From the towers and roofs
projected numerous brazen-mouthed instruments, which welcomed into
everlasting joy the purified spirit which was ascending from purgatory.
Thus were paradise, purgatory and pandemonium represented at St. Laud's,
and abominable as such representations now appear to be, they had, to
a certain extent, a salutary effect with the people who were in the
habit of looking at them. That they were absolute accurate
representations of the places represented, they never for a moment
presumed to doubt; and if the joys of heaven, as displayed there, were
not of much avail in adding to the zeal of the faithful, the horrors of
hell were certainly most efficacious in frightening the people into
compliance with the rules laid down for them, and in preventing them
from neglecting their priests and religious duties.
The people were crowded round the church; some were kneeling with the
wooden monk at the foot of the cross, and some round the bars of
purgatory. Others were prostrated before the six condemned demons, and
some sat by the road-side, on the roots of the trees, telling their
beads.
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