the glorious messenger of the Most High; and also in detached pieces, and at different times, the whole of what was afterwards collected and published to the world, by the name of the Koran; which is of the same authority to Mahometans, as the Bible is to Christians.

The first efforts of the impostor were confined to the conversion of his own household. Having succeeded, he pretended to receive more frequent communications of the divine will, and proceeded to gain over to his party some of the powerful inhabitants of Mecca; but the friends of the old religion made such powerful opposition to his innovations, and so persecuted their author, as compelled him to seek safety, by flying to Medina, where he was well received. This is called the Hegira, or flight, and is an æra to Mahometans, like that of the nativity of the Saviour to Christians, and is only 622 years subsequent to that event.

After three years, spent in secret, amidst various machinations, and intrigues; when he could now repose full confidence in the obedience of his new converts; he at length feigned an express command from heaven, to proclaim to the world at large, the important office with which he was invested; and to exhort his countrymen, in particular, to forsake the error of their ways, and embrace the holy religion which he was commissioned to reveal to them; and thus to save themselves from the vengeance, which an offended God would most assuredly execute upon a disobedient world.

He began to declaim boldly and openly against the reigning idolatry; and that his preaching might produce the greatest possible effect, he roused the hopes of his hearers, by glowing and animated descriptions of the habitation of the faithful; and alarmed their fears, by the horrid pictures which he drew of the dreadful torments destined to be the portion of unbelievers.

The cotemporary Christians unmasked the designs, and exposed the fallacies of the impostor. The Jews, not perceiving in Mahomet any of those characteristic marks which were to distinguish the glorious Messiah, whom they still expected, rejected his pretensions with disdain. The rulers

of Mecca, sensible of the danger which threatened a worship, on which all their credit and authority were founded, endeavoured to impede his progress; first, by severe and repeated menaces, and, at length, by actual violence. Even the multitude, on his first public appearance in the character of prophet, ridiculed his pretensions, and insulted him with the odious appellations of magician and impostor.

Under circumstances so discouraging, he remained unmoved. Unshaken in his purposes, and regardless of dangers and difficulties, opposition served only to confirm his resolution, and to increase his activity. Apparently insensible to every insult that was offered, he applied himself with unwearied assiduity to all ranks and distinctions of men. By the charms of his conversation, and by the elegance of his manners, he obtained the favour of the great: he sought to gain the affections of the poor, by condescending to mix with them in all the habits of familiar intercourse, and by relieving their distresses with a liberal hand: by unremitted endeavours to please, and by a constant exertion of those arts of insinuation, which he so eminently possessed, he gradually conciliated the affections of all.

Mahomet soon collected a considerable number of followers, whose belief in his mission was firmly established; and whose zeal for the propagation of his religion, and the support of his character, as a prophet, was too strong to be shaken by threats of danger, or fear of death.

With increasing power, the impatience, and the ambition of the impostor, also increased. The view of empire seems now to have opened more fully upon him. He pretended to have received the divine command to unsheath the sword of the Almighty, and to subdue, by force of arms, those who were obstinately deaf to the voice of persuasion.

Mahomet had hitherto acted the part of the profound politician; but he now began to display the more splendid talents of a commander, and a hero. The first actions, however, with which he commenced his military career, resemble the irregular exploits of the robber, more than the systematical operations of the warrior; and seem to have been influenced

rather by a rapacious desire of plunder, than by a pious zeal for the conversion of unbelievers. But enriched by the spoils, and aggrandized by the fame of his successes, he was soon enabled to engage in attempts of greater and more extensive importance.

The rapidity of his attacks, the sagacity of his stratagems, and the boldness of his designs, aided by the enthusiastic valor with which he inspired his troops, soon rendered him superior to his numerous adversaries. Whilst the flame of fanaticism, which he himself had kindled, burnt furiously in every breast around him; he alone, cool and deliberate, in the midst of slaughter and confusion, marked every movement of the enemy, and took advantage of it to obtain and to secure victory. The conduct of Mahomet, towards those whom his arms had conquered, was different, as interest required or policy directed. When mild and gentle measures seemed best calculated to conciliate the affections of those whom despair might render formidable, we behold him, with an air of affected generosity, dismissing thousands of his captives. When acts of severity appeared expedient to intimidate the obstinate, we see him, basely taking vengeance, and imbruing his hands in the blood of the conquered.

