The Dabistan

151

c< Endeavor to acquire praise worthy qualities: for, in the field of

" destiny,
** Thy resurrection shall be in conformity with thy qualities."

This threefold division they call " hell/' The
number of the stories of hell, according to the fol-
lowers of the law, is seven; that of the simple ele-
ments, four; and that of the compound elements,
three: altogether seven. Every soul, on leaving the
elemental world, enters into one of the stories of
hell. According to the Mashdyins, " Peripatetics/'
the human soul which, during its connection with
the body has contracted bad habits, becomes afflicted
and distressed by the impurity of such human attri-
butes as are accounted defects of the mind : on ac-
count of the extinction of sensual pleasure which
had grown into a fixed habit, the soul is bewildered,
and its base customs and qualities bear manifestly
upon it under the guise of a serpent, a scorpion, a
burning fire, and by all the torments which are
recorded in the law-book, whilst, on the contrary,
the noble habits of the virtuous shine under the
guise of Hum, Kdsurs, sons, and youths, and in all
the blessings of heaven.

S&rdi, " the bridge of the last judgment," signi-
fies nothing else but the temperature of power; as
it has been established in the doctrine of Ethics:
for instance, the excess of courage is temerity, a
deficiency in it is cowardice; a medium between