The record-union., 1897-12-09
PERSONALITY OF SATAN.
HERE Is A CURIOUS STORY OF
HELL.
Remarkable Romance Of a Lost
Soul From the Pen Of an
English Author.

A scarlet covered book, in the upper
left hand corner Of which, in golden
letters, is the word Hell" The title
is one calculated to upset the nerves of
the average individual, and contents
are such as to engender a train of
thought which may be beneficial to
many.
The book comes from the RoXburghe
Press, of Victoria street, London, and
is by Oudeis. The story is this: Two
lowers, With no thought of immediate
death, make an agreement that the one
dying first shall visit the survivor on
the fourteenth day after death. The
departed spirit falling to return, the
living man or woman promises to COM
NIT suicide.
In a most unexpected manner the
woman dies-is killed in a railroad acci-
dent, and her lover in his overwhelm-
ing grief, gradually works himself into
u condition bordering on insanity.
The fourteenth night after his loved
ones death finds him sitting in the oak
room, which had been their favorite
place in the past, a revolver lying ready
for his hand on the table, prepared at
the burning out of the candle beside
him TO take his life
The experience which gives a title to
the book is embodied in the manuscript
which he leaves behind him in a
friends hands. Enid returns to him
according to promise, and relates the
horrors of he'll, with the idea of saving
him from sharing her frightful tor
mentS
A few quotations from the book will
give an idea of its style and tenor, and
must prove interesting. Every one has
his or her idea of hell. Poets have
sung of it; wise men written of it
priests and ministers preached of it
many have scoffed at it's existence, yet
deep down in our hearts most of us
believe in it and fear it. In the be-
ginning of Enid's description of hell's
tortureS she says:
Now, as on earth, so in hell-to COM
pare small things with great. For
cannot show you the absolute truth and
reality of hell, but only shadows OF
the truth, like a shadowgraphist. But
you can well understand that if happi-
ness (Which to a, large extent consists
of freedom from pain) We're entirely
eliminated from hell, so that there was
nothing but intense and incessant pair
there, the inhabitants would gradually
become more and more hardened tC
pain, their sensibilty would become
more and more blunted, until at last
they would become practically dead tc
pain and with the loss of the sense
of suffering would come their emanci-
patton from all the terrors of hell! Ir
other words, we may say that it is true
though a paradox, that if you could
eliminate happiness from hell, it would
in time become a kind Of heaven,"
Could any one conceive any torture
more infinitely diaboHcal than that o1
permitting the lost soul to taste OF
freedom, joy, happiness for a short time
and then cast it back into the horrors
and despair of hell's torture?
PEN PICTURE OF THE DEVIL
This description of Satan bears quot
ing:
Il beheld within a few yards of me q
tall man, clothed in a kind of cassocl
and wearing a baretta upon his head
The profile of hiS face was strikingly
handsome. and he was altogether pos
sessed of the most extraordinary
beauty. His attitude was one of clas-
against a bowlder of basalt and as he
raised his right and beckoned me with
his foTefinger to approach him 1 felt
irresistibly drawn toward him.
] had hitherto seen only the profile
and had been lost in admiration of the
manly beauty of the face and head
whose pose reminded me of that of
Greek statue. But wnen he turned hi.
head en- that T he of Gil Ia hi
face, was instantly filled with amaze
ment and adherence. For this othel
side was a mass of scars, crossed by
livid seams that changed rapidly Will,
1 looked to fiery red, like streams o.
glowing lava 1t was rendered still
more horrible by it's blackness, which
gave it the appearance of putrefyins
corpse.
I always take intense delight ht
said, in analyzing a soul. When
ssucceed in procuring a good specimen
I devote myself to the examination o.
ut with the greatest ardor.
Here is the microscope he continued
See how beautifully it is constructed
am very proud Of it. 1t is absolutely
perfect. After innunnerabl,
disappointment and failures, / at las
triumphed and produced what l cal
a psychical microscope. When
soul Is placed on this instrument all 1t,
secrets are laid bare before my eyes
is absolutely impossible to conceal any
thing. For here is absolute truth-th,
scientific ideal.
ANALYZING A SOUL.
"As the hand fell upon my head
felt that I sank beneath it. Still ii de
scended, and I realized that my limb
We're all rapidly shrinking, and that
was diminishing in size every instant