Since hanging has got to be a means of grace, I would prefer hell. I had
a thousand times rather associate with the pagan philosophers than with
the inquisitors of the middle ages. I certainly should prefer the worst
man in Greek or Roman history to John Calvin, and I can imagine no man
in the world that I would not rather sit on the same bench with than the
puritan fathers and the founders of orthodox churches. I would trade off
my harp any minute for a seat in the other country. All the poets will
be in perdition, and the greatest thinkers, and, I should think, most
of the women whose society would tend to increase the happiness of
man, nearly all the painters, nearly all the sculptors, nearly all
the writers of plays, nearly all the great actors, most of the best
musicians, and nearly all the good fellows--the persons who know good
stories, who can sing songs, or who will loan a friend a dollar.
They will mostly all be in that country, and if I did not live there
permanently, I certainly would want it so I could spend my winter months
there.