The Sleeping Bard
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Ellis Wynne >> The Sleeping Bard
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By this time, I beheld the legions of Death, formed in order and armed,
with their eyes fixed upon the king, awaiting the word. "There," said
the king, standing erect upon his regal throne, "my terrible and
invincible hosts, spare neither care nor diligence in removing these
prisoners from out of my boundaries, lest they prove the ruin of my
country; cast them bound, over the precipice of Despair, with their heads
downward. But for the seventh, this Courts Comprised, who threatens me,
leave him free over the chasm, beneath the court of _Justice_, and let
him try whether he can make his complaint good against me." Then Death
reseated himself. And lo! all the deadly legions, after surrounding the
prisoners and binding them, led them away to their couch. I also went
out, and peeped after them. "Come away," said Sleep, and snatched me up
to the top of the highest turret of the palace. Thence I could see the
prisoners proceeding to their eternal perdition. Presently a whirlwind
arose, and dispersed the pitch-black cloud, which was spread universally
over the face of the land of Oblivion, and by the light of a thousand
candles, which were burning with a blue flame, at a particular place, I
obtained a far distant view of the verge of the _Bottomless Gulf_, a
sight exceedingly horrible; and also of a spectacle above, still more
appalling, namely _Justice_ upon his _supreme seat_, holding the keys of
Hell, at a separate and distinct tribunal over the chasm, to pronounce
judgment upon the damned as they came. I could see the prisoners cast
headlong down the gulf, and Pettifogger rushing to fling himself over the
terrific brink, rather than look once on the court of _Justice_. For oh!
there was there a spectacle too severe for a guilty countenance. I
merely gazed from _afar_, but I beheld more terrific horror, than I can
at present relate, or I could at that time support, for my spirit
struggled and fluttered at the awful sight, and wrestled so strenuously,
that it burst all the bands of Sleep, and my soul returned to its
accustomed functions. And exceedingly overjoyed I was to see myself
still amongst the living. I instantly determined upon reforming myself,
as a hundred years of affliction in the paths of righteousness, would be
less harrowing to me, than another glance on the horrors of this night.
Death the Great.
Leave land and house we must some day,
For human sway not long doth bide;
Leave pleasures and festivities,
And pedigrees, our boast and pride.
Leave strength and loveliness of mien,
Wit sharp and keen, experience dear;
Leave learning deep, and much lov'd friends,
And all that tends our life to cheer.
From Death then is there no relief?
That ruthless thief and murderer fell,
Who to his shambles beareth down
All, all we own, and us as well.
Ye monied men, ye who would fain
Your wealth retain eternally,
How brave 'twould be a sum to raise,
And the good grace of Death to buy!
How brave! ye who with beauty beam,
On rank supreme who fix your mind,
Should ye your captivations muster,
And with their lustre king Death blind.
O ye who are at foot most light,
Who are in the height now of your spring,
Fly, fly, and ye will make us gape,
If ye can scape Death's cruel fling.
The song and dance afford, I ween,
Relief from spleen, and sorrows grave;
How very strange there is no dance,
Nor tune of France, from Death can save!
Ye travellers of sea and land,
Who know each strand below the sky;
Declare if ye have seen a place,
Where Adam's race can Death defy!
Ye scholars, and ye lawyer crowds,
Who are as gods reputed wise;
Can ye from all the lore ye know,
'Gainst Death bestow some good advice?
The world, the flesh, and Devil, compose
The direst foes of mortals poor;
But take good heed of Death the Great,
From the Lost Gate, Destruction o'er.
'Tis not worth while of Death to prate,
Of his Lost Gate and courts so wide;
But O reflect! it much imports,
Of the two courts in which ye're tried.
It here can little signify
If the street high we cross, or low;
Each lofty thought doth rise, be sure,
The soul to lure to deepest woe.
But by the wall that's ne'er re-pass'd,
To gripe thee fast when Death prepares,
Heed, heed thy steps, for thou mayst mourn
The slightest turn for endless years.
When opes the door, and swiftly hence
To its residence eternal flies
The soul, it matters much, which side
Of the gulf wide its journey lies.
Deep penitence, amended life,
A bosom rife of zeal and faith,
Can help to man alone impart,
Against the smart and sting of Death.
These things to thee seem worthless now,
But not so low will they appear
When thou art come, O thoughtless friend!
Just to the end of thy career.
