and laid
over the mouth of hell. Mohammed and his followers will successfully
pass the perilous ordeal; but the sinners, giddy with terror, will
drop into the place of torment. The blessed will receive their first
taste of happiness at a pond which is supplied by silver pipes from
the river Al-Cawthor. The soil of Paradise is of musk. Its rivers
tranquilly flow over pebbles of rubies and emeralds. From tents of
hollow pearls the Houris, or girls of Paradise, will come forth,
attended by troops of beautiful boys. Each saint will have eighty
thousand servants and seventy-two girls. To these, some of the more
merciful Mussulmans add the wives they have had upon earth; but the
grimly orthodox assert that hell is already nearly filled with women.
How can it be otherwise, since they are not permitted to pray in a
mosque upon earth?

I have not space to describe the silk brocades, the green clothing,
the soft carpets, the banquets, the perpetual music and songs. From
the glorified body all impurities will escape, not as they did during
life, but in a fragrant perspiration of camphor and musk. No one will
complain, "I am weary;" no one will say, "I am sick.".

From the contradictions, puerilities, and impossibilities indicated in
the preceding paragraphs, it may be anticipated that the faith of
Mohammed has been broken into many sects. Of such it is said that not
less than seventy-three may be numbered. Some, as the Sonnites, are
guided by traditions; some occupy themselves with philosophical
difficulties,--the existence of evil in the world, the attributes of
God, absolute predestination and eternal damnation, the invisibility
and non-corporeality of God, his capability of local motion.... But
the great Mohammedan philosophers, simply accepting the doctrine of
the oneness of God as the only thing of which man can be certain, look
upon all the rest as idle fables--having however this political use:
that they furnish contention and therefore occupation to disputatious
sectarians, and consolation to illiterate minds.

MICHAEL DRAYTON

(1563-1631)

[Illustration: MICHAEL DRAYTON]

While London still crowded to the new "Theatre" in Shoreditch, the
first built in England; while Ben Jonson was still soldiering in the
Low Countries; while Marlowe was working out the tragedy that was to
revolutionize all stage traditions, and Shakespeare was yet but a
"looker-on at greatness,"--there came up from Warwickshire a young m