his rhyming letter to Dr. Sheridan, he will find something that may give him an idea of the construction of the Arabic text, though none at all of its effect. It is not the irregularity of carelessness, but of irrepressible emotion. Sometimes, in the earnestness of his enthusiasm and the exuberance of his fancy, the prophet hurries by his resting place, and expatiates with more than Pindaric license beyond it; sometimes two or three words, or even a single one of sounding utterance and tremendous signification, is made to respond to and balance a whole sentence. In either case the reader's mind sympathises with the expression more than the sound, and lost in the rush of feeling or stunned by the concentration of it, hardly perceives the inequality of the metre. After this description it can scarcely be expected that any versified specimen will be offered to the English reader. The attempt would be attended with inconceivable labour and very dubious success. Such occasional extracts, however, in prose as will suffice to give an idea of the general style and feeling, we shall be obliged to present him with as the article pro

ceeds.

The Korann it is generally known was produced and published in detached passages of from 2 to 100 lines, as occasion required. Whenever a new argument or new taunt was to be answered, or a new rule established, it was said to be revealed by some new verses. These, according to Mahomet's directions, were either written separately as an independent chapter, or placed under some former one, to some or other passage of which he might consider them pertinent. In making these arrangements, however, he does not seem to have been guided by any very perfect knowledge of what was contained in former chapters, or by any very precise rules in commencing a new one. Hence two important peculiarities:-1. The chapters are of every imaginable length, from 2 and 3 lines to 1200 and 1500. 2. Every variety of subject, under every variety of date, is thrown together, without any visible connection, and the same sentences are repeated several times in the same chapter, and innumerable times in different ones, with some very trifling difference of expression. This it is which astonishes and disgusts the reader, who has not means, or who has not patience, to discover the occasion on which the separate passages were produced, and watch the workings of feeling and the changes of disposition, for which they are often so remarkable. This too it is which renders it

vengeance.

Truly I don't know who's bound to be sending for corks to stop your bottles with a "Make a page of your own age, and send your man Alexander to buy corks, for Saunders has gone already above ten jaunts."

impossible to make any thorough digest of the work, either in subject or date, without dislocating and re-adjusting with inconceivable labour almost every passage it contains. Another remarkable circumstance-the similarity, almost identity, of many chapters in style and matter, can only be explained by a reference to the prophet's most singular distinction-i. e. his ignorance. No one that wrote what he composed, and read what he wrote, would have so often reiterated a single idea with such very slight difference of expression. But Mahomet, who could do neither, hardly ever recalled a previous composition without making some slight difference in the words; and this was sufficient, from the assumption of the Prophet and the zeal of his followers, to render it a fresh revelation, which it would have been impiety not to record. It is more than probable this tendency was encouraged rather than checked by the wily enthusiast. "Quin etiam voluminibus ipsis," says Pliny, "auctoritatem quandam et pulchritudinem adjicit magnitudo." And if this is the case with ordinary writings, it must be still more so with such as aspire to be called sacred. The speedily increasing bulk of the Korann no doubt excited the wonder of his enemies, and quickened the devotion of his friends. It is not impossible that some of these "alter idems" may have been produced by the casual omissions and variations incident to repetition. The original passages we know were written down from the Prophet's mouth, and then, after being promulgated among his followers, were deposited in a chest ; but many must have been lost or misplaced, otherwise Abubecre, in the year after Mahomet's death, would never, with all the original in his possession, have compiled the Korann as he did, by collecting all the copies of every passage that was extant, and recovering much that was missing, from the memories of the most ancient believers. Any alterations proceeding from this source, however, must have been very slight, as they must have been involuntary.

In arranging the chapters on this occasion, the moslims, in their own thorough acquaintance with every part of the whole and every circumstance connected with its production, seem not to have considered it at all necessary to place the early ones before the late; chance appears to have directed the disposition. The latter chapters, containing the bulk of all the regulations relative to internal polity, were the first sought for, the first completed, and the first placed. Some however of an earlier date, being more readily obtained, intervened among the others; and the bulk of the chapters, which contained nothing particularly remarkable, naturally took their order according to what occasioned most solicitude to the compilers, viz. their length.

With the opening verses of the 73d and the 74th chapters, the

Korann may be properly said to commence. We have there the Angel Gabriel's address to the Prophet, exhorting him to prepare himself for his sacred office, and the words with which he imagined himself addressed by the same heavenly messenger, when he hid himself from the terror of his awful presence in the lap of his wife Khadijeh. That Mahomet was, at this period, frequently visited by mental perturbations of this sort, was the early belief of the Eastern Christians, whose vicinity to the scene of his life and labours entitles their testimony to some respect; and whose inventions, if taxed at all, would hardly have been satisfied with this innocent and ambiguous fabrication. By his followers, for obvious reasons, the assertion is not supported; but borne out as it is by internal evidence, au impartial inquirer will hail with joy this early clue to the morbid enthusiasm, which, he will soon find, is the only motive, short of actual inspiration, that can explain the conduct of Mahomet and the triumph of his faith. No traces of this emotion, however, are to be found in any late chapter; and the question of his sincerity in ascribing the whole Korann to God, may therefore be agitated by some, independently of any thing he might have believed with regard to these early passages. But here we must observe that the superstitious, the almost idolatrous reverence with which the work is regarded by Mahommedans, has only a very slender foundation in the text. Besides the general assertion that it proceeds from God, and the casual mention at the end of chapter 85 of the preserved table, in which it is inscribed, nothing can be found to justify the mys ticism in which it has since been involved. If the reader will consult the end of chapter 42, and the beginning of chapter 53, he will see not only that this inconsistency may be easily reconciled, but that Mahomet makes concessions which leave no inconsistency at all. The Moslim commentators reading these passages by the light of their darling prejudices, pervert them into a more limited sense than they strictly bear: from their interpretations, Maraccius was too illiberal, and Sale too scrupulous to depart; and it is therefore necessary to render them afresh.

