His family had formerly held the ascendency in rank and power in the city of Mecca, and it was merely his misfortune in having lost his father in infancy, and being left an orphan, that prevented him from succeeding to the same distinction. It was therefore the dictate of a very obvious principle of human nature, that he should contrive, if possible, to make the fortune and influence acquired by his marriage a step to still higher ho nours, and to raise himself to the ancient dignity of his house. 2. He had travelled much in his own and foreign countries. His journeys would of course bring him acquainted with the tenets of the different sects of the religious world, particu larly the Jewish and the Christian, which were then predominant, and the latter greatly corrupted and torn to pieces with internal dissensions. Being a sagacious observer of men, he could not fail to perceive that the distracted state of the existing religions had put the Eastern world into a posture extremely favourable to the propagation of a new system. His own countrymen, the people of Arabia, were, indeed, for the most part sunk in idolatry, but the vestiges of a purer faith, derived from patriarchal times, were still lingering among them, to a degree that afforded him the hope of recovering them to a sounder creed. 3. The political state of things at that time was such as signally to favour his project. The Roman empire, on the one hand, and the Persian monarchy on the other, had both become exceedingly enfeebled in the process of a long decline, towards

the last stages of which they. were now rapidly approaching. The Arabs, on the contrary, were a strong and flourishing people, abounding in numbers, and inured to hardships. Their being divided into independent tribes presented also advantages for the spread of a new faith which would not have existed had they been consolidated into one government. As Mohammed had considerable op→ portunities to acquaint himself with the peculiar situation of these empires; as he had carefully noted the genius and disposition of the people which com. posed them; and as he possessed a capacity to render every circumstance subservient to his purpose, it is contended, that his scheme was much more legitimately the fruit of policy than of piety, and that the pseudo-prophet, instead of being pitied for his delusion, is rather to be reprobated for his base fabrication.

After all, it is not improbable that Infinite Wisdom has so ordered it, that a veil of unpenetrated darkness should rest on the motives of the impostor, in order that a special providence may be recognised in the rise and establishment of this archdelusion in the world. In the absence of sufficient human causes to account for the phenomena, we are more readily induced to acknowledge a divine interposition. In the production of events which are overruled in the government of God to operate as penál evils for the punishment of the guilty, reason and revelation, both teach us reverently to acknowledge the visitation of the Divine Hand, whoever or whatever may have been the subordiE

"Is there evil in

nate agents, or their motives. the city, saith the Lord, and I have not done it?" i. e. the evil of suffering, not of sin. It cannot be doubted that, as a matter of fact, the rise and reign of Mohammedanism has resulted in the infliction of a most terrible scourge upon the apostate churches in the East, and in other portions of Christendom; and, unless we exclude the Judge of the world from the exercise of his judicial prerogatives in dealing with his creatures, we cannot err, provided we do not infringe upon man's moral agency, in referring the organ of chastisement to the will of the Most High. The life and actions of Mohammed himself, and his first broaching the religion of the Koran, are but the incipient links in a chain of political revolutions, equal in magnitude and importance to any which appear on the page of history-revolutions, from which it would be downright impiety to remove all idea of providential ordainment. If then we acknowledge a peculiar providence in the astonishing success of the Saracen arms subsequent to the death of Mohammed, we must acknowledge it also in the origination of that system of religion which brought them under one head, and inspired them to the achievement of such a rapid and splendid series of conquests.

The pretended prophet, having at length, after years of deliberation, ripened all his plans, proceeded in the most gradual and cautious manner to put them in execution. He had been, it seems, for some time in the habit of retiring daily to a certain cave in the vicinity of Mecca, called the cave of

Hera, for the ostensible purpose of spending his time in fasting, prayer, and holy meditation. The important crisis having now arrived, he began to break to his wife, on his return home in the evening, the solemn intelligence of supernatural visions and voices with which he was favoured in his retirement. Cadijah, as might be expected, was at first incredulous. She treated his visions as the dreams of a disturbed imagination, or as the delusions of the devil. Mohammed, however, persisted in assuring her of the reality of these communications, and rising still higher in his demands upon her credulity, at length repeated a passage which he affirmed to be a part of a divine revelation, recently conveyed to him by the ministry of the angel Gabriel.. The memorable night on which this visit was made by the heavenly messenger is called the "night of Al Kadr," or the night of the divine decree, and is greatly celebrated, as it was the same night on which the entire KORAN descended from the seventh to the lowest heaven, to be thence revealed by Gabriel in successive portions as occasion might require. The Koran has a whole chapter devoted to the commemoration of this event, entitled Al Kadr. It is as follows: "In the name of the most merciful God. Verily, we sent down the Koran in the night of Al Kadr. And what shall make thee understand how excellent the night of Al Kadr is? This night is better than a thousand months. Therein do the angels

* This is the account given by Prideaux. Sale, however, says, "I do not remember to have read in any Eastern author, that Cadijah ever rejected her husband's pretences as delusions, or suspected him of any imposture."-Prelim. Disc. p. 58, note.

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descend, and the spirit Gabriel also, by the permission of their Lord, with his decrees concerning every matter. It is peace until the rising of the morn." On this favoured night, between the 23d and 24th of Ramadan, according to the prophet, the angel appeared to him, in glorious form, to communicate the happy tidings of his mission. The light issuing from his body, if the apostle-elect may be believed, was too dazzling for mortal eyes to behold; he fainted under the splendour; nor was it till Gabriel had assumed a human form, that he could venture to approach or look upon him. The angel then cried aloud, "O MOHAMMED, THOU ART THE APOSTLE OF GOD, AND I AM THE ANGEL GABRIEL !" "Read" continued the angel; the prophet declared that he was unable to read. "Read!" Gabriel again exclaimed," read, in the name of thy Lord, who hath created all things; who hath created man of congealed blood. Read, by thy most beneficent Lord, who hath taught the use of the pen; who teacheth man that which he knoweth not." The prophet, who professed hitherto to have been illiterate, then read the joyful tidings respecting his ministry on earth, when the angel, having accomplished his mission, majestically ascended to heaven, and disappeared from his view. When the story of this surprising interview with a celestial visitant was related to Cadijah in connexion with the passage repeated, her unbelief, as tradition avers, was wholly overcome, and not only so, but she was wrought by it into a kind of ecstasy, declaring, "By Him in whose

* Koran, ch xcvii,

+ Ch. xcviii