210 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 



fictions of oriental imagination. The elements of 

 its happiness consist not in pure and spiritual plea- 

 sures. These were too refined, and quite unsuited 

 to the sensual habits of the Arab. The unlettered 

 barbarian cannot comprehend the nature of abstract 

 enjoyment, or how it can be felt without the agency 

 of the bodily organs. To these carnal ideas Moham- 

 med addressed his allurements, painted in the gayest 

 colours that a luxurious fancy could invent. Gar- 

 dens fairer than that of Eden, watered by a thousand 

 streams, cooling fountains, and groves of unfading 

 verdure, adorned these happy mansions. The de- 

 sires of the blessed inhabitants were to be gratified 

 with pearls and diamonds,— robes of silk,— palaces 

 of marble,— rich wines,— golden dishes,— blooming 

 girls, made of musk, with black eyes, of resplendent 

 beauty and virgin purity. While these costly and 

 exquisite indulgences were provided for the mean- 

 est believer, the most excruciating torments that 

 imagination could suggest were denounced against 

 all who refused to embrace the faith of Mohammed. 

 Seven hells, differing in the degree of their pain, 

 were to receive the damned ; and the wretched suf- 

 ferer might judge of his terrible doom when he was 

 informed that the tenderest of these punishments 

 was to eat burning victuals and to be shod with 

 shoes of fire, the heat of which would cause his 

 scull to boil like a caldron. 



One other artifice was wanted to give effect to 

 this plausible system,— the sanction of a Divme 

 authority. A succession of prophets had already 

 appeared in the world to instruct and reprove man- 

 kind, ever prone to wander from the truth ; all of 

 whom had their credentials attested by Heaven. 

 In this catalogue of inspired teachers, Mohammed 

 determined to enrol himself. It was a bold but a 

 necessary policy; and accordingly, next to the 

 Unity of the Deitv, stands the second fundamental 

 axticle of the Mussulman faith.— that Mohammed is 



