other
for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of
humanity and enthusiasm. The doom of the infidels is common: the measure
of their guilt and punishment is determined by the degree of evidence
which they have rejected, by the magnitude of the errors which they
have entertained: the eternal mansions of the Christians, the Jews, the
Sabians, the Magians, and idolaters, are sunk below each other in the
abyss; and the lowest hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who
have assumed the mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind
has been condemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be
judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Mussulman will be
accurately weighed in a real or allegorical balance; and a singular
mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment of injuries: the
aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good actions, for the
benefit of the person whom he has wronged; and if he should be destitute
of any moral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded with an
adequate share of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares
of guilt or virtue shall preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced,
and all, without distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous
bridge of the abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of
Mahomet, will gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty
will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of
expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years; but the
prophet has judiciously promised, that all his disciples, whatever may
be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith and his intercession
from eternal damnation. It is not surprising that superstition should
act most powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since the human fancy
can paint with more energy the misery than the bliss of a future life.
With the two simple elements of darkness and fire, we create a sensation
of pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea of
endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite effect on
the continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present enjoyments is
obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of evil. It is natural
enough that an Arabian prophet should dwell with rapture on the groves,
the fountains, and the rivers of paradise; but instead of inspiring
the blessed inhabitants with a liberal taste for harmony and science,