he one and
the other there is enough that shocks all spiritual feeling in us. But
we are to recollect that the Arabs already had it so; that Mahomet, in
whatever he changed of it, softened and diminished all this. The worst
sensualities, too, are the work of doctors, followers of his, not his
work. In the Koran there is really very little said about the joys of
Paradise; they are intimated rather than insisted on. Nor is it
forgotten that the highest joys even there shall be spiritual; the
pure Presence of the Highest, this shall infinitely transcend all
other joys. He says, 'Your salutation shall be, Peace.' _Salam_, Have
Peace!--the thing that all rational souls long for, and seek, vainly
here below, as the one blessing. 'Ye shall sit on seats, facing one
another: all grudges shall be taken away out of your hearts.' All
grudges! Ye shall love one another freely; for each of you, in the
eyes of his brothers, there will be Heaven enough!

In reference to this of the sensual Paradise and Mahomet's sensuality,
the sorest chapter of all for us, there were many things to be said;
which it is not convenient to enter upon here. Two remarks only I
shall make, and therewith leave it to your candour. The first is
furnished me by Goethe; it is a casual hint of his which seems well
worth taking note of. In one of his Delineations, in _Meister's
Travels_ it is, the hero comes-upon a Society of men with very strange
ways, one of which was this: "We require," says the Master, "that each
of our people shall restrict himself in one direction," shall go right
against his desire in one matter, and _make_ himself do the thing he
does not wish, "should we allow him the greater latitude on all other
sides." There seems to me a great justness in this. Enjoying things
which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our
moral self to slavery by them that is. Let a man assert withal that he
is king over his habitudes; that he could and would shake them off, on
cause shown: this is an excellent law. The Month Ramadhan for the
Moslem, much in Mahomet's Religion, much in his own Life, bears in
that direction; if not by forethought, or clear purpose of moral
improvement on his part, then by a certain healthy manful instinct,
which is as good.

But there is another thing to be said about the Mahometan Heaven and
Hell. This namely, that, however gross and material they may be, they
are an emblem of an everlasting truth, not always s