voice of the Prophet commanding that the bodies of the dead should rise,
the souls be restored to them, and that all mankind should appear in the
Valley of Judgment. I started out of death, and stood on the surface of
the earth. Very great was the misery of being disquieted, and I should
have been willing to forfeit my hopes of paradise for permission to lie
still. I found myself standing in the burying ground where I had been
laid at my death, and saw the graves opening all round me, and flinging
out their dead, old and young.
Every one at rising found by the side of his grave two sacks belonging
to him, in one of which were contained the good actions of his life, and
in the other the faults. These two sacks were to be carried by the
owner to the Valley of Judgment: they were closely sealed up, and he had
not the power of opening them till he should come to his trial, when the
virtues were to be weighed against the crimes in the scales of the
Prophet, and as either prevailed over the other he was to be consigned
to happiness or misery. At the first sight of my own two sacks I was
struck with consternation to behold a very large one inscribed "Vices,"
and evidently quite full, while that entitled "Virtues" was dangerously
small. In my own eyes I had always been a good man, and now on hastily
endeavouring to remember my faults I could scarcely believe that I had
committed so large a bag of them. On the other hand, when I surveyed my
little sack of merits, it was equally inconceivable to me that all the
good I had done could be packed up in so small a compass, and I called
to mind several laudable actions, each of which appeared to me of itself
large enough to fill it. So bulky were my faults that it seemed
impossible for me to reach the Valley of Judgment under such a burden,
and I doubted whether I had strength enough to lift them from the
ground. However, I grasped the sack, and made a great effort, which I
found was not required; for notwithstanding the size of my load it
proved to be extremely light, and I threw it over my shoulder with
perfect ease. I rejoiced to discover that my errors were great in
appearance only, and snatching up my virtues in my left hand I set out
on my journey.
Having gone some distance I saw a crowd of people who had stopped to
rest themselves, and placed their sacks on the ground; and although I
was not weary, I joined them for the sake of their society. I first
addressed myself to a man who stood by a very large bag of crimes, from
which he had just relieved his shoulder, and I could not forbear
expressing to him my surprise that he should have been able to carry it.
He assured me that large as his burden was, it contained only such
frailties as sat very lightly upon him. I took hold of his bag to try
its real guilt, but with my utmost efforts was unable to stir it from
the ground. He laughed at my feebleness, and taking it in one hand
whirled it round his head without the least difficulty, astonishing me
by such an exhibition of strength. He then requested permission to try
the weight of my faults, which I told him he would hardly feel, but to
my surprise he was as unable to raise them as I had been to lift his. I
could not imagine why we should differ so much concerning the weight of
each other's sack, till I observed the same mutual experiment made by
several among the crowd with the same result; every person finding the
sack of vices owned by another intolerably heavy, while his own, however
large, had an alacrity in being carried that prevented his being the
least incommoded by it. All round me I saw men toiling in vain to lift
their neighbours' burdens, which, when raised by the owner, sprang upon
his shoulders without an effort; and it was remarkable that however
small a bag of sins might be, any person who made trial of it, except
the proprietor, was sure to find it grievously heavy, and to rejoice
that he was free from such a burden.
No one in all the company being exempt from this propensity to connive
at the weight of his own sack and magnify that of his neighbours, it
seemed impossible to form a true judgment of any before we should see
them in the scales of the Prophet, which were not likely to be biassed
in the same manner. In the mean time, when I saw the most bulky loads
passing themselves on the owners for mere trifles, I began to fear that
my own might have equally misrepresented itself to me, since every other
person in palliating his bag seemed as confident of its real innocence
as myself. I took it up again and again, threw it upon my back, and
whirled it round, unable quite to satisfy myself whether it were
intrinsically a light bag or not; but it was lifted with such ease, and
lay on my shoulder so plausibly, that I at length came to the conclusion
that every other man present had certainly suffered his bag to deceive
him, and that I alone had rightly interpreted mine.
