pleasant or cheerful thoughts. They wore their own hair, but their eyes were like balls of stone. Their features bore the sad traces of deep and unavailing regret. They talked with each other in low, muttering whispers; and I saw that each one carried a heavy roll of lead, some greater, some less, across his shoulders.
At length the Doctor spoke.
'You have asked me, Ubertus, who these people are, and why they are here? My answer is, I do not know who they are, and I can only guess why they are here. It is not for us to judge them, but the same Voice which told us not to judge lest we should be judged, told us also, "By their fruits ye shall know them." These people whom you see wonderful as it may appear, are not real people of flesh and blood, but only shadows. If you hear them speak and tell their adventures, that fact you may refer back to your own imagination, and your knowledge of the past. But they shadow forth what punishments may be in store, in the dreadful future, for those worldly and unprincipled men who make the grandeur, the glory the riches, the power and the pleasures of this world the sole objects of the their desire and ambition. We are told that there is eternal fire for those who will not worship, or acknowledge, God. Here there is no appearance of fire except the lamps in the streets; but the fires burn, nevertheless, in the hearts of these shadows—fires of sorrow and remorse for the priceless time which they wasted and lost in their insatiable grovelling for earth's glittering treasures; fires of pain and anguish when they find themselves shut out from the presence of God and His holy angels. And I tell you that it would be well for some millions of human beings if they could annihilate themselves entirely from the bosom of the universe. How many among us have thought that by laying violent hands on ourselves in our despair we could escape from the power
