Africa preserves, to this day, unimpaired, the manners and the faith of his fathers. Here, Mahometanism can boast of no support or countenance from its alliance with the state, for these savages seem to live almost in a state of nature: yet here it exists, not merely in the form, but in all the fervour and fanaticism, which characterised its primitive establishment. One such fact outweighs volumes of controversial theories; and taken with the previous limitations, it must wholly neutralise any argument, which would bring forward the political character of Mahometanism, as alone sufficient to account for its permanent duration.

Notwithstanding the solutions hitherto proposed, the permanency of this religion, therefore, still remains an unexplained, and, apparently, an inexplicable problem.

But the attention of inquirers is claimed, not only by the durability, but by the perfectness also of the original impression. The religion of Mahomet does not merely continue to exist in its original fervour: it exists, moreover, in all its primitive simplicity of doctrines and of ritual. Here, again, is fresh ground of triumph for the infidel; and here, also, the Christian advocate maintains a singular reserve and silence. An abundance of popular argument is advanced, to

meet the lesser difficulties; but no attempt appears to have been yet made, to resolve the extraordinary and unprecedented fact, that, of all the systems of religious belief which have been professed by mankind, in all ages of the world, Mahometanism alone has preserved, unimpaired, its original principles of severe and naked theism. And thus, in the two capital features, of its permanence, and its inviolable preservation of the primitive impression, the opponents of its pretensions, it must in candour be confessed, have failed to do justice to the real claims and character of the religion of Mahomet.

But the spirit in which Mahometanism has been hitherto encountered, and the palpable injustice which has been done to its undoubted claims, may be more clearly judged of by a further standard. The comparison has been instituted between Mahometanism and Christianity, as opposed to each other in their respective influences upon the character of mankind. "The characters of the religions," observes a writer already cited," which Christ and Mahomet have respectively founded, are not more different, than those of the nations which have embraced them. From the period of their primary establishment to the present hour, a different aspect seems to have belonged to them.

Wherever they have spread themselves, they have communicated their distinguishing properties to the understandings of the people whom they have converted; and in opposition, to former experience, the influences of climate, of government, and of manners, have yielded to the effects of religious persuasion." *

On the head of government, the author undertakes to show, that, where "the religion of Christ is found to exist and to flourish under every variety of political rule; . . . the faith of Mahomet, wherever it is established, is united with despotic power. On the banks of the Ganges, and on the shores of the Caspian, under the influence of climates the most unlike, and manners the most opposite, it is still found accompanied with servitude and subjection."+ Now, not to dwell upon the strong exceptions of fact, the uncontrolled freedom of the Bedoweens of Arabia and Africa in the East and West, and of the Mahometan tribes of Tartary, and the northern frontier of Asia, I would simply remind the reader, where it is that Christianity and Mahometanism now respectively prevail. And I would further ask, when has EUROPE submitted to the yoke of slavery? when has ASIA possessed the blessings, or manifested the love or capa

* White, Bampt. Lect. p. 295.

+ White, p. 296.

bility, of freedom? To the former inquiry, reply is needless to the latter, the answer is plain. Whether under the rule of the successors of Constantine, or under the sway of the Caliphs, the eastern world presents the same uniform face of subjection and servitude. Whatever foundation of justice, therefore, may lie in this argument, there is, to say the least, little judgment or discretion observable in the extent to which it has been pressed.

But it is in their comparative influences on manners, that this author professes to discover the grand social distinction and opposition, between the two systems.

When Europe emerged from the darkness of the middle ages, Christianity is justly pourtrayed as the parent of science and civilisation. The light of knowledge, which had burnt in secret, in the recesses of monastic retirement, is beautifully traced and followed to a period, "which the bounty of Providence distinguished by discoveries the most salutary to the human race: -no longer confined, as in earlier ages, to the opulent or the powerful, it began to spread its. equal lustre over the mass of human kind; and to illuminate those venerable forms of truth, of religion, and of freedom, which before were hidden from every vulgar eye."* Such is the

* Bampt. Lect. p. 301.

glowing, but just and true account given, of the social and intellectual influences of Christianity, in the West; "under whose happy auspices, men appear to have attained a vigour in their intellectual exertions, an extent in their intellectual pursuits, and a success in their intellectual cultivation, utterly unknown in any former period of their history."

Now what, according to the same authority, is the painful contrast presented by Mahometanism? "In the East, under the influence of Mahometan belief, the human mind appears to have lost somewhat of its capacity and power; the natural progress of mankind, whether in government, in manners, or in science, has been retarded by some secret principle of private indolence or external control; and over the various nations who have either assented to the faith, or submitted to the arms of the impostor, some universal, but baleful influence seems to have operated, so as to counteract every diversity of national character, and restrain every principle of national exertion. Their progress in science, their capacity to invent, and even their willingness to adopt any useful or elegant arts, bear no proportion to their zeal and activity in the support of their religious tenets. Through

*Bampt. Lect. p. 303.