remorse in him becomes less keen and less frequent. Now, your divines say that the damned are wholly lost to goodness, and wholly filled with wickedness. That being true, Mr. Tub, how can they be exercised with the slightest possible degree of remorse? The thing is impossible.

"But remorse cannot take place in hell for another reason.

We never can remorse

fully regret having sinned against a being we hate whilst hate is active, remorse, in relation to the same being, never can be. On the contrary, in proportion to our love for a being, will be our remorse for having sinned against him. If we even do not really love him, yet, if we are conscious of his claims upon our gratitude, on the ground of benefits conferred, we still will be remorseful for having violated so many and obvious obligations, and will regret that some peculiarities in the individual prevent the possibility of our loving him. Now, is it likely that God is loved in hell, Mr. Tub? Is it even likely that the damned can regard him as their benefactor, in having imposed on them an existence which he clearly fore

saw would

prove to them a ceaseless curse? Of course not, and remorse in hell therefore is clearly impossible.

"You mortals charge your ruin upon the Devil, but we in hell know that the Devil has no power but what the Creator gave him, and that he who, having created children in his own image, let loose upon them a host of malignant spirits who coveted their destruction, is at least as responsible for the foreseen disastrous result, as they can be who were instrumental in effecting it. It is thus we reason, Mr. Tub, and we therefore fail to see any obligations of gratitude to be due from us to God; on no ground, therefore, is remorse in hell a possibility.

"Thus far I have reasoned on your own premises; but as to our growing worse and worse in hell, let us look into that. In hell we have no fleshly appetites to gratify, and they, with mortals, are the primary source of sin; we have no gold to excite avarice; no food nor drink to induce intemperance; no distinctions of sex to excite lust, that most prolific cause of mischief among men. Gambling cannot be practised in hell, seeing

that nothing can be there lost nor won. Nor, where there are no dominions to be conquered, can ambition take place, nor its concomitant, war. An illicit amour with a beautiful woman led to the siege and destruction of Troy; but hell can give birth to no such circumstance. The bard Milton seems to have appreciated hell's advantage over earth in this respect; hence he exclaims,

666

"O, shame to man-devil with devil damned

Firm concord keeps; men only disagree

Of creatures rational.'

"On earth, too, millions have sadly groaned in dungeons, on racks, and in flames, to glut the hungry maw of superstition; but in hell we have no religion to incite us to persecute one another. How, then, can we grow worse and worse?

"No being, Mr. Tub, ever sinned for mere sinning's sake; but for what could be gained by it, and as in hell nothing can be gained thereby, so in hell there can be no motive for sinning. I know well that your divines are wont to affirm that the source and motive of all wickedness is hatred of

If a

God. But this is sheer nonsense. man gets drunk, for instance, is it hatred of God which induces him to it, or love of rum? The latter, undoubtedly. So if a man abuses his neighbor, it is hatred of, or anger toward his neighbor, which actuates him, not hatred of God. Men are ambitious through a love of power or conquest-they are libertines through a love of sensual gratification; and so on, but as to God, they never take a thought how their conduct is to affect him. Man is, by a law of his nature, a selfish being, and acts for self.

"So you see, my friend, that hell is a far more tolerable place, in every view of it, than it is generally believed to be; and we have one undeniable advantage over those who leave this earth for heaven, which I wish you to take into serious consideration. It very rarely happens, Mr. Tub, that a whole family gets to heaven, either together or separately; sometimes the wife gets there, whilst her husband and children are damned; sometimes a part of the children are saved, and find that neither father nor mother has attained the same desirable des

tiny. They are, then, orphans in heaven. Now as to hell, how often do whole families -nay, whole communities-arrive thither at the same moment of time! The whole earth's population, for instance, at the time of the flood, and the communities of Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of their destruction. Now this, Mr. Tub, is no inconsiderable advantage which hell has over heaven, for although the fleshly relations are dissolved at death, yet the relations of mind with mind are not thus dissolved, nor can they be."

"Why, really, Mr. Paddle!" exclaimed the astonished Triptolemus, "you quite puzzle and confound me; I never thought of matters in such a light before; I now see thar's mighty little chance of your being so bad in hell as you are represented. But then, as you don't employ yourselves in serving God as they do in heaven, I should think that time would pass mighty heavily with you for lack of something to beguile it with."

"Not at all, Mr. Tub," replied the goblin; "not at all; we beguile it in numerous