The pictures of misery made familiar to us by Mil-
ton and Dante, and by many a sermon and novel,
have this in common -- that the misery of which they
speak is punishment. It is the result of depravity, of
the deliberate choice of evil. It is eternal, not to be
ended, not to be mitigated, and still not to be borne.
It is without hope, though the human mind refuses to
compass the thought of the soul without hope. The
misery of the infernal regions, especially as it is de-
picted by the Italian poet, is the logical working out of
qualities of human character. There is an appropri-
ateness, a poetic justice, about each of the various
states of the fallen spirits, because they are but the
projection of desires which have been indulged, of
tendencies which have been encouraged, of appetites
which have been fed, of passions to which control has
been given over the lives of men.

This is one view also of the misery which we find
here on earth, in prisons and hospitals, in homes and
highways, in the haunts of vice and the hidden places
of sorrow and shame. There is comfort for those who

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