gnish, are my meats.”[1] Picture to yourselves the sufferings of those sick people who are not allowed by the doctors to eat anything, unless a very small quantity of food that is measured out to them by the ounce, and very sparingly; their enforced fast makes them feel the pangs of hunger very keenly, yet they are not permitted to take food. Imagine what occurs in a calm at sea, when ship and sailors are kept in the one place and cannot make any progress; what provisions they have on board must be managed very carefully, and served out so as merely to preserve life, not to still hunger. Imagine the state of things in those unfruitful seasons and in the scarcity that followed, when not only the poor and needy, but even the rich and wealthy were forced to go out like herds of cattle and crawl on the earth, devouring every blade of grass they could find; while a pound of pigeon’s dung was sold at a high price as a delicate morsel. We read in the Fourth Book of Kings that all this occurred in the city of Samaria. Yet in spite of the famine and scarcity some kind of food was found to preserve life; but in hell not the least refreshment can be hoped for. The hard, stale crumbs of black oaten and rye bread that are usually thrown to the dogs would seem a most delicate food to the damned; but they shall never have even that much.
By thirst. This terrible hunger shall be accompanied by a burning thirst that shall last forever. Ah, the damned shall cry out, hear, all ye fountains, brooks, torrents, lakes, seas, even ye morasses and muddy pools, give us only one or two drops of all the waters that flow by unused and unclaimed! But the answer shall come from the hellish tormentors, the evil spirits: yes! we shall bring you a cooling drink at once! molten lead and brass, the gall of serpents, the poison of dragons! “Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps which is incurable.”[2] Come, luxurious gluttons and voluptuaries, this is the table to which yon are invited, this the drink prepared for you! You may have heard people bad with fever crying out, for the love of God, and the Blessed Virgin, and all the saints, for some one to give them a drink of water, and after having got it complaining of thirst just as loudly as before: Oh, what a terrible thirst I am suffering! Is there anything like it? And while the water is being brought to them they look at it eagerly, and so to speak, drink it up with
