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The fire of hell is the wish to rise in the
world; the powers awaken this wish and allow
the damned souls to get all they want. But as
soon as the goal is reached, and the wish is
fulfilled, everything is seen to be worthless and the
victory is null and void. Oh, vanity of vanities!
Then, after the first disappointment, the powers
rekindle the flame of ambition and desire; and
satisfied greed and satietv are still a worse
torment than unquenched appetite. Thus the Devil
suffers everlasting punishment, for he gets all
he wants at once, so that he cannot enjoy it.
When I compare the Swedenborgian hells
with the punishments described in the German
Mythology, I find an obvious likeness, but for
me the bare fact that both these books have
fallen into my hand exactly at the right moment
is the essential point. I am in hell, and
damnation weighs upon me like a heavy burden.
When I go over my past, my childhood already
appears to me like a prison house or torture
chamber. In order to explain the sufferings
inflicted upon innocent children, one has only to
suppose an earlier existence, out of which we
have been cast down in order to bear the
consequences of forgotten sins. With a docile mind,
which is my chief weakness, I receive a deep and
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