An old woman, loaded with a very large sack of faults, complained to me
that her merits had been forgotten. She told me that she had found by
the side of her grave this great bag, in which every failing of her life
must have been accumulated, but her sack of good actions had not been
sent to her. I asked her whether she was quite sure that she had
performed any such actions, to which she answered with some indignation
that they were innumerable, and that her prayers alone would have made a
considerable burden. I afterwards heard her repeating to all who
approached the injustice that had been done her by the suppression of
her bag.
Though all those who were at first assembled in this place bore their
own sacks without trouble, yet this was not universally the case; and we
were afterwards joined by many who seemed miserably fatigued, and
eagerly threw down their loads for the sake of a short respite. They
seemed to be variously affected towards what they carried, according to
the cowardice or valour of their consciences, more than the real weight
of the burden. Some shrunk with horror, and appeared to be under
dreadful persecution from bags of no great bulk.
After I had left this crowd, and was pursuing my journey, I saw a man
who had placed his bag of sins on the ground, and stood gazing at it,
and holding a knife in his hand. I asked him with what design he stood
looking at his vices so steadily, and what assistance the knife was
likely to afford him in carrying them. He told me that he was loaded
with the most serious charges against himself, and should certainly be
condemned on the testimony of his bag, unless he could find some
expedient for suppressing a part of its evidence. The seal, he said,
could not be broken without detection, and he had therefore intended to
open a few stitches, that he might release some of his worst sins, and
afterwards heal the wound as dexterously as he could; but, on
examination, he had found the sack to be made without a seam, for fear,
as he supposed, lest any little fault should have trickled through some
flaw in the stitches; and he could not forbear murmuring against the
severity with which his vices had been enclosed in so inexorable a bag.
In this difficulty, the only plan that remained for setting his errors
free was to cut a hole with the knife which he held in his hand. I
advised him to abstain from all such violence, asking with what
confidence he could present a bag with a hole in it at the judgment, and
whether he thought it probable that the Prophet would connive at the
aperture. To this he answered, that he should repair his bag, and not be
so incautious as to present it with a declared hole. He intended to
break in at the bottom, and when he came to judgment, should place it
close to the Prophet, quite upright, and standing on its conscious end;
the Prophet, it might be expected, would break the seal and take out the
sins, without being so censorious as to turn it up, and call the lower
end in question. I endeavoured to dissuade the unfortunate man from this
desperate attempt; but he persisted, that having the choice of two
dangers, he resorted to this deception as the least of them; for he
should certainly be condemned on the information of his bag, unless he
could find some means of imposing silence upon it.
He therefore turned up the bottom of his sack, being resolved upon
violence, and, after a little hesitation, made a great effort to plunge
his knife in; but to his astonishment the knife, though a sharp one,
failed to inflict any wound. He repeated the stroke, and still the bag
remained unhurt, being quite impenetrable, and not capable of letting go
a single vice that had been entrusted to it. He attempted an inroad in
several different parts, but being every where repulsed, threw away the
knife, and resuming his inviolable bag proceeded under it in a miserable
state of mind.
I found that my approach to the Valley of Judgment had an extraordinary
effect upon my bag of vices, making it become gradually heavier; and
when I came within sight of the place, my burden seemed to grow more
oppressive at every step. In this misfortune I was not singular; a man,
whom I overtook, complained of the same aggravation in his sack, which
at setting out he had carried with ease, and could now hardly support,
though he protested he had done nothing on the road that could entitle
it to weigh more. The same thing occurred to others; and I remarked that
those sacks, which at first were most cheerfully carried, on a nearer
approach to the valley began to harass their bearers the most
grievously.
At length I arrived at the fearful spot. The place of Judgment was in a
large valley surrounded by hills, the sides of which were covered with
mankind, divine power having contrived that the human race should on
this occasion be enclosed within a space which would otherwise have
contained but a very small part of it. This pale multitude was a
dreadful sight. Every one in the crowd was endued with the power of
seeing and hearing all that passed at the place of Judgment, as
distinctly as if he had stood close to it, so that the crimes and
virtues of each who came to trial were made known to the whole world.
In the middle of the valley stood the Prophet, with some attendants, and
before him was a pair of scales, in which he was weighing the crimes and
merits of men, and pronouncing sentence according to the weight. It was
the law of this judgment, that any man who had wronged another should,
in retribution, resign to him so much of his own merit as was equivalent
to the wrong, the quantity being adjusted by weight; and if he who had
committed the injury happened to have no merit, or not enough for
atonement, he had to receive from the injured person a portion of his
sins, and be judged for them as if he had committed them himself. When a
sinner was condemned, the earth opened under his feet, and showed a
dreadful passage, into which he fell; the earth closed again, and he was
seen no more. Whenever this place opened a sound of distant torment came
from it, which was seen to strike terror into the whole multitude. The
person consigned to paradise ascended a glorious road, which rose up a
hill that concealed its top in clouds. The faces of the whole crowd were
turned up to every one who climbed this road, which in the middle of a
hill turned round a rock and disappeared. From behind the rock a
wonderful light fell upon the road, which, as the new saint entered it,
brightened his countenance, and made him another being. As each
approached the spot, all mankind gazed from below to see the light
receiving him, and then turned back their eyes with horror to the place
of Judgment. I observed that as any one who was thus rising arrived at
the rock, and looked onward, his eyes were filled with wonder and
happiness at what he saw.
The Prophet had a list of mankind, from which he called them before him
in turn; and every one, as he heard his name pronounced, issued from
the crowd and appeared at the scales. The weighing was conducted by
Mahomet and the person tried; the prophet placing the vices in one
scale, and the criminal consigning his own virtues to the other. To
entitle a person to paradise, it was required that the virtues should
exceed the vices in weight by a certain number of pounds.
I saw a man who had passed his life in vice and pleasure approach the
scales, and with a trembling hand break the seal of a large bag of sins,
at looking into which he shuddered with horror, and seemed hardly able
to put in his hand. Being, however, compelled to an exposure, he drew
forth his debaucheries, one after another, to a melancholy number, and
placed them in rows before the Prophet. This bag having made its
confession, he turned to that containing his merits, which was in
appearance tolerably stored; and as he produced them he seemed to be
encouraged by the sight, and to hope that they might prevail over his
pleasures. These merits, being also laid out in order, made at first
sight a very advantageous show; but I soon observed that they consisted
entirely of resolutions to be virtuous, without one positive act of
virtue amongst them. On comparing the two heaps, I saw that the
resolutions of the one were formed against the very vices of the other,
drunkenness being opposed by a determination of sobriety, and every
other vice encountered by an intention of its adverse excellence. These
resolutions had a very specious appearance, and to the eye seemed of
more than sufficient weight to prevail against the errors with which
they were to contend; besides which, they were far more numerous, there
being set against every act of intemperance at least twenty or thirty
designs in favour of moderation.
The Prophet, taking up an act of drunkenness, placed it in the accusing
scale, which was immediately weighed down by it. The culprit seemed not
to be dismayed, but selecting from his heap a very firm intention of
sobriety, with some confidence placed it in the scale which had to
defend him; but against this excuse the opposite scale remained
immovable. He added another similar determination, which proved equally
fruitless; and continuing to repeat the same kind of vindication, had at
length piled up all his laudable designs without making the slightest
impression on the peremptory scale, which was kept down by a single
error.
"Didst thou imagine," said Mahomet with a frown, "that these resolutions
would have a power in my scales, which they had not in thy own heart?"
The earth opened, and another was called into the place of the criminal.
