350 THE DECLINE AND FALL and crovTied with virtue^ will be scourged with everlasting tor- ments ; and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother, for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a strik- ing contrast of humanity and enthusiasm. ^^^ The doom of the infidels is common : the measure of their guilt and punishment is determined by the degree of evidence which they have re- jected, by the magnitude of the errors which they have enter- tained ; the eternal mansions of the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, the Magians, and the idolaters, are sunk below each other in the abyss ; and the lowest hell is reserved for the faith- less hypocrites who have assumed the mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind has been condemned for their opin- ions, the true believers only will be judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Musulman will be accurately weighed in a real or allegorical balance, and a singular mode of compen- sation will be allowed for the payment of injuries : the aggres- sor will refund an equivalent of his own good actions, for the benefit of the person whom he has wronged ; and, if he should be destitute of any moral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded with an adequate share of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or virtue shall pre- ponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the abyss ; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet, will gloriousl}^ enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years ; but the prophet has judiciously promised that all his disciples, whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith and his intercession, from eternal damnation. It is not surpris- ing that superstition should act most powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since the human fancy can paint with more energy the misery than the bliss of a future life. With the two simple elements of darkness and fire we create a sensation of pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea of endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite effect on the continuity of pleasure ; and too much of our present en- joyments is obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of evil. 11 Al Beidawi, apud Sale, Koran, c. 9, p. 164. The refusal to pray for an un- believing kindred is justified, according to Mahomet, by the duty of a prophet, and the example of Abraham, who reprobated his own father as an enemy of God. Yet Abraham (he adds, c. 9, v. ii6 ; Maracci, tom. ii. p. 317) fuit sane pius, mitis.
