times.

His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happiness is the
last consideration in the character of Mahomet. The most bitter or
most bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will surely allow that
he assumed a false commission to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less
perfect only than their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of his
religion, the truth and sanctity of their prior revolutions, the virtues
and miracles of their founders. The idols of Arabia were broken before
the throne of God; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer,
and fasting, and alms, the laudable or innocent arts of devotion; and
his rewards and punishments of a future life were painted by the images
most congenial to an ignorant and carnal generation. Mahomet was,
perhaps, incapable of dictating a moral and political system for the
use of his countrymen: but he breathed among the faithful a spirit of
charity and friendship; recommended the practice of the social virtues;
and checked, by his laws and precepts, the thirst of revenge, and the
oppression of widows and orphans. The hostile tribes were united in
faith and obedience, and the valor which had been idly spent in domestic
quarrels was vigorously directed against a foreign enemy. Had the
impulse been less powerful, Arabia, free at home and formidable abroad,
might have flourished under a succession of her native monarchs.
Her sovereignty was lost by the extent and rapidity of conquest. The
colonies of the nation were scattered over the East and West, and their
blood was mingled with the blood of their converts and captives. After
the reign of three caliphs, the throne was transported from Medina to
the valley of Damascus and the banks of the Tigris; the holy cities
were violated by impious war; Arabia was ruled by the rod of a subject,
perhaps of a stranger; and the Bedoweens of the desert, awakening from
their dream of dominion, resumed their old and solitary independence.
[187]

[Footnote 187: The writers of the Modern Universal History (vols. i.
and ii.) have compiled, in 850 folio pages, the life of Mahomet and
the annals of the caliphs. They enjoyed the advantage of reading,
and sometimes correcting, the Arabic text; yet, notwithstanding their
high-sounding boasts, I cannot find, after the conclusion of my work,
that they have afforded me much (if any) additional information. The
dull mass is not quickened by a spark of philosophy or taste; and
the compilers