The Millennium, and Other Poems: To Which is Annexed, a Treatise on the Regeneration and Eternal Duration of Matter — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Millennium, and Other Poems: To Which is Annexed, a Treatise on the Regeneration and Eternal Duration of Matter
John Stuart Mill · en
The Mahommedan is equally subject to all the heart-rending grief
and anguish, which others feel at the loss of friends; but comforts
himself with the thoughts of one day gaining a paradise of sensual
pleasures; where, with all his faithful friends, he expects to bask
forever in all the enjoyments of sensuality. He dreams of trees loaded
with delicious fruits, and bending their branches invitingly to his
appetite;--and of gardens and pleasure grounds, adorned with pleasant
walks--with cooling shades and with blooming sweets which perfume the
air; and surrounded with fields of spices more delicious than all the
productions of Arabia: while his golden palaces and seraglios are
thronged with myriads of delightful virgins, more pure and beautiful
than the fairest daughters of Circassia. With these he hopes to spend a
life of pleasures forevermore.
The Pagan too, in turn, when bowed down with grief and sorrow, finds
some relief in anticipation of a future existence--some shady forest
filled with game--some delightful prairie of blooming flowers--some
humble heaven behind the cloud-topped hill, where he hopes to join his
wife, his children, his brothers, his fathers; and in their society to
spend a peaceful eternity in all the enjoyments of domestic life, while
his faithful horse and dog shall bear him company. These are the hopes
and anticipations which serve to dry his tears,--to calm his heaving
bosom, and to his troubled spirit whisper peace. How desirable then is
a just and correct knowledge on this all-important subject. Who does
not desire to become acquainted as far as possible with the nature of
that eternal state of existence to which we are all hastening? We are
dependent alone on the light of revelation and reason, for any just
and correct information on this subject. Moses, in his account of the
creation, commences thus:
[Hebrew Text]
Which may with propriety be translated thus: "In the beginning God made
(or formed) the heavens and the earth, and the earth she was empty and
desolate; and darkness upon the faces of the abyss; and the wind of God
was brooding over the faces of the waters."