Word: hell
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...circles of Hell are formed by converging rocks, which ended in the centre with a deep pit. The ledges of Purgatory, on the other hand, are formed by the retreating of the walls. On the very summit of the mountain of Purgatory is the earthly Paradise, through which the purified soul must pass before it can enter Heaven. In Hell sinful deeds are punished, but in Purgatory it is not an action but a disposition, of which the sinner is purged. Here the soul welcomes suffering as an approach to the utmost felicity. There is terrible suffering, but suffering always...
Night was falling as Dante and Vergil entered the infernal regions, but Easter morning is breaking as they come forth into the bright light of Purgatory, out from the darkness of Hell into the light of Heaven. When Dante looked about he saw near him a venerable man, who revealed himself as Cato the Warden of the souls that enter Purgatory...
...gloom. In utter despair he is wandering about the great crags at the foot of the mountain, when he meets a stranger, who reveals himself to Dante as the poet Vergil, who tells him that in order to reach the light they must first go through the depths of Hell, and offers himself as guide...
...first great crowd of moaning wretches, and crossing the Charon, they come among the souls that are suffering penance for original sin, and no other guilt. Thence they advance into a second circle, at the entrance to which stands Minos, who assigns to the spirits their proper places in Hell. Leaving Minos they continue along a rocky cliff, past which rushes the tempest that carries along in its mad career the sinners that have subjected reason to lust. They came at length to a broad flood, where lost wretches are struggling with the waters, as the poets cross, the sinners...
...last scene of the poets' journey through Hell is the most horrible. After passing through the lowest circles, they come upon a frozen pool, in which incased in the ice are the traitors of various degrees. By this pool they meet and conquer Dis, or Satan, once the fairest of Heaven's angles. The picture of Satan is the most horrible and monstrous to be found in the work. After leaving Dis they turn their faces upward till at length they come forth upon the surface of the earth to see again the stars...