Thou'lt deem, when thou hast done with earth,
These things of worth unspeakable,
Beside the gulf so black and drear,
The gulf of Fear, 'twixt Heaven and Hell.
A Vision of Hell.
One fair morning of genial April, when the earth was green and pregnant,
and Britain, like a paradise, was wearing splendid liveries, tokens of
the smile of the summer sun, I was walking upon the bank of the Severn,
in the midst of the sweet notes of the little songsters of the wood, who
appeared to be striving to break through all the measures of music,
whilst pouring forth praise to the Creator. I too occasionally raised my
voice, and warbled with the feathered choir, though in a manner somewhat
more restrained than that in which they sang; and occasionally read a
portion of the book of the Practice of Godliness. Nevertheless, my
former visions would not depart from my remembrance, but continually
troubled me by coming across all other thoughts. And they persisted in
doing so, until, by arguing the matter minutely with myself, I reflected
that there is no vision but what comes from above, to warn one to be upon
one's guard, and that consequently it was my duty to write mine down,
that they might serve as a warning to others also. I therefore returned
to my home, and whilst overwhelmed with melancholy, I was endeavouring to
collect some of my frightful reminiscences, I happened to give a yawn
over my paper, and this gave master Sleep an opportunity to glide upon
the top of me. Scarcely had Sleep closed my senses, when, behold! a
glorious apparition came towards me, in the shape of a young man, tall
and exceedingly beautiful; his garments were seven times more white than
snow, his countenance was so lustrous that it rendered the very sun
obscure, and his curling locks of gold parted in two lovely wreaths upon
his head, in the form of a crown. "Come with me, mortal man," said he on
coming up. "Who art thou, my lord?" said I. "I am," he replied, "the
angel of the countries of the North, the guardian of Britain and its
queen. I am one of the princes who are stationed beneath the throne of
the Lamb, who receive commands for the protection of the gospel, against
all its enemies in Hell and in Rome, in France and Constantinople, in
Africa and in India, and wheresoever else they are devising artifices for
its destruction. I am the angel who conducted thee below to castle
Belial, and who showed thee the vanity and madness of the whole world,
the city of Destruction, and the excellence of the city of Emmanuel, and
I am come once more by his command, to show thee other things, because
thou art seeking to turn to account what thou hast seen already." "How,
my lord," said I, "will your illustrious majesty, which superintends
kings and kingdoms, condescend to associate with such a poor worm as
myself?" "O," said he, "we respect more the virtue of a beggar than the
grandeur of a sovereign. What if I be greater than the kings of the
earth, and higher than many of the countless potentates of heaven? As my
wonderful master deigned to humble himself so inexpressibly as to wear
one of your bodies, and to live among you, and to die for your salvation,
how should I presume to be dissatisfied with my duty in serving you, and
the vilest of the human race, since ye are so high in favour with my
master? Come out, spirit, and free thyself from thy clay," said he, with
his eyes directed upwards. And with that word, I could feel myself
becoming extricated from every part of my body. No sooner was I free,
than he snatched me up to the firmament of heaven, through the region of
lightning and thunder, and all the glowing armories of the sky,
innumerable degrees higher than I had been with him before, whence I
could scarcely descry the earth, which looked no wider than a croft.
After permitting me to rest a short space, he again lifted me up a
million of miles, until I could see the sun far below us; we rushed
through the milky way and past the Pleiades, and many other exceedingly
large stars, till we caught a distant view of other worlds. At length,
by dint of journeying, we reached the confines of the awful eternity, and
were in sight of the two palaces of the mighty king Death, which stand
one on the right hand and the other on the left, and are at a great
distance from each other, as there is an immense void between them. I
enquired whether we should go to see the right hand palace, because it
did not appear to me to resemble the other which I had seen before. "You
will probably see," he replied, "sometime, still more of the difference
which is between the one palace and the other; but at present it is
necessary for us to sail another course." Whereupon we turned away from
the little world, and having arrived over the intervening gap, we let
ourselves down to the country of Eternity, between the two palaces, into
the horrible void; an enormous country it was, exceedingly deep and
dark--without order and without inhabitants--now hot, now cold--sometimes
silent, sometimes noisy, with the sound caused by cataracts of water
tumbling upon the flames and extinguishing them; which cataracts,
however, did not long continue, for presently might be seen a puff of
fire bursting out and consuming the water. There was here no course, nor
whole, nothing living, nothing shapely; but a giddy discord and an
amazing darkness which would have blinded me for ever, if my companion
had not again displayed his heavenly garment of splendour. By the light
which it cast I could see the country of Oblivion, and the edges of the
wilds of Destruction in front, on the left hand; and on the right the
lowest skirts apparently of the walls of Glory. "Behold the great gulf
between Abraham and Dives," said my guide, "which is termed the place of
Chaos. It is the region of the elements which God created first; it is
the place wherein are the seeds of every living thing, from which the
Almighty word made your world and all that therein is--water, fire, air,
earth, animals, fishes and creeping things, winged birds, and human
bodies, but not your souls, for they are of an origin and generation
higher and more exalted." Through the vast, frightful place of Chaos we
at length broke out to the left hand, and before travelling any distance
there, where every thing was ever becoming more frightful, I could feel
my heart at the top of my throat, and my hair standing like the prickles
of the hedge-hog, even before seeing any thing; but when I _did_ see--oh!
