Doctor accounted logically for hell by circles placed in inverse order
to the shining spheres that lead to God, in which torments and
darkness take the place of the Spirit and of light. Pain was as
intelligible as rapture. The terms of comparison were present in the
conditions of human life and its various atmospheres of suffering and
of intellect. Thus the most extraordinary traditions of hell and
purgatory were quite naturally conceivable.

He gave the fundamental _rationale_ of virtue with admirable
clearness. A pious man, toiling onward in poverty, proud of his good
conscience, at peace with himself, and steadfastly true to himself in
his heart in spite of the spectacle of exultant vice, was a fallen
angel doing penance, who remembered his origin, foresaw his guerdon,
accomplished his task, and obeyed his glorious mission. The sublime
resignation of Christians was then seen in all its glory. He depicted
martyrs at the burning stake, and almost stripped them of their merit
by stripping them of their sufferings. He showed their inner angel as
dwelling in the heavens, while the outer man was tortured by the
executioner's sword. He described angels dwelling among men, and gave
tokens by which to recognize them.

He next strove to drag from the very depths of man's understanding the
real sense of the word fall, which occurs in every language. He
appealed to the most widely-spread traditions in evidence of this one
true origin, explaining, with much lucidity, the passion all men have
for rising, mounting--an instinctive ambition, the perennial
revelations of our destiny.

He displayed the whole universe at a glance, and described the nature
of God Himself circulating in a full tide from the centre to the