And lo! toward us in a bark comes on an old man, hoary white with eld, crying, “Woe to you, wicked spirits! hope not ever to see the sky again. I come to take you to the other shore across, into eternal darkness, there to dwell in fierce heat and in ice. And thou, who there standest, live spirit! get thee hence, and leave these who are dead.”

• Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy)