, I do not think that he
relied upon inducements of the former kind for the diffusion of his
system. We are not to judge of this by rules of Christian purity,
or of European practice. If polygamy was a prevailing usage in
Arabia, as is not questioned, its permission gave no additional
license to the proselytes of Mohammed, who will be found rather to
have narrowed the unbounded liberty of oriental manners in this
respect; while his decided condemnation of adultery and of
incestuous connections, so frequent among barbarous nations, does
not argue a very lax and accommodating morality. A devout Mussulman
exhibits much more of the stoical than the epicurean character. Nor
can any one read the Koran without being sensible that it breathes
an austere and scrupulous spirit. And in fact, the founder of a new
religion or sect is little likely to obtain permanent success by
indulging the vices or luxuries of mankind. I should rather be
disposed to reckon the severity of Mohammed's discipline among the
causes of its influence. Precepts of ritual observance, being
always definite and unequivocal, are less likely to be neglected,
after their obligation has been acknowledged than those of moral
virtue. Thus the long fasting, the pilgrimages, and regular prayers
and ablutions, the constant almsgiving, the abstinence from
stimulating liquors, enjoined by the Koran, created a visible
standard of practice among its followers, and preserved a continual
recollection of their law.

"But the prevalence of Islam in the lifetime of its Prophet, and
during the first ages of its existence, was chiefly owing to the
spirit of martial energy that he infused into it. The religion of
Mohammed is as essentially a military system as the institution of
chivalry in the west of Europe. The people of Arabia, a race of
strong passions and sanguinary temper, inured to habits of pillage
and murder, found in the law of their native prophet not a license,
but a command, to desolate the world, and the promise of all that
their glowing imaginations could anticipate of Paradise annexed to
all in which they most delighted upon earth."[129]

This is sufficient to refute the opinion of Dr. Mosheim. But what
Hallam says regarding the prevalence of Islam in the lifetime of the
Prophet, and during the firs