noise, was by the men of genius and politeness both ways reduced to order and method; and hence arose dancing and poetry."

The Koran, though extremely minute in many of its directions, does not, as far as I am aware, prescribe any attitude or inflection similar to those adopted in the exhibition above described. As the book is within my reach, and as the confinement to which I am still subjected, from an increased inflammation in the wound on my foot, gives me full leisure for such employment, I will in my next attempt to make such extracts as may serve to convey some idea of the style, in which the prophet enforced his peculiar

tenets.

DEAR E

LETTER VIII.

To SIR G. ET, BART.

Cairo.

THE word Korân, according to Mr. Sale, is derived from the verb Karaa, to read; and signifies properly in Arabic, the reading; or rather, that which ought to be read. The Mohammedans, therefore, apply this term not only to denote the entire book or volume of the Koran, but also any particular chapter or section of the work; just as the Jews call either the whole Scripture, or any part of it, by the name of Karâh, or Mikra, which are words of the same origin and import. This extraordinary production, as far as respects its style, is considered to be generally beautiful and fluent, especially where it imitates the prophetic manner and scriptural phrases. It is, however, in various parts extremely obscure, affecting those florid

and sententious figures, which mark the compositions of the east. Yet where the Majesty of Heaven and the attributes of the Deity are described, it partakes of some of the noblest properties of the sublime.

The great and leading doctrine of this pretended revelation, is the unity of the Creator, and the divinity of his apostle Mahomet; a doctrine, in the language of Gibbon, compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary fiction. "The liberality of Mahomet," says the Roman historian, " allowed to his predecessors the same credit which he claimed for himself; and the chain of inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam to the promulgation of the Koran. Whoever hates or rejects any one of the prophets, is numbered with the infidels." For the Author of Christianity the Mahometans are taught to entertain a high and mysterious reverence. In the third chapter, the angels are recorded to have said, O Mary, verily God sendeth thee good tidings, that thou shalt bear the word, proceeding from himself; his name shall be Christ Jesus, honourable in this world, and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God.

"The substance of the Koran," observes Mr.

Gibbon, "according to Mahomet or his disciples, is uncreated and eternal, subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen of light on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper copy in a volume of silk was brought down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel, and this trusty messenger successively revealed the chapters and verses to the Arabian prophet. Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim, that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage.

"In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book, audaciously challenges both men and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page, and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture, whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds, and whose ignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. The

harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel: he will peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea,-which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian missionary; but his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country and in the same language. If the composition of the Koran exceed the faculties of a man, to what superior intelligence should we ascribe the Iliad of Homer or the Philippics of Demosthenes? In all religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of his written revelation; the sayings of Mahomet were so many lessons of truth; his actions so many examples of virtue; and the public and private memorials were preserved by his wives and companions."

The work commences with an introductory prayer, professed to have been revealed at Mecca. It is a solemn address to the Deity, held in the highest veneration by the Mahometans, who often repeat it in their devotions, both public and private.