15 DECEMBER 1900, Page 13

HELL RATHER THAN ANNIHILATION? [To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]

Sm,—I have a paper on " Conditional Immortality " which my father wrote and read some twenty-five years ago at a small clerical meeting, and in which he states that, to him, the idea of eternal punishment is less terrible than that of annihilation. I remember him mentioning this once to the late Lord Tennyson, who in his gruff but kindly way replied, "You only say that because you're a good man." Is it not those whose minds are pure and whose inmost thoughts are as pleasant companions that dread annihilation most of all?