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IN order that nothing may be wanting to the plagues of Hell, wherewith the lost souls are tormented, God has in His anger decreed that this horrible prison should be pervaded by an abominable stench, as a punishment for those who, when on earth, have taken excessive delight in the use of choice perfumes.

The prophecy of Isaias will thus be fulfilled: "Instead of a sweet smell there shall be a stench" (Is. iii. 24). Decaying animal matter emits so horrible an odour that no one likes to go near it. But if we imagine not one tainted carcass, but hundreds of thousands heaped together, the air for miles round would be so infected that it would cause the death of all in the vicinity.

Even this stench, however, when compared with the stench of Hell, seems as nothing, or rather as a pleasant odour. The effluvium of Hell arises primarily from the place itself, which is by its nature a most horrible and foul region. No breath of pure air can ever penetrate the closely-shut walls of that prison. Moreover, the whole of Hell is a lake of