righteous. We have also spoken unto thee, O Mohammed, by revelation, saying, Follow the religion of Abraham, who was orthodox, and was no idolater.'

And although there is real difficulty in ascertaining the precise amount of knowledge of the Bible which Mahomet possessed, inasmuch as apocryphal gospels, and all imaginable forms of heresy concerning the nature of our Lord, were rife around him, yet it seems certain that, either in the course of his travels, or from intercourse with his wife's cousin, Waraca, the most learned Arab of his time, he had gained at least a general idea of Scripture history, and the true Gospels and the Talmud.2 Some men there are who have influenced their own generation and posterity, who stand single and apart in history. Such in the world of politics are Julius Cæsar and Napoleon Buonaparte: such in the world of philosophy are Pythagoras and Socrates. On the other hand, Augustus could hardly have had a career, so far as we can judge, without the prior work of his great relative: the present Emperor of the French (he would be the first to acknowledge it), whatever powers he may have displayed, has yet no political existence apart from that of his uncle. In like manner, the Alexandrian school of Greek philosophy is as nothing without Socrates and Plato to fall back upon: and so, too, in the far

1 Koran, chap. xvi. 120—123.

Caussin, tom. i. p. 353.-It seems to us quite possible, as Mr. Hallam and Mr. Taylor think, that Mahomet had never actually read any part of the New Testament Indeed, as M. Caussin remarks, Il est douteux qu'il sut lire et écrire.' Such ignorance is of course quite compatible with a general, however imperfect, knowledge of Christian doctrine.

more solemn matter of distinctly religious teaching, it may be said that, apart from the revelations of God's true messengers, neither Mahomet nor his book have any being. Without Moses and the prophets and Christ, Mahomet is simply inconceivable:" without the Old and New Testament, the Koran could never have been imagined.

Pascal demands, concerning Mahomet, what mystery he revealed, what miracles he worked? To these queries the Mussulman can give no satisfactory reply. That the greatest of all prophets should teach nothing, which had not been known, even in patriarchal ages, is an admission surely ruinous to his claims. And the demands of his Arabian opponents, sarcastic as was their tone, do not appear in themselves unreasonable.3

'Since thou dost not approve our proposals, and persistest in declaring thyself sent by Allah, give us some evident proofs of thy claim. Our valley is narrow and barren; prevail on God to enlarge it, to remove further apart these mountain chains which inclose it; to send into it rivers, like those of Syria and Irak, or to raise from their graves some of our ancestors, and amongst them Cossay, son of Kilâb, whose word had such weight; let these illustrious dead acknowledge thee for a prophet, and we will acknowledge thee also.

*

*

*

*

At least, resumed they, ask thy Lord to cause one of his angels to appear to bear witness to thy truth, and command us to believe in thee. Ask Him, too, to show openly the choice He has made of thee, by relieving thee from the

'Ohne Moses die Propheten und Christus ist Mahommed undenkbar' (Möhler, p. 353), for, as he adds, 'der wesentliche Inhalt des Coran gauz dem alten und neue Testamente entnommen ist.'

2 Pensées, Seconde Partie, art. xii. § vii.

'Caussin, tome i. p. 378.

necessity of seeking thy daily subsistence in the markets, like the humblest of thy fellow-countrymen.'

The spirited replies of Mahomet to such remarks,' though fairly enough appealed to as evidence of his sincerity, yet leave the difficulty untouched. If he claimed only to be a restorer of forgotten faith, still God had never left even the restorer of Judaism, Elias, without the witness of miracles, any more than its founder, Moses. It must have been, in part, the sense of this deficiency, which has led the Persian and Turkish annalists to embellish the narrative of the false prophet's life with so much fable. Nor could