spectacle too much for tongue to relate, or for the spirit of man to
behold. I fainted. Oh, the amazing and monstrous abyss, opening in a
horrible manner into the other world! Oh, the continual crackling of the
terrible flames, darting over the sides of the accursed precipice, and
the flashes of linked lightning rending the black, thick smoke, which the
unsightly orifice was casting up! My dear companion, having brought me
to myself again, gave me some spiritual water to drink; O how excellent
it was in its taste and color! After drinking of the heavenly water, I
could feel a wonderful strength diffusing itself through me, bringing
with it sense, heart, faith, and various other heavenly virtues. By this
time I had approached with him unterrified to the edge of the steep,
enveloped in the veil, the flames parting on both sides and avoiding us,
not daring to come in contact with the inhabitants of the supreme abodes.
Then from the summit of the terrific precipice we darted down, like two
stars falling from the firmament of heaven, a thousand million of miles,
over many a brimstone crag, and many a furious, ugly cataract and glowing
precipice, every thing that we passed looking always frowningly downward;
yet every thing noxious avoided us, except once, when having thrust my
nose out of the veil, I was struck by such a suffocating, strangling
exhalation as would have put an end to me, if my guide had not instantly
assisted me with the water of life. By the time that I had recovered, I
perceived that we had arrived at a kind of standing place; for in all
this loathsome chasm it was impossible to obtain any rest before, owing
to the steepness and slipperiness of its sides. There my guide permitted
me to take some further rest; and during this respite, it happened that
the thunders and the hoarse whirlwinds became silent for a little while,
and in spite of the din of the raging cataracts, I heard from afar a
sound louder than the whole--a sound of horrible harsh voices, of
shouting, bellowing, and strong groans, swearing, cursing, and
blaspheming, till I would have consented to part with mine ears, that I
might not hear. Ere we moved a foot farther, we could hear a terrible
tumbling sound, and if we had not suddenly slipped aside, hundreds of
unfortunate men would have fallen upon us, who were coming headlong, in
excessive hurry, to take possession of their bad purchase, with a host of
devils driving them. "O, sir," said one devil, "take it easy, lest you
should ruffle your curling locks. Madam, do you wish for an easy
cushion? I am afraid that you will be out of all order by the time you
come to your couch," said he to another.
