9. However, a general opinion, extending into pagan theogonies, appointed the lower place, otherwise called the depths of the Earth, or under it — they knew not much about it — for the sojourn of the reprobates, and called it hell; and in celestial heights, beyond the region of the stars, they fixed the home of the blessed. The word “hell” is now used, although it should have lost its etymological signification, since geology has dislodged the place of eternal sorrow from the center of the Earth, and astronomy demonstrated that there are neither upper nor lower directions in space.
