One mischievous portion of his religion must not be forgotten, viz., the command to propagate it by force*. If there be one means more effectual than another of keeping men in perpetual ignorance, and consequent misery, it is to make truth and justice always the portion of the strongest. If, to the settlement of contending opinions, force alone be necessary, it is evident that the correctness of either is a matter of no moment. Consequently to discover whether an opinion be founded in truth will never be the aim of the disputant. The measurement of his own and his adversary's powers, is the circumstance that will concern him; he will be careless concerning the propriety of his belief, so long as his arm is the stronger; and hatred the most violent will arise in his mind against all who do not agree with him, inasmuch as non-accordance with his opinion implies a contempt of his power. He will learn to attach to words and symbols immeasurable importance, for they will be all that he can understand. His mind will be shut against conviction; and turned with implacable animosity against every one who hoists not his standard, or who is not attached to his formula. Every bad passion will be generated in his mind; irascible, impatient of contradiction, and revengeful, he will be ignorant himself, and determined to keep others so; will resist every improvement, as an attack upon his creed, and invariably weigh every man's worth, not by his actions, but by the words of his belief.

The Arabians, before the appearance of Mahomet, were a tolerant people. They forced none to believe as they believed; but lived in harmony and friendship with persons of every persuasion. In the retired cities of Arabia, the Christian, the Jew, and the Pagan, all found a refuge; and not till the persecuting spirit of Islam was established, were they disturbed in their hitherto peaceful abode. Arabia, however, became through Mahomet divided against itself; and to the many already existing causes of dispute were added the direful animosities of religion.

The following saying of Ali raises a vivid conception of the success of Mahomet's preaching on this head: "HOLY WARS are the pillars of religion, and the highways of the happy; and to them who are engaged in them, the gates of heaven shall be open."— Ockley's Trans. of Ali's Sayings, cxxxi.)

LAW.

Nothing but the prejudices of education could make a reasonable man look upon the Koran as a book of jurisprudence capable of conveying instruction to any but a nation of savages. Deficient in form; deficient in clearness; incomplete, it possesses not one single quality requisite to a body of law. In the midst of a vast farrago of nonsense, hidden amidst unmeaning explanations, and dark mysterious prophecies, there sometimes appears a command respecting the distribution of property, or the punishment of offenders. But no expla nations are given-no regular description of the means by which property may be acquired; no enumeration of those by which the rights to it may be lost, is even attempted. The rights of individuals, in their several capacities, to the services of others, are nowhere distinctly mentioned; nor is there any the most distant approximation to a systematic view of the several obligations to which it was intended to subject the members of the community. As occasion prompted, or when a dispute happened, Mahomet was accustomed to issue a revelation, which answered for the immediate purpose. But the original unwritten customs of the Arabs remained in full force, receiving little modification from the decrees of the prophet. One advantage, and one alone, he may be supposed to have originated, his were written decrees; it was a commencement for a body of laws, though a rude and imperfect one. This benefit, however, is more than counterbalanced by the evil of their being irrevocable. What the ignorant barbarian instituted, succeeding generations have been obliged to retain. No matter how absurd, how injurious the decree, religion commands the faithful Moslem to abide by it. The Almighty was its author, and he is allwise; and, moreover, is as wise at one time as another. How, then, shall we pretend to amend the divine ordination, or fancy that he himself need amend it? The conclusion is irresistible, provided the premises be allowed. The nations who have assumed the Moslem faith have consequently remained, and, while professing it, will remain, barbarians.

Into the particular laws which Ma homet established we do not intend to examine. That many of them were useful cannot be denied; but to esta

blish them argued no great wisdom on his part, whilst the loose and uncertain manner in which they were promulgated shows that he himself attached little importance to their establishment. Succeeding ages have, in some degree, improved upon this rude system of law; but the improvement has been effected by the increasing civilization of the people, which has advanced in spite, not in consequence, of the Koran. As the opinions of the people have become more enlightened, better interpretations have been put upon the sacred volume; it has thus, in appearance, kept pace with the improvement of the people. From the obscure style in which the holy book is written, it is liable to several interpretations; in a barbarous age, a barbarous interpretation was the one chosen; but when succeeding times revolted at these abominable precepts, the interested clergy declared that their predecessors had been mistaken; that the true spirit of the Islam religion and law had been misunderstood. It has nevertheless constantly, and for the most part successfully, withstood all improvement. The amelioration in its tenets has been rare; and has never taken place till the bigoted priesthood foresaw that further opposition would be dangerous.

Even from this hasty and imperfect review of Mahomet's actions as a legislator, the reader will be able to form a tolerably correct estimate of his public character. That he was a barbarian, unskilled in the sciences of which he professed himself the inspired teacher, and deserving a very small portion of applause, as having advanced the civilization of his people beyond the point at which he found it, is abundantly manifest that he was superior to the age in which he lived may be believed from the success of his imposture. Among a people so rude as the Arabs, however, a very slight superiority was sufficient to render him thus successful. His talents contributed to his own fortune, not to his nation's improvement; he was skilled in whatever was necessary for his personal aggrandisement; in whatever was useful to others he was miserably deficient.

