he 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; [104] and a considerable portion of the globe
has abjured, at his command, the use of that salutary, though dangerous,
liquor. These painful restraints 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 indulgence 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 indispensable duty, the
relief of the indigent and unfortunate. Mahomet, 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 Mussulman
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 a fifth. [105] Benevolence
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.

[Footnote 101: The most authentic account of these precepts, pilgrimage,
prayer, fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted from the Persian and
Arabian theologians by Maracci, (Prodrom. part iv. p. 9-24,) Reland,
(in his excellent treatise de Religione Mohammedica, Utrecht, 1717, p.
67-123,) and Chardin, (Voyages in Perse, tom. iv. p. 47-195.) Marace
is a partial accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes of a
philosopher; and Reland, a judicious student, had travelled over the
East in his closet at Utrecht. The xivth letter of Tournefort (Voyage du
Levont, tom. ii. p. 325-360, in octavo) describes what he had seen of
the religion of the Turks.]

[Footnote 1011: Such is Mahometanism beyond the precincts of the Holy
City. But Mahomet retained, and the Koran sanctions, (Sale's Koran, c.
5, in inlt. c. 22, vol. ii. p. 171, 172,) the sacrifice of sheep and
camels (probably according to