The strangers were exceedingly averse to going forward, insisting that
they were out of their road; but notwithstanding all they could say, go
they did, and we behind them, to a black flood of great magnitude, and
through it they went, and we across it, my companion holding the
celestial water continually to my nostrils, to strengthen me against the
stench of the river, and against the time when I should see some of the
inhabitants of the place, for hitherto I had not beheld so much as one
devil, though I had heard the voices of many. "Pray, my lord," said I,
"what is the name of this putrid river?" "The river of the Fiend," said
he, "in which all his subjects are bathed, in order that they may be
rendered fit for the country. For this accursed water changes their
countenance, and washes away from them every relic of goodness, every
semblance of hope and of comfort." And, indeed, on gazing upon the host
after it had come through, I could distinguish no difference in deformity
between the devils and the damned. Some of the latter would fain have
sculked at the bottom of the river, and have lain there to all eternity,
in a state of strangulation, lest they should get a worse bed father on;
but here the proverb was verified, that "he must needs run whom the Devil
drives," for with the devils behind, the damned were compelled to go
forward unto the beach, to their eternal damnation; where I at the first
glance saw more pains and torments than the heart of man can imagine or
the tongue relate; a single one of which was sufficient to make the hair
stand erect, the blood to freeze, the flesh to melt, the bones to drop
from their places--yea, the spirit to faint. What is empaling or sawing
men alive, tearing off the flesh piecemeal with iron pincers, or broiling
the flesh with candles, collop fashion, or squeezing heads flat in a
vice, and all the most shocking devices which ever were upon earth,
compared with one of these? Mere pastime! Here were a hundred thousand
shoutings, hoarse sighs, and strong groans; yonder a boisterous wailing
and horrible outcry answering them, and the howling of a dog is sweet,
delicious music, when compared with these sounds. When we had proceeded
a little way onward from the accursed beach, towards the wild place of
Damnation, I perceived, by their own light, innumerable men and women
here and there; and devils without number and without rest, incessantly
employing their strength in tormenting. Yes, there they were, devils and
damned, the devils roaring with their own torments, and making the damned
roar, by means of the torments which they inflicted upon them. I paid
particular observation to the corner which was nearest me. There I
beheld the devils with pitch-forks, tossing the damned up into the air,
that they might fall headlong on poisoned hatchels or barbed pikes, there
to wriggle their bowels out. After a time the wretches would crawl in
multitudes, one upon another, to the top of one of the burning crags,
there to be broiled like mutton; from there they would be snatched afar,
to the top of one of the mountains of eternal frost and snow, where they
would be allowed to shiver for a time; thence they would be precipitated
into a loathsome pool of boiling brimstone, to wallow there in
conflagration, smoke, and the suffocation of horrible stench; from the
pool they would be driven to the marsh of Hell that they might embrace
and be embraced by its reptiles many times worse than serpents and
vipers; after allowing them half an hour's dalliance with these
creatures, the devils would seize a bundle of rods of steel, fiery hot
from the furnace, and would scourge them till their howlings, caused by
the horrible inexpressible pain which they endured, would fill the vast
abode of darkness, and when the fiends deemed that they had scourged them
enough, they would take hot irons and sear their bloody wounds.
There was here no fainting, nor swooning to evade a moment of suffering,
but a continual strength to suffer and to feel, though you would have
imagined after one horrible cry, that it would be utterly impossible
there should be strength remaining to give another cry so frightfully
loud; the damned never lowered their key, and the devils kept replying,
"behold your welcome for ever and ever." And it almost seemed that the
sauciness and bitterness of the devils, in jeering and mocking their
victims, were worse to bear than the pain itself. What was worst of all,
their conscience was at present utterly aroused, and was tearing them
worse than a thousand of the infernal lions. We proceeded farther and
farther downward, and the farther we proceeded, the more horrible was the
work which was going on; the first place we came to in our progress was a
frightful prison, in which were many human beings under the scourge of
the devils, shrieking most shockingly. "What place is this?" said I.
"That," said the angel, "is the couch of those who cry 'woe is me that I
did not--!' Hark to them for a moment!" "Woe is me that I did not
purify myself in time from every kind of sin!" says one. "Woe is me that
I did not believe and repent before coming here!" says the other.
Next to the cell of too late repentance, and of debate after judgment had
been passed, was the prison of the procrastinators, who would be every
time promising amendment, without ever fulfilling their promise. "When
this business is over," says one, "I will turn over another leaf." "When
this obstacle is removed, I will become a new man yet," says the other.