Of his private character we need say little. He has usually been branded with opprobrium for not conforming to established rules of morality, of which unhappily he was totally ignorant. For

this, assuredly, he deserved no reprehension. That, however, for which he does deserve the severest reprehension, is his departure from the morality which he approved and adopted. The moral code of a people must be judged by its approximation to that perfect standard which provides completely for the happiness of mankind; but the moral character of a particular man must be judged by the steadiness of his adherence to that code which he considers the correct one.

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His unbounded gratification of his amorous propensities has been urged as a proof of his immorality. In this, however, he followed the manners of his countrymen: among them it was crime to maintain as many female slaves and wives as their wealth permitted, and their desires prompted. Mahomet, in acting up to the measure both of one and the other, offended against no rule of morality with which he was quainted.

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Mahomet was a murderer and an impostor. He prompted and approved of the assassination of Sophyân and Caab. It must, however, be recollected that, among the barbarous Arabians, the same carefulness of life was not inculcated as among a civilized people; and the prophet, in getting rid of his enemies, did not outrage the feelings of his friends or his enemies. We cannot, indeed, but detest the morality of a people who tolerated such conduct, and also hold in exceedingly low estimation the civilization of him, who, pretending to improve that morality, upheld and practised the very worst portion of its tenets.

That Mahomet was an impostor cannot be doubted. In the early part of his public life he might have fancied himself somewhat peculiarly gifted; but that his self-delusion should have continued to the later years of his life, to such an extent as to acquit him of fraud, is utterly impossible. His story of the heavenly journey was a fiction, which nothing but absolute madness could have permitted him to believe. Moreover, the constant visits of the angel Gabriel, precisely at the critical moment when his aid was needed, are sufficient evidence of a perfect absence of all selfdelusion. But, being an impostor, did he employ the power he acquired to the advantage of his people or to his own aggrandiscment? He exalted himself

to a throne, and, possibly, when his own interests were not concerned, did, as far as his abilities enabled him, further the welfare of his people. He was not cruel, nor sanguinary his conquests were generally speaking marked by no butchery; nor was his government a tyrannical one. In his private life he was mild and gentle; affectionate to

Like other conquerors, Mahomet was occasionally cruel he was, nevertheless, as compared with his age and nation, a merciful conqueror.-See, for specimens of his cruelties, Mod. Univ. Hist. b. 1. c. 1. p. 131.

his friends and his wives; and just and honourable in his dealings. As a private man, among his own people, he was esteemed virtuous and beneficent. For the most part he wanted rather the knowledge than the will to be an estimable citizen, as well as a beneficent legislator. His vices were the vices of his age; and, as he was little superior in knowledge to the men by whom he was surrounded, it is not wonderful that he did not greatly surpass them in virtue.

Ir may be of service to point out to the reader the authorities on this portion of history. In reading to acquire knowledge respecting the fortunes of mankind during any particular period, two objects should be kept in view:-1st, to discover what events occurred; 2d, to learn the manners and institutions of the people whose history we are investigating. A detail of events without a knowledge of the institutions and customs which must materially have influenced those events, is utterly barren of instruction. Under this twofold division we shall therefore class the authors which we are about to recommend. It must be remembered that only such portions of history are here in contemplation, as are requisite to elucidate the life of Mahomet.

I. Works giving the History of Events.

1. The first we should recommend is the first chapter of the first book of the Modern Universal History, which as a repertory of facts is valuable. The Arabic scholar could not do better than trace out the Arabian authors there quoted.

2. Chapters 50 and 51 of Gibbon's Decline and Fall. These contain an easy, graceful narrative of the prophet's life and the conquests of his followers, a superficial account of his institutions, and a host of authorities to which the industrious historical reader would do well to refer. In Gibbon, moreover, will be found a clear description of the situation of the Greek empire, and all we know on the subject of Persia during that period.

3. Gagnier's Life of Mahomet contains the fullest account of his fortunes that any writer has left us. Gagnier has written precisely as a Mussulman might have written. He has related all the wonderful stories that the Arabs report of their prophet; and coolly describes every act of atrocity without observation or repugnance.

4. Prideaux will add little to our knowledge, but his book is not long.

5. Ockley's History of the Saracens. A most remarkable and original work, giving a lively picture of the times; containing some good, and many extravagant observations: it well deserves perusal.

6. Pocock's translations will be read by a hardy and determined investigator, but by no other.

These sources will be sufficient; and if more be required, the reader will be able, from the light they afford, to discover the remainder for himself.

II. Works respecting the Manners,
Institutions, &c.

1. Sale's Koran, and Preliminary Discourse. It would be difficult to find a more excellent authority. He has few prejudices, and relates a great deal. The reader is presented with a copious and candid detail, and is generally left to form his own judgment. Like too many other oriental scholars, however, Sale,was much inclined to overrate the worth of that literature of which he enjoyed a sort of monopoly. His facts may be relied on.

