centuries? Assuredly not from the Jewish Scriptures, and we appeal for corroboration to any well-informed Hebrew scholar. The only designation of something approaching hell in the _Bible_ is _Gehenna_ or Hinnom, a valley near Jerusalem, where was situated Tophet, a place where a fire was perpetually kept for sanitary purposes. The prophet Jeremiah informs us that the Israelites used to sacrifice their children to Moloch-Hercules on that spot; and later we find Christians quietly replacing this divinity by their god of _mercy_, whose wrath will not be appeased, unless the Church sacrifices to him her unbaptized children and sinning sons on the altar of “eternal damnation!” Whence then did the divine learn so well the conditions of hell, as to actually divide its torments into two kinds, the _pæna damni_ and pænæ sensus, the former being the privation of the beatific vision; the latter the _eternal_ pains _in a lake of fire and brimstone_? If they answer us that it is in the _Apocalypse_ (xx. 10), we are prepared to demonstrate whence the theologist John himself derived the idea, “And _the devil_ that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where _the beast_ and the false prophet are and shall be tormented for ever and ever,” he says. Laying aside the esoteric interpretation that the “devil” or tempting demon meant our own earthly body, which after death will surely dissolve in the _fiery_ or ethereal elements,[17] the word “eternal” by which our theologians interpret the words “for ever and ever” does not exist in the Hebrew language, either as a word or meaning. There is no Hebrew word which properly expresses _eternity_; עולם _oulam_, according to Le Clerc, only imports a time whose beginning or end is not known. While showing that this word does not mean _infinite_ duration, and that in the _Old Testament_ the word _forever_ only signifies a long time, Archbishop Tillotson has completely perverted its sense with respect to the idea of hell-torments. According to his doctrine, when Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be suffering “eternal fire,” we must understand it only in the sense of that fire not being extinguished till both cities were entirely consumed. But, as to hell-fire the words must be understood in the strictest sense of infinite duration. Such is the decree of the learned divine. For the duration of the punishment of the wicked must be proportionate to the eternal happiness of the righteous. So he says, “These (speaking of the wicked) “shall go away εις κόλασιν αιῶνιον into _eternal_ punishment; but the righteous εις ζωην αιωνιον into life eternal.”