daily published to us in journals, gazetteers, and chronicles, or hear vented by our coffee-houfe politicians and contemplative statesmen, are moftly liable to errors, nay often abfolutely false, especially in points referring to the affairs of kingdoms: now this abuse reigns not in hell, for as there are instantly arriving perfonages, who frequently have played the capital parts on the great stage of the world, they muft in confequence be much better inftructed with what is paffing behind the curtain; and, furthermore, befides their being on this account much more to be believed than others, as they are much more nice and delicate in point of honour and of character, they would be very forry to expofe themfelves to be looked upon and treated as flanderers by perfons withwhom they are to dwell for ever. It is for this reafon therefore, and through this way, that a more certain information is there to be obtained, than on the earth, of every thing most secret that paffes in the cabinets and privy councils of fovereign princes..

ANOTHER reason which gives a more demonftra tive proof of what I have here advanced is, that as the minifters and counfellors of princes are obliged, whilft upon earth, to maintain an abfolute secrecy on these great articles, which for the fake of their own interest also they never fail to do; it is extremely difficult, and even almost impoffible, they should tranfpire to the public: but as thofe gentlemen, when they think fit to come out of the upper world;

come

come down directly to the lower regions, no longer bound to the oath of fecrecy, which they have kept not without trouble during their lives, they make themselves amends for the laborious task, by inftantly publishing all they know.

BUT after all, fhould even thefe, which by the way fcarce ever happens, from an habitual use of secrecy, be obftinate in ftill perfevering in it, hell would not by that means be worse served with news upon the very beft authority: for this they are obliged to a most numerous fociety of men †, who have been fettled on the earth above two hundred years, and who having laid it down as a plan, to have settlements wherever there are any of the race of man fubfifting, dispatch in confequence, from time to time, fufficient numbers to the infernal manfions, where it may be faid, they are in their true ele

ment.

THESE men, who are indeed of a fingular character, and who are named amongst one another Good Companions, have in the upper world divers titles, according to the different countries they inhabit. In one place they are called Acignians, that is as much as to fay, Firebrands; in another Ignatians, that is, people devoted to eternal flames: here they are called Loyolites or Suites; by which are

only

+ The Jefuits.

only meant, perfons who live in this world only for themselves, and whofe every word and action centers entirely in the interest of their own companions. And lastly, there they are called Efauites; by which are meant, a fet of people who have all the love for their neighbours, which Efau had formerly to his brother Jacob: now as these self named good companions are fpread abroad through all the courts of princes, into whofe clofeft confidence and friendship they ftop at no kind of pains to introduce themfelves, I leave you to judge, whether, with all the fkill and craftiness they poffefs, they can be unacquainted of any thing that paffes there. In short, they always are the first to know what affairs are debated, what councils held, what affairs are on the carpet, and what refolutions taken; in all which they contrive to have a large fhare, if their fociety is ever fo little concerned in them; and as there are bodies of them conftantly coming down to hell; and as they are, moreover, the best kind of people in the world, nor in the least reserved, never curious, no liars, never jealous, incapable of deceiving any one, and earnest to do pleasure to every one, it muft undoubtedly be one of the greatest in the world to themselves, the relating

Genefis, chapter xxxvii. verfe 31. And Efau hated Jacob, because of the bleffing wherewith his father bleffed him.

relating to their new companions all the fresh news of whatsoever paffes in the world.

IT is through the channel of thefe good Ignatians they daily gain knowledge in hell of all that is done even in the most distant countries of the North, in all the Eaftern ftates, the Weft and South, throughout the large bounds of every one of which they have fixed fettlements both rich and folid; even through the extenfive tracts of both the Indies; in China and Japan; in Ceylon, where fome geographers have placed the ancient earthly paradife; in the Molucca islands, in Florida, Jamaica, and Virginia, in Cuba and the ifle of Hifpaniola: through them we have been exactly informed of what is done in Mexico and Peru, in Brazil, Chili, and in Paraguay, where thefe good companions have found means to raise themselves a kingdom the richest and most powerful, wherein they rule with a more fovereign, more arbitrary fway, than any of the monarchs of the univerfe through them have we been faithfully informed of all that is done in Africa, that very extenfive quarter of the world, almost as unknown to us Europeans as the Terræ Incognitæ is to all the reft of the inhabitants of the world. In short, by the means of these good companions, things become known in hell, that are not even known in Heaven, which in this point feems to be the feat of ignorance. In effect, it does not appear that those who inhabit heaven have half the degree of curiosity with regard

to

to the things which happen here below; which made one of the greatest of the Jewish prophets fay, when fpeaking of his nation (which was formerly faid, and ftill believes itself to be, the only people in the univerfe beloved by God) " Abraham is ignorant of us, "and Ifrael acknowledgeth us not §."

CHA P.

XV.

R

A most wonderful and dazzling fight to be viewed in Hell with the defcription of a comical medley.

:

Fall that which we have just related be extremely

I'

fatisfactory to curious minds, and fuch as love inftruction, what a new pleasure muft it be to them, and all others, to view this prodigious motley of modes and habits, which the great crowds who daily come to Hell bring with them, and keep there! This variety is fo agreeable, and fo pleafing, that "The more ¢ we fee, the more we would fee ftill."

THE facred author of the first book of kings relates, that the prophet Samuel, having been conjured up by the forcerefs, who made him return from the bottom

Ifa. lxiii. 16. 1 Sam. xxviii.