring of cataracts falling and quenching the fires, and anon of the fire bursting out and burning up the water. Thus, there was neither order nor completeness, nor life nor form: nought but this dazing dissonance, this mysterious stupor which would have made me for ever blind, had not my friend laid bare once more his vesture of heavenly sheen. By the light he gave I saw before me to the left the Land of Oblivion, and the borders of the Wilds of Destruction; and to my right, methought, the base of the ramparts of Glory. “This is the great abysm between Abraham and Dives,” said he, “which is called Chaos: this is the land of the matter which God did first create, and here is the seed of every living thing; of these the Almighty Word created your world and all it doth contain—water, fire, air, earth, beasts, fishes, insects, birds and the human body; but your souls are of a higher and nobler origin and stock.”
Through the huge, frightful chaos we at length broke forth to the left; and ere we had journey’d far therein where every object grew uglier and uglier, I felt my heart in my throat, and my hair erect like a hedgehog’s bristles, even before perceiving anything; but what I did perceive was a sight no tongue can describe nor the mind of a mortal dwell upon. I fainted. Oh, that limitless abyss, so dire and terrible, opening out upon another world! How those awful flames crackled incessantly as they darted upwards above the banks of the accursed ravine, and the shafts of impetuous lightning rent the thick, black smoke which the yawning chasm belched forth! When my beloved companion awoke me, he gave me ambrosial water to drink, of most excellent flavor and color. After drinking this heavenly water I felt some wonderful power within me,—wit, courage, faith, and many other divine virtues. Thereupon I drew nigh with him unfearingly to the edge of the precipice, shrouded in the veil, whilst the flames parted asunder around us, and dared not touch denizens of the supernal regions. Then from the edge of that dread gulf, we let ourselves descend, like two stars falling from the canopy of heaven, down, down for myriad millions of miles, over many sulphurous rocks, and many a hideous cataract and fiery precipice, where all things bent downwards ever, with impending aspect; yet they all avoided us, except when once I poked my nose out of the veil, there struck me such a stifling and choking stench as would have ended me had he not saved me out of hand with the reviving water. When I had recovered, I could see that we were come to a halt, for in all that stupenduous chasm no sooner stay were possible, so sheer and slippery was it. There my Guide allowed me once more to rest; and during that respite it chanced that the thunder and the fierce whirlwinds were a little hushed, and above the roar of the foaming cataracts, [71] I could hear from afar, louder than all, the noise of such awful shrieks, wails, cries, and loud groans, of swearing, cursing and blaspheming, that I would rather have set a bargain upon my ears than listen. And before we had moved an inch, we heard from above such hip-drip-drop that had we not straightway stepped aside, there would have fallen upon us hundreds of unhappy men whom a host of fiends were hurling headlong, and too hurriedly to a woful fate. “Ho, slowly sir!” quoth one sprite, “lest you displace your curly lock;” and to another “Madam, will you have your soft cushion? I fear me you will be much disordered before you reach your resting-place.”