266 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



indicated in the representations and engravings which the Church 

 has drawn and made visible for us in pictures and the other descrip- 

 tions given us by the sainted Doctors of the Church, to the effect 

 that the larger part of the wretched souls are tortured with natural 

 material fire which burns and tortures in natural fashion the souls 

 of the miserable damned, as the instrument or executioner inflicting 

 divine justice, and that it is the more painful in proportion to the 

 material. 



764. And not only do they suffer pain of sense and touch, in which 

 every sense is tortured to an intense degree: sight, with the horrible 

 and frightful appearance of the devils ; hearing, with the shrieks and 

 bowlings of the devils and the damned, and that infernal confusion ; 

 smell, the stench of the sulfur; and that tormenting horror which 

 would result from such a calamitous place and which would transfuse 

 everything. What material will there be there? What food can the 

 fire find? Can there be anything worse smelling than sulfur? On 

 this subject it is generally stated that sulfur is the material and 

 stench of Hell, that it will last forever, and that it will feed those 

 horrible dark flames ; of which the Glorious Doctor St. Basil says 

 in his exposition of Psalm 28, and as is stated by other Saints and 

 Doctors, that it is fire without light, horrible, dark and shadowy, 

 from which God has withdrawn light and radiance for greater tor- 

 ment of the miserable damned souls, just as in the fiery furnace of 

 Babylon He suspended the fire's activity, as is evidenced in Chapter 

 HI of Daniel, so that it should not burn or afiiict the sainted children 

 who were ready to suffer for His Holy Name. But since this subject 

 surpasses all human judgment, may what is hidden and obscured 

 be left to the Divine and Most Holy Providence who so ordained 

 and arranged it ; for man cannot penetrate or pry into His divine 

 secrets. 



765. The terrible torments of the senses with which the unfor- 

 tunate souls of the damned are tortured, are increased and augmented 

 by another still greater evil — that they are forever bereft of the 

 presence and sight of God. This penalty must take place in the region 

 most remote and distant from that Heaven empyrean where the 

 fortunate behold the Divine Essence ; and where can that be but in 

 the center of the earth, where Hell is? 



766. To conclude this subject of volcanoes, I would say that their 

 fire has lasted since immemorial ages, or since God created the world ; 

 they have been casting forth fire without ceasing, and it would almost 

 seem that this filthy pumice and ashes that they vomit and throw 

 out, is endless. It makes no difference that sometimes they erupt 



