The Vision of the Otherworld a favourite subject in the Jewish apocryphal scriptures--The _Book of Enoch_--Parallels to Christian Visions--Care for topographical details--Dissertations as in Dante--Purgatorial theory--Descriptions of Hell and Heaven--The Celestial Mountain--Sheol--The Tree of Life--Judgment--The _Gospel of Nicodemus_--The _Vision of Esdras_ in the Old Testament Apocrypha--Another _Vision of Esdras_ in the Christian apocryphal books--The _Vision of Isaiah_--Little information respecting the Otherworld in the canonical books of the New Testament--Details in the Epistles of St. Jude and St. Peter and the Revelation--Græco-Roman speculations during the early ages of the Church--The Sibylline books--The ‘Harrowing of Hell’ legend--Spread of eschatological writings--The _Shepherd of Hermas_--An anticipation of Dante and Beatrice--Its scope rather anagogical than eschatological--The Apocalypse of St. Peter--The Revelation of St. Paul--Their influence apparent in the _Fis Adamnáin_--The _Transitus Mariæ_--Blending of Hebraic and Hellenic conceptions of the Otherworld--Persistence of the moral teaching in the Mysteries; and of the popular belief in Tartarus--The Vision legend little affected by Pagan cults or Neo-Platonic speculation--The Vision legend in the Western Church--Instances recorded by St. Augustine and St. Gregory--Minor importance of the legend in the West until developed by the Irish Church 94-113 4. THE LEGEND IN IRELAND