Note 35 — Chapter XXIV
Reading edition
In the Koran it is intimated that God fattens the wicked in this world for the day of slaughter in the next. I forget the Surat. The Arabic is—سنسدرجهم—signifying, "We (God) make them proceed by degrees;" that is to say, We, God, give the wicked pleasures and enjoyments in this world, that we may punish them the more in the next world. This is a most abominable sentiment, and intolerable to a right-thinking mind. But I believe such a blasphemous opinion has also been held by some mad-brained Christians.