Most justly (polytheism apart) did Cicero, in opposition to this heartless, hopeless creed, maintain with the Stoics the existence of a particular, as well as a general, Providence in the government of the universe: Stabit illud quidem. ... 'de quo agimus, Esse Deos, et eorum providentiâ 'mundum administrari, eosdemque consulere rebus 'humanis, nec solum universis, verùm etiam 'singulis."

The pantheist, too, if he carry out his doctrines to their legitimate conclusions, (as is done by the Hindoos,) may easily bring himself to believe that the eternal and immutable distinction between right and wrong is a delusion, however necessary for our guidance in this life. For by deifying nature, and thus confusing the Creator and the created, he makes the Almighty to be all things, and each individual soul a part of the Anima Mundi, the one great soul of the universe. Thus every act of man becomes an act of the Divinity; and as the Deity cannot do wrong, so neither, properly speaking, can man. Unpardonable as is this self-deification in those who have been nurtured in Christian lands, it yet possessed a winning aspect for very pure and lofty minds among the ancients, as a reaction from the grossness of the popular belief. With them pantheism was often

2

'De Divinatione, lib. i. cap. 50. § 117.-Cf. De Naturâ Deorum, lib. ii. of which a large part is occupied in establishing this position. 'Nec vero universo generi hominum solùm, sed etiam singulis à Diis immortalibus consuli et provideri solet. Licet enim contrahere universitatem generis humani, eamque gradatim ad pauciores, postremò deducere ad singulos.' (Cap. 65. § 164.)

For instance, Virgil. Georg. iv. 219-227: Æneid, vi. 724 -729.

perhaps the expression of a dim groping after two great truths; the one, that in Him who made us we live, and move, and have our being;' the other, that men's highest bliss must consist in becoming partakers of the Divine nature.' its teachers erred grievously, in that they denied the existence of a personal God, and reduced their Creator to a mere philosophic abstraction; they erred grievously, in that they made union with Him to be of such sort, as that man should become of one substance with the Eternal, and lose his own individuality by being absorbed into the Divine essence.

But even worse, perhaps, fared those who added drunkenness to thirst,' (if we may adopt Bishop Andrews's explanation of those words,) by taking refuge from atheism in polytheism, and the worship of images. The close connexion between polytheism and idolatry has been commented upon by S. Athanasius and S. Austin.3 There were no images in any country until religion became corrupted; Varro admitted that the Romans had for more than a hundred and seventy years worshipped the gods without an image: Plutarch (and, we believe, Pliny) bear witness to the same effect. And if this had endured till

'Deut. xxix. 19.

2 Cont. Arian. iii. 8.

3 De Civ. Dei. lib. v. cap. 31.

A very learned writer (Morris, 'Essay towards Conversion of Hindus,' p. 226) supplies the following list: Herod. i. 131 of the Persians, and iv. 59 of the Scythians; Tacitus, Germ. cap. ix. of the ancient Germans; Eusebius, Præp. Evang. pp. 274, 275 of the ancient Seres and Brahmans; Windischmann of the Chinese (p. 348); and Rubbi (xi. p. 171) of the native AmeriThe same writer is full of information upon Brahmanism and idolatry.

cans.

now,' adds Varro, 'the gods would have been more purely served." Not only is idolatry most offensive to Him who is a jealous God, in that it gives His glory to another, but likewise because it appears to have the power of putting men into connexion with the unseen world, and establishing a fellowship with evil spirits; in which, perhaps, the essence of its exceeding sinfulness may lie. "They provoked Him to jealousy with strange 'gods, with abominations provoked they Him to 'anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; 'to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.' "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto 'devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of 'their sons and of their daughters, whom they 'sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan. 'Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the 'altar? What say I then? that the idol is any'thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols 'is anything. But I say, that the things which 'the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils, (οὐ θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς κοινωνοὺς τῶν δαιμονίων Αίνεσθαι.)

Now against all three of these capital errors; against Epicurean or pantheistic notions of the Deity, and, still more vigorously, against idolatry, Mahometanism utters and enacts a most direct, a most energetic, and, on the whole, a most success

Quod si adhuc mansisset, castiùs dii observarentur.-Varro, eit. ap. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei. v. 31.

* Deut. xxxii. 16, 17; Ps. cvi. 37, 38; 1 Cor. x. 18-20; Cf. verse 21; also Levit. xvii. 7; 2 Chron. xi. 15; Rev. ix. 20: and Ps. xcv. 5, as in the Septuagint.

ful protest. We say upon the whole, for it is not to be denied that the creed of the Schiite Mussulmans has admitted a pantheistic element, the mystic theology commonly known by the name of Soffeeism. This arose from the influence of the Persian mind after the conquest of that country by the Moslems: and hence Soffeeism has found its way into Turkish as well as Persian poetry, as most of the poets of these countries belong to some order of Dervishes,' and these devotees are the supporters, as indeed they were the originators, of this intrusive element.

But although there has hence arisen a dangerous species of mysticism, we see no reason to believe that the disciples of Mahomet have, in the slightest degree, yielded to the temptation of disbelieving in the personality of the Almighty. And, assuredly, the God of the Koran is no Epicurean deity; so completely is all that is done in the universe regarded as His work and will, that even the research into secondary causes is, as we have observed, almost abjured. And, lastly, as regards idolatry, it has been seen, in that affecting history of Zayd the son of Amr, how he forbade men to eat the flesh of victims which had been sacrificed to idols, an injunction displaying a spiritual instinct so deep and true, as to incline us to think, that had his life been spared, he might have become a Christian like his three companions. And though Mahomet may have been in character inferior to his precursor, yet the progress of

'Taylor's Hist. of Mohammedanism, p. 307. See also the brief, but valuable account of Persian literature by Mr. E. B. Cowell in the Oxford Essays for 1855, which appeared shortly after the publication of this article.

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himself and his followers in the destruction of idol shrines, is undoubtedly the most grand and striking feature of their history. Never was Mahomet greater than on that memorable day, when he rode on his camel seven times around the Caba, and had the three hundred and sixty idols overthrown and crushed beneath his feet, saying, "The truth has come, let falsehood disappear.' Never were the Mahometan conquerors so thoroughly the instruments of the righteous vengeance of God, as when in Hindostan they disregarded all difficulties of country, of climate, of weather, all multitudes of enemies, all hostile appliances of war, the elephant, and the armed vessel, and the walled fortress, all bribes, however fabulous in amount, so that they might utterly demolish those idolatrous temples, which had in every way become the haunts of diabolical wickedness. And, truly, obedience to the law of their creed proved, at the same time, the best earthly policy. Most readers of the history of India must have been struck with that incident in the life of Mahmood, when for a moment he paused in the infamous shrine at Somnaut, and gave ear to the enormous offer of the Brahmins, who would fain have saved its idol from the common doom; but then, recovering himself, proceeded in his work of destruction, and was repaid, not merely by the approval of his conscience, but by the magnificent outpouring, from the interior of the shattered image, of diamonds, and pearls, and rubies, beyond number.

But over and above these protests against