The person who now came to be tried appeared in a hopeless condition,
being provided with a large sack of vices, and no bag of merits. I
remembered to have travelled in his company a part of my journey to the
Valley of Judgment, when he had informed me that notwithstanding his
want of a virtuous bag he had considerable hopes of entering paradise. I
asked him on what grounds his claim could be founded; and he answered,
that though he must confess he had passed his whole life in vice, still
his errors had not proceeded from a dissolute mind, but from the
strength of temptation: his heart, he said, had never been corrupted, he
had hated vice in the midst of his debaucheries; and from his earliest
youth to the day of his death had admired and loved virtue though he had
never been quite able to practise it: but being inspired with this
passion for what is laudable, he had always considered himself a good
man, and could not believe that he should now be condemned for sins
which he had committed contrary to his own wish. I thought it useless to
flatter his hopes, and told him that I feared an admiration of virtue
would hardly atone for an actual vice; for if this kind of inclination
were really of the value that he believed, he would certainly have been
furnished with a bag full of an admiration of what is laudable. This had
not seemed to discourage him, and he now advanced boldly to trial with
his single bag, which he emptied of its contents. The Prophet heaped up
his vices on the dreadful scale, which sunk without hesitation, and
pointing to the other which was mournfully elevated, he asked the
criminal whether he had any thing by which to lower it.
"Oh, divine Prophet!" he answered, "I stand before the Almighty justice
without the aid of a bag, yet let not my merits be the less effectual
because they come not out of a sack. Though I lived in vice I never
loved it, but in the midst of my sins I ardently desired to be
virtuous." To this the Prophet replied, "Thou shalt have a just
retribution; thy wish for virtue shall be rewarded by a wish for heaven;
though thou wilt now live in hell thou wilt never love it, but in the
midst of thy torments shalt ardently desire to be in paradise."
I saw a man advance to trial with great courage: he first placed his
sack of vices on the ground, and then proceeded with some ostentation to
break the seal of that which contained his good actions. He drew forth a
few insignificant merits, and then, to his dismay, finding the bag
empty, complained to the Prophet that his best actions had not been
packed up. During his whole life he said he had practised charity with
the utmost zeal, and hoped to have found his sack full of the distresses
which he had relieved. The Prophet assured him that whatever acts of
charity he had performed were certainly there. He turned the mouth of
his bag downwards and shook it, but without shaking forth any charity,
and he then declared there must certainly be a hole in the bag, by which
his charity had escaped; but on examining it, he was not able to find
the least blemish. With a look of misery he turned to his sack of
faults, and when it was opened, at the top appeared a heap of the very
actions that he had been looking for. He recognised his virtues with
great joy, declared they had been placed by mistake in the wrong sack,
and complained that the preparation of his burdens had been intrusted to
some angel who could not distinguish vice from virtue. He was proceeding
to grasp the good deeds in order to restore them to the other heap, when
the Prophet stopped him, saying that perhaps these actions, which he had
construed into charities, were not really such, but he had weights which
would instantly prove their real nature. He then tried one of them in
the scales, and declared that by the weight it was proved to be, not
"charity," but "ostentation," and had therefore, as a vice, been
allotted to the right sack. The remainder of these ostentatious acts
being placed in the scale, without the addition of any more of the
faults which were there, out-weighed the whole stock of merits, and thus
was this charitable man condemned by the very actions to which he had
trusted for his justification.
I next saw at the scales the female who on the journey had complained to
me that she was not provided with a load of merits, although her prayers
alone would have filled a very large bag. It now appeared that she had
misconstrued her prayers, as the man last tried had misconceived his
charity; for her sack of faults, on being opened, was found to be choked
with these very prayers which were to have carried her into paradise.
Mahomet placed them in the infallible scale, and by the weight
pronounced them to be "hypocrisy."
I was thrown into great alarm by observing how human beings are liable
to be imposed upon by their own actions, and began to fear that many of
my deeds, which had always passed with me as virtues, might receive a
very different name from these uncharitable scales. I looked back upon
several acts of charity, the validity of which I had never before called
in question, but I was now in doubt which of my bags might contain them.
