Upon this rack I have described, this victim was placed, and those
chains were attached to his ankles and then to his waist, and clergyman,
good men pious men! men that were shocked at the immorality of their
day! they talked about playing cards and the horrible crime of dancing!
Oh! how such things shocked them; men going to the theatres and seeing a
play written by the grandest genius the world ever has produced--how it
shocked their sublime and tender souls! but they commenced turning this
machine and they kept on turning until the ankles, knees, hips, elbows,
shoulders and wrists were all dislocated and the victim was red with the
sweat of agony, and they had standing by a physician to feel the pulse,
so that the last faint flutter of life would not leave his veins. Did
they wish to save his life? Yes. In mercy? No! simply that they might
have the pleasure of racking him once again. That is the spirit, and it
is a spirit born of the doctrine that there is upon the throne of the
universe a being who will eternally damn his children, and they said:
"If God is going to have the supreme happiness of burning them forever,
certainly he might not to begrudge to us the joy of burning them for an
hour or two." That was their doctrine, and when I read these things it
seems to me that I have suffered them myself.