OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 349 versal dissolution^ when life shall be destroyed and the order of creation shall be confounded in the primitive chaos. At the blast of the trumpet, new worlds will start into being ; angels, genii, and men will arise from the dead, and the human soul will again be imited to the body. The doctrine of the resur- rection was first entertained by the Egyptians ; ^i* and their mummies were embalmed, their pyramids were constructed, to preserve the ancient mansion of the soul, during a period of three thousand years. But the attempt is partial and unavail- ing ; and it is with a more philosophic spirit that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence of the Creator, whose woi'd can re- animate the breathless clay, and collect the innumerable atoms that no longer retain their form or substance. ^^^ The intermedi- ate state of the soul it is hard to decide ; and those who most firmly believe her immaterial nature are at a loss to understand how she can think or act without the agency of the organs of sense. The re-union of the soul and body will be followed by the Heu and '^ n Paradise final judgment of mankind ; and, 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 intolerate adversaries he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation, for as- serting the blackest heresy that every man who believes in God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a fa- vourable 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 London is still more extensive; but I am afraid that much more is to be ascribed to the humanity than to the religion of the people. 11-* See Herodotus (1. ii. c. 123) and cur learned countryman Sir John Marsham {Canon. Chronicus, p. 46). The'A6r)s of the same writer (p. 254-274) is an elabor- ate sketch of the infernal regions, as they were painted by the fancy of the Egyptians and Greeks, of the poets and philosophers of antiquity. ii^The Koran (c. 2, p. 259, &c. ; of Sale, p. 32; of Maracci, p. 97) relates an ingenious miracle, which satisfied the curiosity, and confirmed the faith, of Abra- ham. 116 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).