Numerous and splendid victories were not only the means of extending his power, but they were also eventually subservient to the gratification of a passion equally violent in its impulses, and no less forcible in its influence on the human heart. Whilst the wretched victims of his power were sacrificed to his cruelty or his policy, a still more severe fate awaited the female captive, who was compelled to submit to a barbarian conqueror, and was forced into those arms which were stained with the recent slaughter of a brother, a parent, or a lover.

From every view of the life of Mahomet, it is evident, that ambition and lust were the passions which divided the empire of his breast. From the separate or united influence of these powerful principles, it would not be difficult to trace almost every great design, and every important action, of his life. Hence originated the stupendous scheme of his impos

ture, and hence, we observe each subordinate feeling pointing, immediately or ultimately, to the gratification of one, or both, of these predominant passions.

During his earlier years, every measure seems to have been dictated, and every inferior consideration absorbed, by an unvaried attention to the pursuits and interests of ambition. The nature of his undertaking, particularly in its first stages, required no common degree of prudence and caution. That policy, which formed so distinguishing a part of his character, doubtless compelled him for a while to conceal, if not to restrain the indulgence of irregular passions: lest the licentiousness of his manners should give offence to those, whose good opinion it was his object to conciliate. Hence, both before and during the first years of his pretended mission, while his daring schemes were yet immature, and their success uncertain, the artful impostor regulated every part of his conduct by the strict rules of external decorum. But no sooner was his reputation as a prophet established; no sooner was his authority firmly rooted; than another passion became predominant, and hurried him into the wildest extravagances.

That address to the carnal appetites, which permitted them so liberal an indulgence in the present life,* and promised their complete and eternal gratification in another,† was one of the alluring snares which he so successfully spread to captivate his countrymen. The laws, which he prescribed for the regulation of these passions, were too indulgent to afford the most abandoned sensualist any ground of complaint.

But the boundless lust of Mahomet disdained to be confined, even within the extensive limits which he had drawn for his followers. Sole master of the oracles of heaven, he

• The koran permits the faithful to have two, three, or four wives at the same time.

† In addition to the whole train of sensual and costly luxury, the koran holds out, that seventy-two houris or black-eyed girls of resplendent beauty, virgin purity and exquisite sensibility, will be created for the use of the meanest believer in the world to come, and that his faculties will be increased an hundred føld to render him worthy of this felicity.

ever compelled them to speak that language which was best adapted to his designs. Hence we behold, the God of purity himself introduced to sanctify and approve the sensual immoralities of his prophet.*

The most abandoned libertine would blush at the particular representation of the scenes which passed in the chamber of the prophet. It is sufficient to observe, in general, that the retirements of Mahomet, from his first acquisition of power to the decline of his life, were continually disgraced by the excessive indulgence of that passion, which has a particular tendency to degrade the dignity of the human character, even below the brute creation.

As interest required it, Mahomet flattered the pride of the Jews, and appealed to the prejudices of the Arabs: now selecting the temple of Jerusalem, and now of Mecca as the hallowed spot, towards which, the prayers of his followers should be directed. At the commencement of his imposture we find him humble and yielding, labouring only by the powers of eloquence, and by the softer arts of insinuation, to captivate the affections of his countrymen: but, in its more advanced state, we behold, on a sudden, the preacher, by divine command, transformed into the warrior: we see his steps every where marked with blood and desolation; and we hear him, with the stern and ferocious aspect of a conqueror, proposing death, or conversion, as the only alternative to his subdued foes.

If the boundless ambition of Mahomet had been satisfied with that pre-eminence to which it might have aspired without a crime; if he had been content to assume only the character of a legislator, and to civilize his barbarous countrymen, and reclaim them from idolatry, without the aid of imposture, and the impious pretence of divine revelation, his vices might have been overlooked or forgotten; but so very different was his conduct, that, our admiration

* A special revelation excused Mahomet from the laws which he had imposed on his nation; the female sex without reserve was abandoned to his desires; eleven women are enumerated, who occupied at Medina their separate apartments round the house of the apostle, and enjoyed in their turns the favour of his conjugal society. Gibbon, vol. v. page 253.