Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/148

 and unmitigated misery when compared with the pure ecstatic delights of angelic love. Therefore these persons are represented as receiving the sentence, "Depart from me, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

The truth, then, summarily stated, is: that all life, from that of the highest angel in heaven down to that of the meanest creature here on earth, has its delights; for life is love, and all love has its delights. The degree of happiness which each creature enjoys, depends upon the character of his delights; and the character or exaltation of his delights, depends on the nature or quality of his love. And as far as the human transcends in dignity the bestial life—as far as man surpasses the brute in wisdom or in the extent and variety of his powers, so far has he the capacity of enjoyment above (yes, and of misery below) that of the brutes, and so far does the happiness of the angels exceed that of the devils.

Is not this new view of hell in the highest degree rational? What can be more reasonable, (in view of the kind of life which infernal spirits have voluntarily made their own) than that they should be totally oblivious of their own condition?—that they should be unable to see themselves or one another or the objects that surround them, as they really are?—that everything should seem to them quite different from what it is, and from what it actually appears when viewed in the light of heaven?—that