e heard a terrible noise, a
medley of striking, jabbering, crying and laughing, shooting and
singing. "Here's Bedlam, doubtless," said I. By the time we entered
the den the brawling had ceased. Of the company, one was on the
ground insensible; another was in a yet more deplorable condition;
another was nodding over a hearthful of battered pots, pieces of
pipes, and oozings of ale. And what was all this, upon inquiry, but
a carousal of seven thirsty neighbours,--a goldsmith, a pilot, a
smith, a miner, a chimney-sweeper, a poet, and a parson who had come
to preach sobriety, and to exhibit in himself what a disgusting thing
drunkenness is! The origin of the last squabble was a dispute which
had arisen among them about which of the seven loved a pipe and
flagon best. The poet had carried the day over all the rest, with
the exception of the parson, who, out of respect for his cloth, had
the most votes, being placed at the head of the jolly companions, the
poet singing:--

'O where are there seven beneath the sky
Who with these seven for thirst can vie?
But the best for good ale these seven among
Are the jolly divine and the son of song.'

After showing the Bard what is going on in the interior of the houses of
the various streets, and in the streets themselves, the angel conducts
him to the various churches of the City of Perdition: to the temple of
Paganism, to the mosque of the Turk, and to the synagogue of the Jews;
showing and explaining to him what is going on within them. He then
takes him to the church of the Papists, which the angel calls, very
properly, 'the church which deceiveth nations.' Some frightful examples
are given of the depravity and cruelty of monks and friars. The dialogue
between the confessor and the portly female who had murdered her husband,
who was a member of the Church of England, is horrible, but quite in
keeping with the principles of Popery; also the discourse which the same
confessor holds with the young girl who had killed her child, whose
father was a member of the monastery to which the monk belonged. From
the Church of Rome they go to the Church of England. It is lamentable to
observe what an attached minister of the Church of England describes as
going on within the walls of a Church of England temple a hundred and
fifty years ago. Would that the description could be called wholly
inapplicable at th