him with cruel punishments, which they continue until he is reduced to the condition of a slave. But because rebellious commotions continually exist there, for every one in hell desires to be greatest and burns with hatred toward others, fresh outrages occur. Thus one miserable scene is changed into another. They who are made slaves are taken out of their thraldom to assist some new devil in subjugating others; when they who refuse to submit and to yield implicit obedience are again tormented in various ways. And this goes on perpetually."
This is a sad picture; but far more terrible pictures may be drawn from the pages of Swedenborg. They are fearful, painful, but necessary revelations. They are not given to frighten men into righteousness. They are truths which make part of a universal psychology, or science of the soul. They give us the morbid anatomy or pathology of that diseased spiritual state produced by sin. They show us what self-love is and what it leads to. They make us tremble and look inwardly at ourselves, then upward to God.
Disastrous levity and unbelief prevail in the world in regard to the fate of the unregenerate soul. Men excuse themselves for their bad pas-
