THE KORAN. 279 



and feebly imitates the expressions, of tlie inspired 

 penmen. But the copy is far below the great ori- 

 ginal, both in the proprietj'- of its images and the 

 force of its descriptions. Its brightest passages are 

 lost in the blaze of the purer light ; and its loftiest 

 strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the 

 Book of Job, composed, in a remote age, in the 

 same country and in the same language. Even the 

 enchanting fiction of the Mohammedan paradise was 

 no original invention. The Jev>s had planted the 

 mansions of the blessed in the seventh heaven, and 

 furnished them with beautiful gardens. The idea of 

 the celestial sphere is taken from the Almagestum 

 of Ptolemy, whose writings were translated intojhe 

 Arabic tongue, and have continued for seventeen 

 centuries to be deemed the true astronomical sys- 

 tem by the greatest part of the Asiatic world. The 

 black-eyed houris were the creatures of the Magi. 

 The streams, trees, nymphs, exquisite viands, and 

 rich vestments, appear to be almost literally copied 

 from the furniture of the Hindoo abode of happiness. 

 The glorious but allegorical city of the Apocnlypse, 

 formed of gold and precious stones, with its twelve 

 gates, its waters of life, and fruits of healing virtue, 

 were grossly interpreted into sensual enjoyments. 



With the theology of the Koran the reader is 

 already acquainted. Its fundamental articles are 

 comprised in the celebrated theorem, or confession 

 of the Moslem faith, — La Allah il Ali.ak ; Mo- 

 hammed Resoul Allah — ''There is but one God; 

 and Mohammed is the apostle of God." This creed 

 may be termed pure Deism ; founded, as it is, on the 

 unity and indivisibility of the Divine nature. 



The Mohammedans divide their religion into two 

 distinct parts, — faith and practice ; each embracing 

 a variety of subordinate particulars. The former 

 or doctrinal department, besides a belief in God, in 

 his Scriptures, in his prophets, and in his absolute 

 decrees of predestination both cf good and evil, 



