Poverty's Factory: or the Curse, Cause and Cure of Abnormal Wealth

IF it be tenable, on the basis of Scripture revelation, to divide the spirit-world into seven circles or spheres, then the Swedenborgian doctrine of " correspondences" seems verified in the present economic condition of the nations of earth. There is the lowest "pit," the dark Tartarus of absolute penury, despair, starvation, friendlessness, suicide ; next, the "hell" of poverty, drudgery, semi-starvation, and slavery ; then the " Hades " of laboriously making a fairly comfortable living; fourth, the "Paradise" of possessing a satisfactory income; fifth, the "first heaven "of ability to live on the interest of one's investments; sixth, the " second heaven " of a surplus and constantly accumulating interest ; and, lastly, the " third heaven" where the Chicago trinity dwelleth, the heaven where the streets are of gold, the avenues paved with stocks, bonds, and mortgages returning from 8 to 30 per cent interest, and where the palaces are built of precious stones galore.