285. Another noteworthy thing is how fantasy deceives them. For when they have been let out [of hell], they think they are walking around some circle, and trampling the universe beneath their feet, imagining themselves to be the greatest gods. Moreover, the hellish place is portrayed to them as a tub with a covering, and a little globe nearby on a kind of pyramidal base, on which they believe the universe to rest, which they look at, and which they control. By their fantasy, I seemed to be let into such a tub, where a state prevails such as can never be described; for hell is too harsh ever to admit of description. But from mercy, it was not God the Messiah's good pleasure that I should be let down into it, because of the dreadful and wicked things there.