CHAPTER VII

The proceedings of judge Minos at the gate of Elysium.

I now got near enough to the gate to hear the several claims of
those who endeavored to pass. The first among other pretensions,
set forth that he had been very liberal to an hospital; but Minos
answered, "Ostentation," and repulsed him. The second exhibited
that he had constantly frequented his church, been a rigid
observer of fast-days: he likewise represented the great
animosity he had shown to vice in others, which never escaped his
severest censure; and as to his own behavior, he had never been
once guilty of whoring, drinking, gluttony, or any other excess.
He said he had disinherited his son for getting a bastard. "Have
you so?" said Minos; "then pray return into the other world and
beget another; for such an unnatural rascal shall never pass this
gate." A dozen others, who had advanced with very confident
countenances, seeing him rejected, turned about of their own
accord, declaring, if he could not pass, they had no expectation,
and accordingly they followed him back to earth; which was the
fate of all who were repulsed, they being obliged to take a
further purification, unless those who were guilty of some very
heinous crimes, who were hustled in at a little back gate, whence
they tumbled immediately into the bottomless pit.

The next spirit that came up declared he had done neither good
nor evil in the world; for that since his arrival at man's estate
he had spent his whole time in search of curiosities; and
particularly in the study of butterflies, of which he had
collected an immense number. Minos made him no answer, but with