understand how she can think or act without CHAP the agency of the organs of sense.

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The reunion of the soul and body will be fol- Hell and lowed by the final judgment of mankind; and, paradise. in his copy of the Magian picture, the prophet has too faithfully represented the forms of proceeding, and even the slow and successive operations of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerant adversaries he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation; for asserting the blackest heresy, that every man who believes in God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a favourable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to the character of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger from heaven should depreciate the value and necessity of his own revelation. In the idiom of the Koran," the belief of God is inseparable from that of Mahomet; the good works are those which he has enjoined; and the two qualifications imply the profession of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are equally invited. Their spiritual blindness, though excused by ignorance and crowned with virtue, will be scourged with everlasting torments; and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother, for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of

4 The candid Reland has demonstrated, that Mahomet damns all unbelievers, (de Religion. Moham. p. 128-142); that devils will not be finally saved, (p. 196-199); that paradise will not solely consist of corporeal delights, (p. 199-205); and that women's souls are immortal, (p. 205-209).

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CHAP. 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 the 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 ba lance, 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

T Al Beidawi, apud Sale, Koran, c. 9, p. 164. The refusal to pray for an unbelieving kindred is justified, according to Mahomet, by the duty of a prophet, and the example of Abraham, who reprobated his own father as an enemy of God. Yet Abraham, (he adds, c. 9, v. 116; Maracci, tom, ii, p. 317), suit sade pius mitis.

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seven hells. The term of expiation will vary CHAP. 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, conversation and friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner, even in the short period of this mortal life. Seventy-two houris, or black-eyed girls, of resplendant beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created for the use of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years, and his fa

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CHAP. culties will be increased an hundred fold, to render him worthy of his felicity. Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be open to both sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male companions of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the jealousy of their former husbands, or disturb their felicity, by the suspicion of an everlasting marriage. This image of a carnal paradise has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the monks: they disclaim against the impure religion of Mahomet; and his modest apologists are driven to the poor excuse of figures and allegories. But the sounder and more consistent party adhere, without shame, to the literal interpretation of the Koran: useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest faculties; and the union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is requisite to complete the happiness of the double animal, the perfect Yet the joys of the Mahometan paradise will not be confined to the indulgence of luxury and appetite; and the prophet has expressly declared, that all meaner happiness will be forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision."

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For the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c. consult the Koran, (c. 2, v. 25; c. 56, 78, &c.), with Maracci's virulent, but learned, refutation, (in his notes, and in the Prodromus, part iv, p. 78, 120, 122, &c.); d'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368, 375); Reland, (p. 47-61), and Sale, (p. 76-103). The original ideas of the Magi are darkly and doubtfully explored by their apologist Dr. Hyde, (Hist. Reli gionis

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The first and most arduous conquests of Ma- CHAP. homet' were those of his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend;" since he presented him- Mahomet preaches self as a prophet to those who were most con- at Mecca; versant with his infirmities as a man. Yet A. D. 609. Cadijah believed the words, and cherished the glory, of her husband; the obsequious and af fectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of freedom; the illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the sentiments of his cousin gionis Persarum, c. 32, p. 402-412, Oxon. 1760). In the article of Mahomet, Bayle has shown how indifferently wit and philosophy supply the absence of genuine information.

* Before I enter on the history of the prophet, it is incumbent on me to pro duce my evidence. The Latin, French, and English versions of the Koran, are preceded by historical discourses, and the three translators, Maracci, (tom. i, p. 10-32), Savary, (tom. i, p. 1-248), and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 33.56), had accurately studied the language and character of their author. Two professed lives of Mahomet have been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventh edition, London, 1718, in octavo) and the count de Boulainvilliers, (Vie de Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo); but the adverse wish of finding an impostor or an hero, has too often corrupted the learning of the doctor and the ingenuity of the count. The article in d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 598-603) is chiefly drawn from Novairi and Mircond; but the best and most authentic of our guides is M. Gagnier, a Frenchinan by birth, and professor at Oxford of the oriental tongues. In two elaborate works, (Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et Rebus gestis Mohammedis, &c. Latine vertit, Præfatione et Notis illustravit Johannss Gagnier, Oxon. 1723, in solio; La Vie de Mahomet traduite et compilée de l'Alcoran, des Traditions authentiques de la Sonna et des meilleurs Auteurs Arabes; Amsterdam, 1748, 3 vols in 12mo), he has interpreted, illustrated, and supplied the Arabic text of Abulfeda and Al Jannabi; the first, an enlightened prince, who reigned at Hamah in Syria, A. D. 1310-1332, (see Gagnier Præfat. ad Abulfed.); the second, a credulous doctor, who visited Mecca A. D. 1556, (d'Herbelot, p. 397; Gagnier, tom. iii, p. 209, 210). These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive reader may follow the order of time, and the division of chapters. Yet I must observe, that both Abulfeda, and Al Jannabi are modern historians, and that they cannot appeal to any writers of the first century of the Hegira.

" After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8) discloses the secret doubts of the wife of Mahomet. As if he had been a privy councellor of the prophet, Boulainvilliers (p. 272, &c.) unfolds the sublime and patriotic views of Cadijah and the first disciples