The Tale of Freddie Firefly
CONTENTS CHAPTER I. A MERRY DANCER II. A FINE PLAN III. FREDDIE AGREES TO HELP IV. GETTING READY V. AT THE STONE WALL VI. THE BANNERS VII. THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE VIII. BUSTER'S SCHEME IX. FREDDIE'S PROMISE X. DRAWING LOTS XI. PEPPERY POLLY XII. A TERRIBLE SONG XIII. CAUGHT BY A THISTLE XIV. JENNIE JUNEBUG XV. THE FAT LADY'S SECRET XVI. FREDDIE'S ESCAPE
combination of Retribution and Salvation, was pictured in various ways
and with some elaboration of detail. Paradise and Hell were mapped out,
and the comfortable compartments to be occupied by the saints and the
miserable quarters of sinners were specified with the precision of an
Ordnance Survey. Purgatory was an institution not limited to the Roman
Catholic Church; it had a strong hold on the mediaeval Jewish mind. The
intermediate state was a favourite escape from the theological necessity
of condemning sinners to eternal punishment. The Jewish heart could
not suffer the pain of conceiving Gehenna inevitable. So, one by one,
those who might logically be committed there were rescued on various
pretexts. In the end the number of the individual sinners who were to
suffer eternal torture could be named on the fingers of one hand.
By the preceding paragraph it is not implied that Jewish literature in
Hebrew has not its full complement of fancies, horrible and beautiful,
regarding heaven and hell. But such fancies were neither dogmatic
nor popular. They never found their way into the tenets of Judaism as
formulated by any authority; they never became a moving power in the life
of the Jewish masses. It was the poets who nourished these lurid ideas,
and poetry which has done so much for the good of religion has also done
it many a disservice. Judaism, in its prosaic form, accepted the ideas
of Immortality, Retribution, and so forth, but the real interest was in
life here, not in life hereafter.
We can see how the two were bridged over by the Jewish conviction of
human solidarity. For twelve months after the death of a father the son
CONTENTS CHAPTER I. A MERRY DANCER II. A FINE PLAN III. FREDDIE AGREES TO HELP IV. GETTING READY V. AT THE STONE WALL VI. THE BANNERS VII. THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE VIII. BUSTER'S SCHEME IX. FREDDIE'S PROMISE X. DRAWING LOTS XI. PEPPERY POLLY XII. A TERRIBLE SONG XIII. CAUGHT BY A THISTLE XIV. JENNIE JUNEBUG XV. THE FAT LADY'S SECRET XVI. FREDDIE'S ESCAPE