348 THE DECLINE AND FALL from all pleasure that can gratify his senses. In the revolution of the lunar year, the Ramadan coincides by turns with the winter cold and the summer heat ; and the patient martyr, without assuaging his thirst with a drop of water, must expect the close of a tedious and sultry day. The interdiction of wine, peculiar to some orders of priests or hermits, is converted by Mahomet alone into a positive and general law;^^^' and a con- siderable portion of the globe has abjured, at his command, the use of that salutary though dangerous liquor. These painful re- straints are, doubtless, infringed by the libertine and eluded by the hypocrite ; but the legislator, by whom they are enacted, cannot surely be accused of alluring his proselytes by the indul- gence of their sensual appetites. ^^^^ III. The charity of the Mahometans descends to the animal creation ; and the Koran repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and indis- pensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. Ma- homet, perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the precise measure of charity : the standard may vary with the degree and nature of property, as it consists either in money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or merchandise ; but the Musulman does not accomplish the law, unless he bestows a tenth of his revenue ; and, if his conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the tenth under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to ajifth.^^'^ Benevo- lence is the foundation of justice, since we are forbid to injure those whom we are bound to assist. A prophet may reveal the secrets of heaven and of futurity ; but in his moral precepts he can only repeat the lessons of our own hearts. Re8urr»ction The two articles of belief and the four practical duties of Islam are guarded by rewards and punishments ; and the faith of the Musulman is devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and the last day. The prophet has not presumed to determine the moment of that awful catastrophe, though he darkly announces the signs, botJi in heaven and earth, which will precede the uni- 112 See the double prohibition (Koran, c. 2, p. 25, c. 5,' p. 94), the one in the style of a legislator, the other in that of a fanatic. The public and private motives of Mahomet are investigated by Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 62-64) and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 124). n2a [It would seem that the Koran doctrine of ' ' abrogation " must be here applied to Gibbon. It has been pointed out that this remark is inconsistent with his subsequent statement that the Prophet incited the Arabs to "the indulgence of their darling passions in this 7vorld and in the other ". See below, p. 394.J 11-' The jealousy of Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. p. 33) prompts him to enume- rate the more liberal alms of the Catholics of Rome. Fifteen great hospitals are open to many thousand patients and pilgrims, fifteen hundred maidens are annu- ally portioned, fifty-six charity schools are founded for both sexes, one hundred and twenty confraternities relieve the wants of their brethren, &c. The benevolence of
