t and rational man as everything betokens, Mahomet was brought-up
in the best Arab way.

Mahomet, as he grew up, accompanied his Uncle on trading journeys and
suchlike; in his eighteenth year one finds him a fighter following his
Uncle in war. But perhaps the most significant of all his journeys is
one we find noted as of some years' earlier date: a journey to the
Fairs of Syria. The young man here first came in contact with a quite
foreign world,--with one foreign element of endless moment to him: the
Christian Religion. I know not what to make of that 'Sergius, the
Nestorian Monk,' whom Abu Thaleb and he are said to have lodged with;
or how much any monk could have taught one still so young. Probably
enough it is greatly exaggerated, this of the Nestorian Monk. Mahomet
was only fourteen; had no language but his own: much in Syria must
have been a strange unintelligible whirlpool to him. But the eyes of
the lad were open; glimpses of many things would doubtless be
taken-in, and lie very enigmatic as yet, which were to ripen in a
strange way into views, into beliefs and insights one day. These
journeys to Syria were probably the beginning of much to Mahomet.

One other circumstance we must not forget: that he had no
school-learning; of the thing we call school-learning none at all. The
art of writing was but just introduced into Arabia; it seems to be the
true opinion that Mahomet never could write! Life in the Desert, with
its experiences, was all his education. What of this infinite Universe
he, from his dim place, with his own eyes and thoughts, could take in,
so much and no more of it was he to know. Curious, if we will reflect
on it, this of having no books. Except by what he could see for
himself, or hear of by uncertain rumour of speech in the obscure
Arabian Desert, he could know nothing. The wisdom that had been before
him or at a distance from him in the world, was in a manner as good as
not there for him. Of the great brother souls, flame-beacons through
so many lands and times, no one directly communicates with this great
soul. He is alone there, deep down in the bosom of the Wilderness; has
to grow up so,--alone with Nature and his own Thoughts.

But, from an early age, he had been remarked as a thoughtful man. His
companions named him '_Al Amin_, The Faithful.' A man of truth and
fidelity; true in what he did, in what he spake and thought. They
noted that _he_ always meant something. A man rather tacitur