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ANIMISM.
pearls in the shell, where no idle or wicked speech is heard, but only the words ' Peace, Peace.'
' They who fear the judgment of God shall have two gardens.
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ?
Adorned with groves.
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ?
In each of them shall spring two fountains.
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ?
In each of them shall grow two kinds of fruits.
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ?
They shall lie on carpets brocaded with silk and embroidered with gold ;
the fruits of the two gardens shall be near, easy to pluck.
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ?
There shall be young virgins with modest looks, unprofaned by man or
jinn.
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ?
They are like jacinth and coral.
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ?
What is the recompence of good, if not good ?
Which of the benefits of God will ye deny ? ' &c.[1]
With these descriptions of Paradise idealized on secular
life, it is interesting to compare others which bear the im-
press of a priestly caste, devising a heaven after their
manner. We can almost see the faces of the Jewish rabbis
settling their opinions about the high schools in the firma-
ment of heaven, where Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai and the
great Rabbi Eliezer teach Law and Talmud as they taught
when they were here below, and masters and learners go
prosing on with the weary old disputations of cross question
and crooked answer that pleased their souls on earth.[2] Nor
less suggestively do the Buddhist heavens reflect the minds
of the ascetics who devised them. As in their thoughts
sensual pleasure seemed poor and despicable in comparison
with mystic inward joy, rising and rising till consciousness
fades in trance, so, above their heavens of millions of years
of mere divine happiness, they raised other ranges of
heavens where sensual pain and pleasure cease, and enjoy-
1 'Koran,' ch. lv. lvi.
2 Eisenmenger, 'Entdecktes Judenthum,' part i. p. 7.