’Then you think, Mufti Sahib, that the devil could seduce only such as were predestined to go astray, and who would have gone astray whether he, the devil, had been respited or not?’

‘Certainly I do.’

’Does it not then appear to you that it is as unjust to predestine men to do that for which they are to be sent to hell, as it would be to leave them all unguided to the temptations of the devil?’

‘These are difficult questions,’ replied the Mufti, ’which we cannot venture to ask even ourselves.  All that we can do is to endeavour to understand what is written in the holy book, and act according to it.  God made us all, and he has the right to do what he pleases with what he has made; the potter makes two vessels, he dashes the one on the ground, but the other he sells to stand in the palaces of princes.’

’But a pot has no soul, Mufti Sahib, to be roasted to all eternity in hell!’

’True, sir; these are questions beyond the reach of human understanding.’

‘How often do you read over the Koran?’

‘I read the whole over about three times a month,’ replied the Mufti.[63]

I mentioned this conversation one day to the Nawab Ali-ud-din,[64] a most estimable old gentleman of seventy years of age, who resides at Muradabad, and asked him whether he did not think it a singular omission on the part of Muhammad, after his journey to heaven, not to tell mankind some of the truths that have since been discovered regarding the nature of the bodies that fill these heavens, and the laws that govern their motions.  Mankind could not, either from the Koran, or from the traditions, perceive that he was at all aware of the errors of the System of astronomy that prevailed in his day, and among his people.’

‘Not at all’, replied the Nawab; ’the prophets had, no doubt, abundant opportunities of becoming acquainted with the heavenly bodies, and the laws which govern them, particularly those who, like Muhammad, had been up through the seven heavens; but their thoughts were so entirely taken up with the Deity that they probably never noticed the objects by which he was surrounded; and if they had noticed them, they would not, perhaps, have thought it necessary to say anything about them.  Their object was to direct men’s thoughts towards God and his commandments, and to instruct them in their duties towards him and towards each other.

‘Suppose’, continued the Nawab, ’you were to be invited to see and converse with even your earthly sovereign, would not your thoughts be too much taken up with him to admit of your giving, on your return, an account of the things you saw about him?  I have been several times to see you, and I declare that I have been so much taken up with the conversations which have passed, that I have never noticed the many articles I now see around me, nor could I have told any one on my return home what I had seen in your room—­the wall-shades, the pictures, the sofas, the tables, the book-cases,’ continued he, casting his eyes round the room,’ all escaped my notice, and might have escaped it had my eyes been younger and stronger than they are.  What then must have been the state of mind of those great prophets, who were admitted to see and converse with the great Creator of the universe, and were sent by him to instruct mankind?