290 THE KaRAN. 



separate apartments is a point yet undecided. Mo- 

 hammed had too much respect for the fair to teach 

 such humiliating doctrine. His law rejected the 

 negative precept of the gospel, of " neither marry- 

 ing nor giving in marriage ;" but he has prudently 

 abstained from specifying the male companions of 

 the female elect, whether they will be united to 

 their earthly spouses, or have paramours of musk 

 created for them ; lest, as an ingenious historian 

 has remarked, he should alarm the jealousies of 

 their former husbands, or disturb their felicity by 

 the suspicion of an everlasting union. Like men, 

 their actions will be subjected to the same judicial 

 balance, and rewarded or punished accordingly ; 

 though their felicity will not be so exquisite, as their 

 deeds cannot have been equally important or meri- 

 torious. At the same time, the Arabian apostle has 

 left it recorded, on the evidence of his own eyes, 

 that the majority of infernal wretches are to consist 

 of this frail and fascinating portion of humanity. 

 Their degraded state in oriental society, as to their 

 moral and intellectual character, may still be inferred 

 from the legislative precept of the Koran, which 

 estimates a woman as worth only the moiety of a 

 man, and makes the fine of an offence against the 

 former but one-half of that for an injury to the 

 latter. 



That the carnality of the future state, and an 

 unlimited indulgence of the corporeal propensities, 

 constitute a fundamental principle of the Moham- 

 medan religion, numerous passages in the Koran 

 place beyond all controversy. Some of the fol-« 

 lowers and modest apologists of that creed have 

 revolted at so gross a doctrine, and adopted the con- 

 venient excuse of figures and allegories. But the 

 sounder and more consistent party abjure the refined 

 notions of types and parables ; they adhere to the 

 literal acceptation of the text, and would consider 

 the highest metaphorical enjoyments a worthless 



