but their absolute sovereign. His Koran was both the infallible rule of their religious belief and practice, and the code by which their civil interests and political condition were to be regulated. Under the influence of this system, religion and civil polity are interwoven, and so closely united, that they cannot be separated without destroying the whole fabric of which they form the two grand constituent parts. On this foundation the throne itself is placed: the laws emanate from the same authority: all decisions affecting life, property, and civil relation, proceed from this combined religious and political constitution. In every country, therefore, where Mohammedism has been established, a barrier almost insurmountable to human power is opposed to every innovation in religion. From the inseparable connexion between the religious and the civil authorities, every attempt to introduce any change of the opinions on which the former rests, must be regarded as an attack on the latter, as rebellion against the state, and as declared hostility to the establishment of the civil power.

It is true that it may justly be said that the Jewish theocracy was of the same character. But that theocracy was designed only for one people, and chiefly directed to separate them

a Adam's Religious World Displayed, vol. i. p. 276, et seq.

from the corruptions of the rest of the world, till the period should arrive when the Jewish state was itself to be dissolved, and an universal and humanizing religion to be promulgated to all mankind. Mohammedism was to be propagated by the sword, and never to cease its conquests while success attended its arms. It was this very circumstance of paganism's being incorporated with the state, that rendered the heathens such violent persecutors of the Christians, who, by exploding their gods, were, in the opinion of their worshippers, constituted enemies of their governments. This difference, however, exists between the ancient polytheists and the Mohammedans, that, although the former incorporated their religious rites with their civil constitutions, they possessed codes of law not entirely founded on their superstitious opinions, but in a great measure on those sentiments of justice which are implanted in the human breast. Roman jurisprudence in particular recommends itself to the admiration of the most enlightened Christian nations. The civil constitution of the state might therefore remain, even after its religion was completely changed. This was the case when Christianity was established in the Roman empire. Such result cannot be produced in regard to the followers of Mohammed. An abjuration of their present religion would carry along with it an entire change of their

civil constitutions. If the Koran were rejected, another system of civil law must be introduced, as founded on other and more comprehensive principles.

As the oriental nations have never known any form of government but the despotic, and Mohammedism arose among them; so, wherever it is established, it is united with despotic power," and has produced all its degrading and paralysing consequences. It has, further, inspired its professors both with contempt and with hatred for the rest of the human species. By teaching them, in imitation of the Jews, that they are the favourites of heaven and the chosen people of God, and that this favour is obtained by the mere act of believing in their prophet, it has led them to regard the professors of every other religion as mean and insignificant in comparison of the Moslem, and all the attainments in science and in the elegant and useful arts of the former, as never admitting the smallest competition with the superiority derived to the latter, from their supernatural nobility. By representing every other religion as hostile to their own, it inflames them with hatred of all who are not within its pale, and prompts them to view the professors of other religions with disgust, or to treat them with rancour.

a Adam's Religious World Displayed, vol. i. p. 278, et seq.

At an early period of Mohammedism this ferocity of character was displayed, nor has the progress of civilization softened or mitigated it in any considerable degree. Who can reflect, without indignation, on the Arabian barbarism which consigned to the flames the magnificent library of Alexandria, collected during successive ages by kings not more distinguished by their opulence than by their respect for learning and science, and containing an immense treasure of history, philosophy, and every species of useful and polite literature! This conflagration cannot be imputed to the fury of precipitate and undistinguishing assault, or to any of those fatal accidents which so frequently occur in the career of arms. For it was commanded by the Caliph Omar, on the deliberate principle that the Koran superseded the use of every other book. This noble collection of science and literature served during eight months to heat the baths of the city which it had so long illustrated. This horrid devastation occasioned to mankind a greater calamity than all the carnage with which barbarism has in its different careers blasted and desolated the world.

It is true that the Arabians have, since that period, displayed more ardour for science than was exhibited by Greece and Rome, after the meridian of their genius and taste. They translated into their language many ancient authors,

of whom the originals have now perished; but they have confined themselves to medicine, arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy, and seem to have almost entirely neglected history, polite literature, natural and experimental philosophy, ethics, and all those branches of knowledge and art which direct and invigorate man's active principles, humanize his manners, and embellish and brighten his social intercourse. It is evident that under an influence so baneful to the best energies of man, moral and political science can never be indigenous, nor even be transplanted as an exotic to adorn the gardens of intellect. The gross and barbarous ignorance of the Turks, even in this period of refinement and knowledge, is a remarkable feature in their character, and their religious pride precludes all improvement from the superior information of neighbouring nations. Such a religion, it is evident, could never have been designed by "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God," to be embraced by his rational creatures.

It is, further, completely deficient in regard to an economy of grace, so necessary to the present. corrupt state of man, and to every provision for his weakness, in order to enable him to discharge his duty. With respect to the former,

a Boulainvilliers, Vie de Mahomet, pp. 51-53.

b 1 Tim, i. 17.