Part 5 (1/2)
”Yes, at your service: enter, enter, my lord, one had better come here living than dead.”
I immediately walked in, and besought a devil whom I met, to show me the apartments of the palace: he called himself _Curiosity_; this was his appellation of war, or rather that of his employment; for as angels take theirs from their offices near G.o.d or men, so likewise demons are named, from the services they execute, or the dignities with which they are invested.
”They denominate me _Curiosity_,” said the demon, ”because it is I who inspire men with the desire of seeing, listening, proving, and tasting; and as it is curiosity that opens the door of sin, so it is I who open that of h.e.l.l.”
”You may conduct me there,” said I, ”on condition that you bring me back to the gate again, after I have examined it; and you will oblige me still farther, by leading me afterwards to paradise, which I would also visit.”
”It is not I,” replied Curiosity, ”who can conduct you thither, and open the door; the guide of the way is Retirement, the porter, Virtue; but I will show you every thing worthy of notice here, and reconduct you to the place from whence I take you.”
”Very well,” said I, and followed him.
We first entered into a s.p.a.cious court, where the devils were scourging the unhappy, who cried, ”pardon, pardon, my G.o.d! I did not reflect-I did not believe-who told me of these things;” and many other similar expostulations.
”These,” observed the devil, ”are people, that have come to h.e.l.l without thinking about it, without fear, and without believing it.”
”They were then honest in their faith; but why punish those guilty only through ignorance?”
The devil replied, ”they ought to think upon the matter, to instruct themselves, and be persuaded that h.e.l.l is no place for mercy-so much the worse for them.”
I pa.s.sed from thence into a great chamber, where there were many men gaming, who swore and blasphemed because they had lost a little money, or played a bad card. ”Behold these people,” said I to the devil, ”how impatient and hasty!”
”That is the cause of their being here.”
In another room we found comedians, who mourned at their captivity, shut up for having made the world laugh. Said they; ”if by chance some equivocal words have impressed the spectators with evil thoughts, was it not rather their fault than ours?”
”Oh,” said the devil to me, ”if they had done no more than that, they should scarcely have come here; but think of their lost time, knaveries, and secret crimes! In the terrestrial paradise, a male and female comedian enacted a scene, that hath given to the devil the whole human race.”
”Ah! who had they for spectators when they were alone in the world?”
”No, it is not the comedy which d.a.m.ns the players; it is what pa.s.ses behind the scenes.”
In the following chamber were the physicians and their suit: they composed poisons for themselves; they took the doses when prepared; they bled and purged themselves, and tried every dangerous and disagreeable remedy in medicine, surgery, and chemistry, to procure death to themselves, and could not succeed.
”They once used their art,” said the devil, ”for a bad purpose, and now their art fails them at their utmost need: do what they will, they cannot die, because the air of h.e.l.l is a fire which purifies and conserves.”
In a cabinet near this chamber, were a number of persons endeavouring to make gold, or to speak more plainly, sought to discover the philosopher's stone: among them I recognised Tarnesier, he who made the nail half gold and half iron, which is in the museum of the duke of Tuscany; also a duke of Saxony, and a duke of the Medici, who knew how to make gold during their lives, but forgot the secret when they came to h.e.l.l.
”Is, then, the making of gold so heinous a sin?” inquired I of the devil.
”No,” answered he, ”but it is a grievous offence not to know how to make it, and that is the reason these gentlemen are here.”
”And the others,” said I, ”who never pretended to have made the discovery!”
”Oh, they have not pa.s.sed off copper for gold, as these have done.”
”Let me see the devotees now,” said I to my conductor; ”they are a species of humanity that will divert me.”
”You are right; these are the fools of h.e.l.l; it will be more instinctive to look at them than those of this apartment.”
As we repa.s.sed the chambers we had visited, I heard some one exclaim, ”Look at this poor devil, who knows not where to bestow himself; Curiosity is seeking a lodging for him.”
”Signor,” said one of them to me, ”remain here, with the devil's permission, if you cannot be accommodated elsewhere.”