|is to relieve the fouls of friends and relations from the place of
le[ nt ** .
■he defcriptions which Bede has given of the feats of mifery and
lift are very poetical. He paints purgatory as a valley of a
jndous length, breadth, and depth; one fide filled by furious.
s of hail and fnow ; the other with lambent, inextinguiihable
In thefe the fouls of the deceafed alternately experienced
Extremes of heat and cold. Both Shakefpeare and Milton make
Af the fame idea : the firft in his beautiful defcription of the-ftate
f the dead in Meafure for Meafure:
A y , but to die and go we know not where j
T o lie in cold obftru£lion, and to r o t ;
This feniible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod ; and the delighted fpirit
xo bathe in jiery floods, or to rejide
■ In thrilling regions o f thick-ribbed ice ;
T o be imprifon’d in the viewlefs winds*
And blown with reftlefs violence about
T h e pendent v^orld!
jto’s thought is dreiTe^d only in different words :
A t certain revolutions all the damn’d
Are b ro u gh t; and feel by turns the bitter change
O f fierce extremes, extremes by change more fie rc e ;
From beds o f raging fire to ftarve in ice
Their foft ethereal heat.
Ir°fs the 'Tweed at Dryburgh boat, and re-enter the Ihire of
* i c k . On the northern fide, in the deep gloom of wood, are
* B td t, lib. V . c . i z . p. 196.
the
DltYBUKGHi