But when the obstacle is removed, they are not a bit the nearer to
reformation, for some other obstacle is always found to prevent them from
moving towards the gate of Righteousness, and if they do sometimes move a
little, they are sure to turn back. Next to this was the prison of vain
confidence, full of those who, on being commanded to abstain from their
luxuriousness, drunkenness, or avarice, would say, "God is merciful, and
better than his word, and will not damn his creature for ever for so
small a matter." But here they were yelping forth blasphemy, and asking
where is that mercy, which was boasted to be immeasurable. "Peace, hell-
dogs," at length said a great lobster of a devil who was hearing them,
"peace! would you have mercy without doing any thing to obtain it? Would
you have the Truth render his word false, for the sake of obtaining the
company of such filthy dross as you? Too much mercy has been shown to
you already. You were given a Saviour, a comforter, and the apostles,
with books, sermons, and good examples, and will you never cease to
deafen us with bawling about mercy, where mercy has never been?" On
going out from this fiery gulf, I could hear one puffing and shouting
terribly, "I knew no better, nothing was ever expended in teaching me my
duty, and I could never find time to read or pray, because I was obliged
to earn bread for myself and my poor family." "Aye," said a little
crooked devil who stood by, "and did you never find time to tell pleasant
stories?--no leisure for self vaunting during long winter evenings when I
was in the chimney corner? Now, why did you not devote some of that time
to learning to read and pray? Who on Sundays used to come with me to the
tavern, instead of going with the parson to church? Who devoted many a
Sunday afternoon to vain prating about worldly things, or to sleep,
instead of meditation and prayer? And have ye merely acted according to
your knowledge and your opportunities? Peace, sirrah, with your lying
nonsense!" "O thou blood of a mad dog!" said the lost man, "it is not
long since you were whispering something very different into my ear, if
you had said that the other day, I should scarcely have come here." "O,"
said the devil, "we do not mind telling you the bitter truth here, since
we need not fear that you will go back to tell tales."
Below this cell I saw a kind of vast pit, and in it what looked like an
infinite quantity of loathsome ordure, burning with a green flame, and on
drawing near, I was aware, from the horrid howling that proceeded from
it, that it was composed of men piled one upon another, the horrible
flames crackling meanwhile through them. "This hollow," said the angel,
"is the couch of those who say after committing some great sin, 'pooh! I
am not the first, I have plenty of companions;' and thus you see, they
_do_ get plenty of companions, to verify their words and to increase
their agony." Opposite to this horrible place was a large cellar, where
I could see men twisted, as tow is twisted, or hemp is spun. "Pray,"
said I "who are these?" "Panegyrists," said he, "and out of sheer
mockery to them, the devils are trying whether it is possible to twist
them as flexibly as they twisted their own discourse." A little way
below that cell, I could but just descry a sort of prison-pool, very
dark, and in it things which had been men, having faces like the heads of
wolf-dogs, and up to their jaws in bog, barking blasphemy and lies most
furiously, as long as they could get their sting above the mud. At this
moment a troop of devils happening to pass by, some of these creatures
contrived to bite in the heels, ten or twelve of the devils who had
brought them thither. "Woe and destruction to you hell-dogs!" said one
of the devils who had been bit, "you shall pay for this;" and forthwith
commenced beating the bog, till the wretches were drowned in the stinking
abysses. "Who," he then added, "have deserved hell better than you, who
have been hunting up and devising gossip, and buzzing lies about from
house to house, in order that you might laugh, after having set a whole
country at loggerheads. What more could one of ourselves have done?"
"That," said the angel, "is the bed of the tale-bearers, the slanderers,
and the whisperers, and of all other envious curs, who are continually
wounding people behind their backs with their hands or their tongues."
From here we passed to a vast dungeon, by far the filthiest that I had
seen yet, and the most replete with toads, adders, and stench. "This,"
said my guide, "is the place of the men who expect to get to heaven
because they have no ill intentions, that is, for being neither good nor
bad." Next to this pool of ill savour, I beheld a place where a vast
crowd were sitting, and without any thing visible to torment them,
groaning more piteously than any that I had hitherto heard in Hell.
"Mercy upon us," said I, "what causes these people to complain more than
the rest, when they have neither torture nor devil near them?" "O," said
the angel, "the less torment they have without, the more they have
within. These are refractory heretics, atheists, antichristians, worldly-
wise ones, abjurers of the faith, persecutors of the church, and an
infinity of such like wretches, who are abandoned entirely to the
punishment of conscience, more tormenting than flame or devil, which
domineers over them ceaselessly and without restraint. 'I will never
permit myself any more,' says she, 'to be drowned in ale, nor to be
blinded by bribes, nor deafened by music and company, nor lulled nor
confounded by careless listlessness; for now I _will_ be listened to, and
never shall the clack of the hated truth cease in your ears.' Longing is
ever raging within the wretch for the happiness which he has lost; memory
is ever reproaching him by saying how easy it was to be obtained, and the
understanding showing him the magnitude of his loss, and the certainty
that nothing is now to be obtained, but indescribable gnawing for ever
and ever. So with these three instruments--namely longing, memory, and
understanding--conscience is tearing the lost one, in a manner far worse
than all the devils in Hell could tear him with their claws."
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