ly tends to soften his treatment of domestic
animals. Not only because he may some day become one himself, but also
because among the mules or donkeys which he has to coerce through long
spells of exhausting toil, he may be unwittingly belabouring some friend
or acquaintance, or even a member of his own particular family. This
belief in rebirth is greatly strengthened by a large number of recorded
instances of persons who could recall events which had happened in their
own previous state of existence, and whose statements were capable of
verification. Occasionally, people would accurately describe places and
buildings which they could not have visited, while many would entertain
a dim consciousness of scenes, sights and sounds, which seemed to belong
to some other than the present life. There is a record of one man who
could remember having been a horse, and who vividly recalled the pain he
had suffered when riders dug their knees hard into his sides. This, too,
in spite of the administration in Purgatory of a cup of forgetfulness,
specially designed to prevent in those about to reborn any remembrance
of life during a previous birth.

After all, the most awful punishment inflicted in Purgatory upon sinners
is one which, being purely mental, may not appeal so powerfully to the
masses as the coarse tortures mentioned above. In the fifth Court, the
souls of the wicked are taken to a terrace from which they can hear and
see what goes on in their old homes after their own deaths. "They see
their last wishes disregarded, and their instructions disobeyed. The
property they scraped together with so much trouble is dissipated and
gone. The husband thinks of taking another wife; the widow meditates
second nuptials. Strangers are in possession of the old estate; there
is nothing to divide amongst the children. Debts long since paid are
brought again for settlement, and the survivors are called upon to
acknowledge false claims upon the departed. Debts owed are lost for want
of evidence, with endless recriminations, abuse, and general confusion,
all of which falls upon the three families--father's, mother's, and
wife's--connected with the deceased. These in their anger speak ill of
him that is gone. He sees his children become corrupt, and friends
fall away. Some, perhaps, may stroke the coffin and let fall a tear,
departing quickly with a cold smile. Worse than that, the wife sees her
husband tortured in gaol; the husband sees his w