their throats and lungs to pieces, and exhaufting all their ftrength in contending with each other, juft as if they thought Lucifer and his devils, as foolish as themselves, would take any part or intereft in their filly and foolish quarrels. How high a comedy is it to see them, in the midst of all their fcolding, reciprocally excommunicating and anathematizing each other! that is to fay, giving one another to the devils, as if they did not belong to them already, and would do fo for ever.

BUT what is ftill more diverting in this fpectacle, is, that these great fticklers for religion in hell fpare the devils the trouble of tormenting them. In effect, the refult and unravelling of their foolish and filly difputes, in which the rudeft invectives and moft attrocious injuries are not fpared, is, that when they are quite exhaufted with railing and the use of words, they come at laft to blows; ftab, torture, tear, cut each others throats, and broil them as fwine's flesh; in fhort, deliver themselves up to all the barbarities which we have seen them formerly commit, when, for the chaftisement of mankind, they refided in this world. Alas! poor mankind! oh how fhocking is this to reafon and human nature! it would never have prevailed, if reafon had been allowed to have been confulted; but their chief bufinefs has been to ftifle the first rifing of fuch a paffion in the foul. But let us not ftop here, but proceed to view the o

ther

ther agreeable profpects and diverfions that are to be found in hell.

CHA P.. V.

Very magnificent and curious public shows to be seen in

Hell.

T is counted one of the greatest pleasures of

princes upon earth, and for which they pay very dear, to fee represented on a stage by actors, fome of the principal adventures of the most famous heroes of antiquity, fuch as an Agamemnon, an Achilles, an Ulyffes, a Menelaus, a Neftor, or a Diomed; and we learn alfo by the illuftrious and learned Picus Mirandula §, that there F.6

was

2

§ Prince of Mirandole, who had the most furpri zing genius that ever was upon earth; at ten years of age he ftudied and criticized on the law; at eighteen he was master of two and twenty languages ; : and a few years after fupported at Rome a number: of theses, containing nine hundred propofitions in all forts of sciences. This young prince maintained all these propofitions with as general and extraordinary an applaufe as the thefes themselves, which were not only collected from Greek and Latin authors, but

allo

was a prince foolish enough to give a very confiderable fum of money to a magician, that he might let him fee, by means of his pretended inchantments, the combat of Achilles with Hector, or the burning of Troy. However, that which the greatest princes here, and at the greatest expence, cannot cause to be acted, but very imperfectly, and by people who have nothing heroic about them but the habit, with which they appear on the theatre; in Hell, I fay, you will fee them acted by the originals themfelves, and at no expence. Here you may obferve with one look of the eye, all that the world has ever produced admirable in the ftratagems of war, a fight which you cannot fee in Heaven itfelf; for none of these great perfonages have ever taken that road. On the fide of the Trojans, you may fee Hector, Æneas, Paris, Deiphobus, Troilus and all the family of the unfortunate Priam. On the fide of Greece, befides those I have already mentioned, you will fee Pyrrhus,

and

also established by authority from the Hebrew, Chaldean, and other oriental authors. The common obfervation, that men, who fhew fo much genius in their infancy, are feldom long lived, was too furely accomplished in this young miracle of fcience, who died at Florence, November the feventeenth, one thousand four hundred and ninety four, in the twen ty-third year of his age.

and all his great number of warriors who fought fo valiantly in that famous war.

ARE you curious to fee perfonages not quite fo ancient in hiftory; amongst the modern Greeks you may fee a Lyfander, an Epaminondas, and a number of others no lefs renowned. Amongst the Cartha ginians, an Hamilcar, an Afdrubal, an Hannibal, and a Jugurtha. Amongst the Romans, a Fabius, a Camillus, a Pompey, the two Scipios, and feveral other perfonages as famous in their times; we fhould think ourselves extremely happy here on earth to obtain a fight of any of them, although it was for ever fo short a time: but in Hell all thefe great men are exposed to the view of every body who wants to fee them, without cofting them fo much as a farthing. But what still renders this fpectacle more agreeable is, that you fee them there adorned not only with all their military attire, but alfo at the head of thofe numerous armies which they commanded upon earth, by whom they were fo much beloved, that they have abfolutely chofen, out of love to them and their actions, to follow them into the infernal regions.

CHAP.

Such perfons as are defcended from noble families will here find out their ancestors.

THAT a pleasure muft it be for the nobility

W

to find out all their ancestors, in this delightful country, from the first and master-stock, even to the smallest twig, in the most remote branches of their families! For, according to the oracle of the apostle of the Gentiles, they may very near find them all there, there being very few of them in heaven. Besides, the most part of these gentlemen care very little for it; witnefs that famous perfonage of the family of Sekendorff; of whom they report, that.. he offered, with all his heart, to quit God of the fhare which he might pretend to in Paradife, provided he would let him live as he thought proper on earth for a thousand years. And indeed this lord would have made a better bargain than many of his character often do, who freely give up their part of the heavenly inheritance for ten years of pleasure inthis world. What fay I? Ten years! How many perfons of quality do not we fee often renouncing it for a quarter of an hour, a minute's, nay, a moment's pleasure here? So great, fo violent is their inclina