I saw many such instances: men came to judgment with great complacency,
relying on some action which had been very amiable in their own eyes,
when this very piece of goodness was detected in the guilty sack. The
father of a family was astonished to see among his faults the
chastisement of his children, which he had always regarded as paternal
affection, but when it was placed in the scales its weight was declared
to be that of "anger."
By far the greater number of actions which had been thus misunderstood
by their owners were proved to be composed of "vanity." Those which in
appearance were acts of patriotism, friendship, religion, or generosity,
were found to be made of these same materials, though by the proprietor
of them himself they had never been suspected to be counterfeit.
There was one man whose virtuous actions greatly preponderated in the
scale, and it seemed as if his happiness was secure, when there issued
from the crowd of mankind a number of his contemporaries, who claimed
reparation for the injuries they had suffered from him. It seemed that
this man, though possessed of very good intentions, had been remarkably
choleric, and in his fits of anger had done some violence to each of
these persons, who were now clamorous for compensation. It was chiefly
his intimate friends, and his servants, who had demands against him: the
wrong suffered by each was referred to the scales, and an equivalent
given from the merits of the angry man. One by one his virtues were paid
away; and so ungovernable had his temper been, that of the stock of
virtues which had been about to carry him triumphantly to heaven not one
remained.
The merits of one person whom I saw tried were considerable; but as he
had had an unfortunate love of pleasure, his debaucheries proved a
little too heavy, and he wanted two pounds of virtue to entitle him to
paradise. In this difficulty, he remembered that a neighbour of his had,
in a bargain, defrauded him of some acres of land, an injury which had
given him so much vexation, that in atonement for it he had no doubt of
receiving more than the two pounds of merit which were wanting to make
up his qualification for heaven. He asserted his claim, therefore, and
his dishonest neighbour being called, the injury was placed in the
scales, and found to weigh three pounds. Accordingly, the injured man
was authorised to select from the sack of the other any good action, not
exceeding three pounds, that he might prefer. The man who had committed
the fraud had during his whole life been occupied in the improvement of
his fortune, and as he had rigorously abstained from all luxury, his
sack was now filled with resistance to pleasure, that being the only
virtue it contained; but since it was the very merit in which the
plaintiff was most defective, he was delighted to see it in such
abundance, and with great joy asserted his claim to three pounds' weight
of resistance. First, he chose from the heap an act of self-denial,
which looked extremely austere, notwithstanding which it proved almost
destitute of weight, and when placed in the scale caused not the least
depression of it. He added another effort of abstinence, which failed in
the same manner; and he continued to heap up one after another, till the
whole cargo of resistance collected together was found to weigh only two
ounces. This caused a general surprise, and many suspicions were
whispered concerning the veracity of the sacred balance. It began to be
believed that Mahomet secretly prompted his own scale, making it magnify
the faults of men, and connive at their virtues; and I heard one person
complaining, that after he had practised temperance with great
difficulty during his whole life, he was now to lose all the merit of it
by the detraction of these scales. He said he had restrained every
unruly desire, and now it appeared that all his mortifications were to
weigh two ounces. The Prophet perceiving these murmurs, and graciously
deigning to vindicate the probity of his scales, weighed one of the
pieces of resistance with those weights which discovered the real
quality of every thing, and declared it almost entirely composed of
"want of inclination."
The two ounces of resistance being made over to the injured person,
there still remained two pounds fourteen ounces of injury not paid for;
and the wealth of the other being exhausted, he had nothing to give, and
was therefore compelled, in order to a composition of the fraud, to
accept of its weight in vice. The plaintiff therefore having liberty to
choose from his errors any one that he might most wish to discard,
selected an act of drunkenness, which he assigned to the old man, with
whose grave and prudent demeanour it seemed very inconsistent. He was
greatly embarrassed to find himself thus surprised into a debauch, and
represented to the Prophet how unjust it was that he should be
intoxicated by the wine which another man had drank; but his
remonstrances were not listened to, and he was deputed to suffer for the
intemperance, while the person guilty of it was allowed to pass into
heaven, having made up the weight for eternal happiness.