66

By the star when it falls! Your countryman is not mistaken, neither speaks he by his own impulse: what is it but inspiration he is favoured with? The Almighty has taught it him: he hath suggested to his ser vant what he hath suggested; his imagination has not deceived him in what he saw wherefore then do you doubt him in what he sees? He hath verily beheld another descent-near the cedar of partition hard by is the abode of paradise. Where the cedar shades that which it shadeshis eye shrunk not nor wandered-he hath verily seen mighty things of the signs of his Lord."-Chap. liii.

"It is not possible for man that the Lord should speak to him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil; or he would send a messenger to

suggest to him by his permission that which he pleases. Thus it is that we have suggested to thee in spirit (or by spirit) of what we ordain. Thou knewest not what was scripture nor what religion; but we rendered it a light to thee, that we might direct by it whom we please of our servants, for verily thou directest in the righteous path."-Chap. xlii.

From these words two things are evident; first, that Mahomet nowise asserts a supernatural appearance to attend every revelation: on the contrary, he thinks it sufficient to appeal to a single and a long past one; probably one of the identical illusions from which we have just seen him suffering, in order to give authority to all he said. Secondly, that he acknowledges that inspiration is carried on, not by visible means, but by an internal and invisible process. This is still more clear from a rather ludicrous passage in the 75th chapter, where he is desired not to be too hasty in pronouncing the words of the Korann, before the internal suggestion of it was completed.-Still, if he was convinced that the mental process of composition was one of revelation, he was not insincere in asserting the Korann to be revealed; and if, in the zeal of instilling what he firmly believed himself, he represented (though we have no proof that he did represent) the presence by which he imagined himself guided, as more sensibly manifest than he felt it to be, he only practised one of those conscientious exaggerations to which none are so prone as the most virulent among his opponents.

The prophet was forty years old when he felt himself thus awfully called to the arduous task of changing the long established religion of millions. The affection of his wife Khadijeh-the childish enthusiasm of his cousin Aly-and the ignorant devotion of his servant Zeid-may perhaps be considered as natural and easy conquests. But the conversion of his friend Abubecre, a man of mature age, and high character, can only be explained by the instability and real emptiness of the religion he deserted. By his influence ten of the most respectable inhabitants of Mecca were prevailed on to listen to the prophet; and an attention that was probably at first only prompted by curiosity and politeness at last became sealed by conviction. To these fourteen the sacred secret was for three years confined, and it is to the lofty devotion of their earlier meetings that we must ascribe the beautiful prayer which forms the first Chapter of the Korann:

"Glory to God the Lord of worlds-the merciful-the compassionate-the Judge of the last day.

"Thee do we serve and thee do we entreat-Guide us in the right way.

The way of those thou hast been gracious to-not of those thou art incensed against, nor of those who go astray."

No other composition belonging to this period seems to be

extant, nor therefore to have existed :-facit indignatio versus. In pious calmness or the mere agitation of suspense, there was nothing to call forth the prophet's powers; to borrow his own expressive simile, it is during the storm that the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes. The Korann required the conflict of passion to give it birth.

In the fourth year he publicly asserted his divine mission; but here the power of prejudice was reinforced by the pride of family, the interest of office, and the insolence of age. He addressed the sacred guardians of a sacred city, and he was received with astonishment and contempt. We should expect to find in the Korann some amicable and mild invitation with which the men of Mecca were now accosted; but Mahomet's communications with them, as long as they would listen with decency, appear to have been verbal. In one of these conferences he was importunately applied to by a blind beggar, for instruction in the way of God: vexed at the untimely interruption, the prophet frowned and turned away in anger: for this he is severely reprehended in the 80th chapter, and this humble follower was ever afterwards distinguished with the most respectful treatment. With the exception of this passage and the few lines which compose the 105th and 106th chapters, no words are to be found applicable to the period in which he may be supposed to have regarded his adversaries with the hope of an enthusiast and the pity of a relative. This interval, however, was but short; he must have been prepared for incredulity, but he could not brook contempt. Mortified with the ill success he met and stung with the contumely he received, he seems to have suffered dark moments of diffidence and doubt, when the warmth of his soul was chilled and its light extinguished and when all the sacred hopes which had lifted him above his kind appeared to leave him below it. One of these mental struggles is beautifully depicted in the 93rd chapter; the 94th is also on the same subject; indeed consolatory passages are of frequent occurrence all through the Meccan chapters. The 93rd being written in more regular metre than is generally to be met with, we have been tempted to present the following feeble version of it.

"No! by the morning's splendour-No! by the frown of nightThy omnipotent defender will NOT desert the right.

Tho' present sorrows rend thee the future brings their balm; High destinies attend thee, be thankful and be calm. By him hast thou been cherished, an orphan in thy youth, An infidel thou'dst perished had he not taught thee truth. His bounteous hand has freed thee from poverty and scorn, Then do thou relieve the needy, do thou the thoughtless warn." These expressions however were but momentary-Mahomet had