From This World to the Next

by Henry Fielding
INTRODUCTION

BOOK I
CHAPTER I.

The author dies, meets with Mercury, and is by him conducted to
the stage which sets out for the other world

CHAPTER II.
In which the author first refutes some idle opinions concerning

spirits, and then the passengers relate their several deaths .
CHAPTER III.

The adventures we met with in the City of Diseases
CHAPTER IV.

Discourses on the road, and a description of the palace of Death
CHAPTER V.

The travelers proceed on their journey, and meet several spirits
who are coming into the flesh

CHAPTER VI.
An account of the wheel of fortune, with a method of preparing a

spirit for this world
CHAPTER VII.

The proceedings of judge Minos at the gate of Elysium
CHAPTER VIII.

The adventures which the author met on his first entrance into Elysium
CHAPTER IX.

More adventures in Elysium
CHAPTER X.

The author is surprised at meeting Julian the apostate in Elysium;
but is satisfied by him by what means he procured his entrance there.

Julian relates his adventures in the character of a slave
CHAPTER XI.

In which Julian relates his adventures in the character of an avaricious Jew
CHAPTER XII.

What happened to Julian in the characters of a general, an heir,
a carpenter, and a beau

CHAPTER XIII.
Julian passes into a fop

CHAPTER XIV.
Adventures in the person of a monk

CHAPTER XV.
Julian passes into the character of a fiddler

CHAPTER XVI.
The history of the wise man

CHAPTER XVII.
Julian enters into the person of a king

CHAPTER XVIII.
Julian passes into a fool

CHAPTER XIX.
Julian appears in the character of a beggar

CHAPTER XX.
Julian performs the part of a statesman

CHAPTER XXI.
Julian's adventures in the post of a soldier

CHAPTER XXII.
What happened to Julian in the person of a tailor

CHAPTER XXIII.
The life of alderman Julian

CHAPTER XXIV.
Julian recounts what happened to him while he was a poet

CHAPTER XXV.
Julian performs the parts of a knight and a dancing-master

BOOK XIX
CHAPTER VII.

Wherein Anna Boleyn relates the history of her life
A JOURNEY FROM THIS WORLD TO THE NEXT

INTRODUCTION
Whether the ensuing pages were really the dream or vision of some

very pious and holy person; or whether they were really written
in the other world, and sent back to this, which is the opinion

of many (though I think too much inclining to superstition); or
lastly, whether, as infinitely the greatest part imagine, they

were really the production of some choice inhabitant of New
Bethlehem, is not necessary nor easy to determine. It will be

abundantly sufficient if I give the reader an account by what
means they came into my possession. Mr. Robert Powney,

stationer, who dwells opposite to Catherine-street in the Strand,
a very honest man and of great gravity of countenance; who, among

other excellent stationery commodities, is particularly eminent
for his pens, which I am abundantly bound to acknowledge, as I

owe to their peculiargoodness that my manuscripts have by any
means been legible: this gentleman, I say, furnished me some

time since with a bundle of those pens, wrapped up with great
care and caution, in a very large sheet of paper full of

characters, written as it seemed in a very bad hand. Now, I have
a surprisingcuriosity to read everything which is almost

illegible; partly perhaps from the sweet remembrance of the dear
Scrawls, Skrawls, or Skrales (for the word is variously spelled),

which I have in my youth received from that lovely part of the
creation for which I have the tenderest regard; and partly from

that temper of mind which makes men set an immense value on old
manuscripts so effaced, bustoes so maimed, and pictures so black

that no one can tell what to make of them. I therefore perused
this sheet with wonderful application, and in about a day's time

discovered that I could not understand it. I immediately
repaired to Mr. Powney, and inquired very eagerly whether he had

not more of the same manuscript? He produced about one hundred
pages, acquainting me that he had saved no more; but that the

book was originally a huge folio, had been left in his garret by
a gentleman who lodged there, and who had left him no other

satisfaction for nine months' lodging. He proceeded to inform me
that the manuscript had been hawked about (as he phrased it)

among all the booksellers, who refused to meddle; some alleged
that they could not read, others that they could not understand

it. Some would haze it to be an atheistical book, and some that
it was a libel on the government; for one or other of which

reasons they all refused to print it. That it had been likewise
shown to the R--l Society, but they shook their heads, saying,

there was nothing in it wonderful enough for them. That, hearing
the gentleman was gone to the West-Indies, and believing it to be

good for nothing else, he had used it as waste paper. He said I
was welcome to what remained, and he was heartily sorry for what

was missing, as I seemed to set some value on it.
I desired him much to name a price: but he would receive no

consideration farther than the payment of a small bill I owed
him, which at that time he said he looked on as so much money

given him.
I presently communicated this manuscript to my friend parson

Abraham Adams, who, after a long and careful perusal, returned it
me with his opinion that there was more in it than at first

appeared; that the author seemed not entirely unacquainted with
the writings of Plato; but he wished he had quoted him sometimes

in his margin, that I might be sure (said he) he had read him in
the original: for nothing, continued the parson, is commoner

than for men now-a-days to pretend to have read Greek authors,
who have met with them only in translations, and cannot conjugate