498 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



coal of fire as the heat is greater. Imagine also that your body were to lie there 

 for a quarter of an hour, full of fire, and all the while full of quick sense; what 

 horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace ! and how long would 

 that quarter of an hour seem to you ! And, after you had endured it for one 

 minute, how overbearing would it be to you to think that you had to endure it 

 the other fourteen ! But what would be the effect on your soul if you knew you 

 must lie there, enduring that torment to the full, for twenty-four hours! And 

 how much greater would be the effect if you knew you must endure it for a whole 

 year ! And how vastly greater still if you knew you must endure it for a thou- 

 sand years ! Oh, then, how would your hearts sink if you knew that you must 

 bear it for ever and ever ! — that there would be no end ! — that, after millions of 

 millions of ages, your torment would be no nearer to an end, and that you never, 

 never should be delivered ! But your torment in hell will be immensely greater 

 than this illustration represents.* 



Among primitive peoples in various parts of the world, a 

 variety of notions in regard to future punishment have pre- 

 vailed. The African tribes which have not been affected by 

 Mohammedan or Christian influence, although they may believe 

 in future rewards and punishments, generally have no idea of 

 definite places for heaven and hell. The Kamtchadales also have 

 no hell. Of the American peoples, the ancient Mexicans affirmed 

 that the wicked went to Mictlan, a dismal cavern within the 

 earth. The Peruvian hell was also in the earth, and there the 

 reprobate must endure centuries of toil and anguish. The Eskimo 

 believe that hell is among the rocks, ice, monsters, and chilling 

 waters of the sea. All souls must go down into it, but the good 

 pass deeper to a more peaceful abode. The American Indians 

 have no idea of a place of future torment except where it has 

 been derived from white missionaries. " The typical belief of the 

 tribes of the United States," says Brinton,f " was well expressed 

 in the reply of Esau Hajo, great medal chief and speaker for the 

 Creek Nation in the National Council, to the question, Do the red 

 people believe in a future state of rewards and punishments ? 

 ' We have an opinion that those who have behaved well are taken 

 under the care of Esaugetuh Emisee, and assisted ; and that those 

 who have behaved ill are left to shift for themselves ; and that 

 there is no other punishment/ " 



No writer since ancient Egyptian times has given such a de- 

 tailed theory of the future life as Swedenborg. In his book on 

 Heaven and Hell, originally published in 1758, he says that pun- 

 ishments in hell are manifold ; the more cunning and malignant 

 of the damned domineer over the simpler. The faces of those in 

 hell are deathly and dreadful : some are black, some fiery, some 

 disfigured with pimples, warts, and ulcers; some have no face, 

 only a hairy or bony surface. The " infernal heat is turned into 



* Jonathan Edwards's Works, vol. vi, p. 99. f The Myths of the New World. 



