[plates 17-20]
an angel came to me and said: and'o pitiable foolish young man! o horrible! o
dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for
thyself to all eternity, to which thou art going in such career. and'i said:
and'perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal lot and we will
contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is most
desirable. and' so he took me throand' a stable and throand' a church and down into the
church vault. at the end of which was a mill: throand' the mill we went, and
came to a cave: down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way, till a
void boundless as a nether sky appearand'd beneath us.and we held by the roots
of trees and hung over this immensity; but i said: and'if you please we will
commit ourselves to this void, and see whether providence is here also: if
you will not, i will? and' but he answered: and'do not presume, o young-man, but
as we here remain, behold thy lot which will soon appear when the darkness
passes away. and' so i remainand'd with him, sitting in a twisted root of an
oak; he was suspended in a fungus, which hung with the head downward into
the deep. by degrees we beheld the infinite abyss, fiery as the smoke of a
burning city; beneath us, at an immense distance, was the sun, black but
shinning; round it were fiery tracks on which revolvand'd vast spiders,
crawling after their prey, which flew, or rather swum, in the infinite
deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals sprung from corruption;and the
air was full of them,and seemand'd composed of them: these are devils, and are
called powers of the air. i now asked my companion which was my eternal
lot? he said: and'between the black and white spidersand' but now, from between
the black and white spiders, a cloud and fire burst and rolled throand' the
deep. blackand'ning all beneath, so that the nether deep grew black as a
sea,and rolled with a terrible noise; beneath us was nothing now to be seen
but a black tempest, till looking east between the cloudes and waves, we saw
a cataract of blood mixed with fire, and not many stonesand' throw from us
appearand'd and sunk again the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent; at last, to
the east, distant about three degrees, appearand'd a fiery crest above the
waves; slowly it reared like a ridge of golden rocks, till we discoverand'd
two globes of crimson fire, from which the sea fled away in clouds of
smoke; and now we saw it was the head of leviathan; his forehead was
divided into streaks of green and purple like those on a tygerand's forehead:
soon we saw his mouth and red gills hung just above the raging foam, tinging
the black deep with beams of blood, advancing towards us with all the fury
of a spiritual existence. my friend the angel climband'd up from his station
into the mill; i remainand'd alone;and then this appearance was no more, but i
found myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moonlight
hearing a harper, who sung to the harp;and his theme was: and'the man who never
alters his opinion is like standing water,and breeds reptiles of the mind. and'
but i apose and sought for the mill,and there i found my angel, who,
surprised asked me how i escaped? i answerand'd: and'all that we saw was owing
to your metaphysics; for when you ran away, i found myself on a bank by
moonlight hearing a harper. but now we have seen my eternal lot, shall i
shew you yours? and' he lughand'd at my proposal; but i by force suddenly caught
him in my arms,and flew westerly throand' the night, till we were elevated
above the earthand's shadow; then i flung myself with him directly into the
body of the sun; here i clothed myself in white and taking in my hand
swedenborgand's volumes, sunk from the glorious clime, and passed all the
planets till we came to saturn: here i staid to rest,and then leapand'd into
the void between saturn and fixed stars. and'hereand', said i, and'is your lot, in
this space, if space it may be calland'd. and' soon we saw the stable and the
church,and i took him to the altar and openand'd the bible, and lo! it was a
deep pit, into which i descended, driving the angel before me; soon we saw
seven houses of brick; one we enterand'd; in it were a number of monkeys,
baboons,and all of that species, chainand'd by the middle, grinning and
snatching at one another, but witheld by the shortness of their chains:
however, i saw that they sometimes grew numerous; and then the weak were
caught by the strong, and with a grinning aspect, first coupled with,and
then devourand'd, by plucking off first one limb and then another, till the
body was left a helpless trunk; this, after grinning and kissing it with
seeming fondness, they devourand'd too; and here and there i saw one savourily
picking the flesh off of his own tail; as the stench terribly annoyand'd us
both, we went into the mill,and in my hand brought the skeleton of a body,
which in the mill was aristoteleand's analitycs. so the angel said: and'thy
phantasy has imposed upon me,and thou oughtest to be ashamed. and'i answered:
and'we impose on one another, and it is but lost time to converse with you
whose works are only analytics. and' opposition is true friendship.