2. Ancient Universal History, vol. xviii. b. iv. c. 21, written by Sale, and containing an excellent account of the laws and customs of the Arabs.

3. Niebuhr's Travels. The best of oriental travellers: he relates,honestly, and judges like a philosopher.

4. D'Herbelot... Bibliot. Orientale. Of this work, Gibbon says, "the Oriental Library of a Frenchman would instruct the most learned Mufti of the east ;" and again, for the character of the respectable author consult his friend Thevenot (Voyages du Levant, part i. c. 1.) His work is an agreeable miscellany, which must gratify every taste; but I can never digest the alphabetical order, and I find him more satisfactory in the Persian than the Aralic history." (Decline and Fall, c. 51.)

5. Not connected immediately with the present portion of history, but an admirable guide neverthe less in our investigations, is Mill's British India, b. 2. The author of the present work cannot omit this opportunity to acknowledge the great debt he owes to the profound historian of British India.

6. The French writers of the eighteenth century, more particularly of the Encyclopédie, are unsafe guides. Their conclusions are generally well drawn from false data. So with Voltaire.

7. Of the various modern travels into Arabia it is not necessary to speak specifically. They are all amusing, and many of them instructive. Their facts generally can be relied on.

was at its height, and Wolsey imbibed from education a partiality for the doctrines, and an admiration for the talents, of that great man, by which his subsequent opinions on theological subjects were strongly tinctured. Seconded by the zeal and talents of Aquinas, scholastic learning had gained rapidly in public estimation; while the Biblicists, those who resorted to the writings of the ancient fathers, or to Holy Writ itself, as the sources of divine truths, had declined both in numbers and importance. Hence consequences the most injurious to religion and philosophy ensued. The education of youth was directed to attainments of a superficial character; a fluency of argument, calculated to mislead, but not to convince; a readiness in the use of scholastic terms, and in the practice of unintelligible distinctions, and a skill in imparting to disputation the air of method, and the semblance of abstruse reflection, constituted, long after the death of Aquinas, the chief accomplishments of young theologians.

Such being the nature of those studies to which the attention of Wolsey was directed, it is not surprising that he should have contracted strong prejudices, and imbibed erroneous opinions, which even the powers of his vigorous and comprehensive mind were unable to correct. In the endeavour to understand and to retain the subtleties and refined distinctions of his great model, Wolsey neglected both the politer branches of learning, and the important acquisition of real religious knowledge, which can be gained from Scripture alone. In those days, a critical knowledge of the Scriptures was, indeed, rarely to be found even in the most celebrated collegiate teachers, who were usually ignorant of the original languages. Thus, as the historian of Henry the Eighth, Lord Herbert, expresses it, "the learning of Wolsey, which was far from being exact, consisted chiefly in the subtleties of the Thomists, in which he, and King Henry the Eighth, did oftener weary than satisfy one another." To the same cause may be attributed the absence of those higher principles of action, which, had they regulated the conduct of Wolsey, might have

When Luther, many years after the period of Wolsey's youth, challenged the University of Paris to dispute with him upon a Scripture foundation, not a single person could be met with, qualified to argue upon a system which had become nearly obsolete.— Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 298.

rendered his splendid career a source of incalculable benefit to his country.

To pass his days in studious retirement was not, however, the lot of Wolsey, who had the advantage, for such it often proves, of resting entirely upon his own exertions. It must have been an acceptable turn of good fortune to him, after having, by his proficiency in logic and philosophy become a Fellow of Magdalen College, to have been appointed master of the school, in which students, intended to enter that College, were instructed previous to their admission; a practice common at both the Universities,-each College having, in general, some particular school appropriated to it.* Luckily for Wolsey, there were, among his pupils, three sons of Grey, Marquis of Dorset, the collateral ancestor of Lady Jane Grey. To these young noblemen Wolsey proved an able and assiduous instructor; and it is a curious reflection, that he, who in after times became the governor of princes, possessed, in this early period of his life, the forbearance and diligence which render the humble, and often thankless, offices of a teacher effectual. Perhaps the opportunity thus afforded to Wolsey of viewing, in the ingenuous soul of youth, the secret springs of action and the varieties of undisguised passion, may have been the first source of that intimate knowledge of character which was ascribed subsequently to necromancy, by his enemies, from the influence which he gained over the king. Whatever may have been the final benefits of the task thus appropriated to Wolsey, the immediate advantages were both encouraging to him, and creditable.

It happened that he was invited, with his pupils, to pass under the roof of their father the pleasant and "honourable feast of Christmas," in which our forefathers, even more than ourselves, were wont to delight. During this vacation, the marquis had ample opportunities of observing the progress of his sons, and was so highly gratified by their proficiency, that he determined to present their tutor with the living of Lymington in Somersetshire, a benefice in the gitt of the Dorset family, and in the diocese of Bath and Wells. This presentation took place at the departure of Wolsey with his pupils from their paternal abode; and it was the more acceptable

• See Fosbrooke's Monasticon. ↑ Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, p. 67.