The trials being over, and the assembly being dissolved, the Mohammedans believe that those who are to be admitted into paradise will take the right hand way, and those who are destined to hell-fire, will take the left; but both of them must first pass the bridge, called in Arabic, Al Sarat, which they say is laid over the midst of hell, and which they describe to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword; so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason, most of the sect of the Motazalites reject it as a fable; though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of this article, that it was seriously affirmed by him who never asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet. To add to the difficulty of the passage, Mohammed has likewise declared, that this bridge is beset on both sides, with briers and hooked thorns, which will however be no impediment to the good: for they will pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or the wind, Mohammed and his Moslems leading the way. But the wicked, beset with the slipperiness and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the thorns, and the extinction of the light which directed the former to paradise, will soon miss their footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping to receive them.

With respect to the punishment of the wicked, Mohammedans are taught that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, contrived for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned. The first, they say, will be the receptacle of those who acknowledge one God, that is the wicked Mohammedans,

• It is from the Mohammedans, that those who deny the doctrine of the Trinity have learned to charge those who hold it, with believing in a plurality of Gods:

who, after having been punished according to their demerits, will, at length, be released. The second, they assign to the Jews; the third to the Christians. The fourth, they assign to the Sabians; the fifth, to the Magians. The sixth, they consider as the place of punishment appointed to the idolaters. The seventh, which is the lowest and the worst of all, is set apart for the hypocrites; those who professed some religion, but in their hearts were of none. Over each of these apartments, they believe a guard of angels will be set, nineteen in number; to whom the damned will confess the just judgment of God, and beg them to intercede with him for some alleviation of their pain, or, that they may be delivered, by being annihilated.

According to the Koran and the Traditions of Mohammed, the prophet has been very exact in describing the various torments of hell. He tells us that the wicked are destined to suffer from the vicissitudes of intense heat and intense cold, from furious and poisonous animals, and from various other causes which we shall not stop to mention. The degrees of torments he represents as varying according to the crimes of the sufferers; but he says, that the person who suffers even the slightest punishment of all, will be shod with shoes of fire, which will make his skull to boil like a caldron. The condition of these unhappy wretches, according to him, cannot properly be called either life or death; and their misery will be greatly increased by their despair of ever being delivered from that place, since, according to a frequent expression in the Koran, they must remain therein for ever. It must however be observed that the infidels alone will be liable to eternal damnation; for the Moslems, or those who have embraced the true religion, and have been guilty of

heinous sins, will be delivered from thence, after they shall have expiated their crimes by their sufferings. The time of their detention in hell, according to a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not be less than nine hundred, and ao more than seven thousand years. And, as to the manner of their deliverance, they say that they shoe distinguished by the marks of prostration, on those pares of their bodies with which they used to touch the gevend in prayer, and over which the fire therefore shall dave no power; and, that being known by this phenomenon, they shall be released by the mercy of God, at the intercession of Mohammed and of the blessed. Those whose bodies shall have contracted any sootiness or filth, from the flames and smoke of hell, shall be immersed in one of the rivers of paradise, called the river of life, which will wash them whiter than pearls.

The righteous, as the Mohammedans are taught to believe, having surmounted the difficulties, and passed the sharp bridge above mentioned, before they enter paradise, will be refreshed by drinking at the pond of their prophet, who describes it to be an exact square, of a month's journey in compass. Its water, which is supplied by two pipes from Al Cauthar, one of the rivers of Paradise, is said to be whiter than milk or silver, and more odoriferous than musk; with as many cups set round it as there are stars in the firmament. Of this water it is affirmed, that whosoever drinks will thirst no more for ever. This is the first taste which the blessed will have of their future, and now nearapproaching felicity. Though this paradise is very frequently mentioned in the Koran, yet it is a dispute among the Mohammedans whether it be already created, or to be created hereafter. The Motazalites, and some other sectaries affirm, that there is not at present any such place

in nature, and that the paradise which the righteous will inhabit in the next life, will be different from that from which Adam was expelled. The orthodox, however, profess an opposite belief, and maintain that it was created even before the world; and describe it from the traditions of their prophet, in a very different manner.

They say it is situated above the seven heavens, or in the seventh heaven, and under the throne of God. To express the amenity of the place, they tell us, that the earth of it is of the finest wheat flour; or of the purest musk; or, as others will have it, of saffron; that its stones are pearls and hyacinths; the walls of its buildings enriched with gold and silver; and the trunks of all its trees, of gold. Of the trees, the most remarkable is that called Tuba, or the tree of happiness. Concerning this tree they fable, that it stands in the palace of Mohammed, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer; that it will be laden with pomegranates, grapes, dates, and other fruits of surprising bigness, and of tastes unknown to mortals. If a man desires to eat of any par-` ticular kind of fruit, they say it will be immediately presented to him; or if he choose flesh, birds ready dressed will be set before him, according to his wish. They add, that the boughs of this tree will spontaneously hang down to the person who would gather its fruits; and that it will supply the blessed not only with food, but also with silk garments, and beasts to ride on, ready saddled and bridled, and adorned with trappings, which will burst forth from its fruits. They represent this tree to be so large, that a person, mounted on the fleetest horse, would not be able to gallop from one end of its shade to the other, in one hundred years.

As plenty of water is one of the greatest additions to

the beauty of any place, the Koran often speaks of the rivers of paradise, as one of its principal ornaments. Some of these rivers, they say, flow with water, some with milk, some with wine, some with honey, all taking their rise from the root of the tree Tuba.

But all these glories will be eclipsed by the splendid and ravishing girls of paradise, with the most beautiful black eyes; the enjoyment of whose company will be one of the principal felicities of the faithful. These, they say, are created, not of clay, as mortal women are, but of pure musk; being, as their prophet often affirms in his Koran, free from all natural impurities, defects, and inconveniences incident to the sex; of the strictest modesty, and excluded from public view in pavilions of hollow pearls, so large, that, as some traditions have it, one of them will be no less than four parasangs, (or, as others say, sixty miles) long, and as many broad.

The name which the Mohammedans usually give to this happy mansion is Al Jannat, or the garden; and sometimes they call it, with an addition, Jannat al Firdaws, the garden of paradise; Jannat Aden, the garden of Eden, though they generally interpret the word Eden, not according to its acceptation in the Hebrew, but according to its meaning in their own language, in which it signifies "a settled, or perpetual habitation." They call it also the garden of pleasure, and other names of similar import. By these different appellations, some understand so many different gardens, or at least places of different degrees of felicity (for they reckon no less than one hundred such in all), the meanest of which will afford its inhabitants so many pleasures and delights, that one would conclude they must even sink under them, had not Mohammed declared, that in order to qualify the blessed for a full en