Mahomet himself, though he frequently said that the composition of the Koran was his only miracle, preserve entire consistency in this respect. The famous nocturnal journey to heaven, known as Isra, though regarded by the more judicious of his followers as a vision, was yet announced by himself as matter of fact. It brought on him a perfect storm of ridicule, and led many to renounce him and his creed. Pascal, however, likewise asks, with no less reason, whether this latest of prophets had himself been foretold: 'Ce prophète, qui devait être la dernière attente du monde, a-t-il été prédit? Now seeing that, as Bishop Butler observes, miracles and prophecy are the proper proofs of a reve

'God,' rejoined Mahomet, has not sent me to you for this. He has sent me solely to preach His law. I fulfil my mission, and I repeat,-If you accept that which I bring you, it will be your happiness in this world and in the next. If you reject my advice, God will judge us.' (Caussin, ibid.) Cf. Koran, chap. xxv. ad init. which is equally straightforward and vigorous; indeed, Mahomet's arguments with his countrymen seem to display a thorough belief, mistaken though it was, in his own mission.

lation, the absence of miracles seems to increase the need of prophecy. And of this, too, Mahomet was evidently conscious, though Pascal does not seem to have been aware of the circumstance. He accused both Jews and Christians of having falsified their sacred books, by expunging passages bearing reference to his appearance. His disciples did not, however, allow that this work had been so thoroughly effected as to leave no Scriptural testimony in favour of their prophet, and maintained that certain texts of either Testament distinctly pointed out his advent. One of these, which is well known, is too painful to dwell upon; we mean the blasphemous (we believe, the quite unconsciously blasphemous) interpretation of S. John, xvi. 7; where the followers of Mahomet, as those of Manes had done in an earlier age, understood the Paraclete to mean their new teacher. That Mahomet himself was under some extraordinary misapprehension in this respect seems tolerably clear from the following words of the Koran :--

'Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "O children of Israel, verily I am the apostle of God sent unto you, confirming the law which was delivered before me, and bringing good-tidings of an apostle who shall come after me, and whose name shall be Ahmed." [Ahmed being, as Sale remarks, another form of Mohammed.]'2

The Persian paraphrast attempts to support this passage by reference to the above-mentioned text of S. John. Another text of these Moslem doctors, is Psalm 1. 2, where, with the aid of the Syriac, they try to wrest the words 'perfection of

1 Möhler. Cf. Sale, Notes to Koran, chap. ii.

beauty' into meaning the 'crown of Mahomet.' In a third very curious instance, they would fain lay hold upon that connexion of mountains with religion, which is so frequent among all nations,1 and which divine inspiration has condescended, if we may so speak, to ratify; as will be admitted by any Christian, who thinks for one moment on the ideas associated in his mind with the names of Mount Sinai, Mount Tabor, and Mount Calvary. If, then, we can grant to the Mahometans that Mount Seir is a mountain in Galilee, or near Jerusalem, instead of being in Idumea; and that Mount Paran means the hills round Mecca, instead of that mountain in Arabia Petræa, near which Moses began to deliver his law, and which is distant from Mecca some 500 miles; then, but not otherwise, can they appeal with success, to the words of Moses, in Deut. xxxiii. 2, as a setting forth of three revelations, the Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan. Such, however, is the Islamite interpretation :

The Lord came from Sinai, [Judaism.]

And rose up from Seir unto them, [Christianity.]

He shined forth from Mount Paran.' [Mahometanism.] One more like application of Scripture remains, certainly by far the most ingenious. The seventh verse of the twenty-first chapter of Isaiah stands in the Vulgate thus: Et vidit currum duorum equitum, ascensorem asini, et ascensorem cameli?"

2

Möhler reminds us of Olympus among Greeks; Mount Maru, the source of the Ganges, with the Hindoos; the hills causing the cataracts of the Nile, with the ancient Egyptians; the Albordi of the Persians; and the Phrygian title of Cybele, the mother of mountains,' p. 355.

2 In the English version the latter part runs thus:-'A chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels.' Vitringa gives a kind of via media; 'vecturam asinorum, vecturam camelorum.'