n all this,
I say, there is something of the spirit which once goaded Christians
into an examination of the bases on which their belief rested, and of
the true nature of the law which tolerated such great corruption.

Nor must we suppose that any part of this dissatisfaction is
attributable as yet to a decay of faith, such as we now witness among
ourselves. Islam as yet shows hardly a taint of infidelity. The
Mussulman of the present day, whatever his rank in life, believes with
as absolute a faith as did the Christian of the period just referred to.
With the exception of here and there a false convert or, as a very rare
case, an Europeanized infidel of the modern type, there is no such
thing as a Mohammedan sceptic, that is to say, a Moslem who does not
believe in the divine mission of Mohammed. He may neglect every duty of
his profession, be guilty of every crime, have broken every law--he may
be the worst and the most depraved of men--or, on the other hand, he may
have adopted the language and to a certain extent the tone of thought of
Europe, and, a thing far more rare, he may be even a scoffer and
blasphemer;--still I do not imagine that in his heart he any the less
firmly believes that the Koran is the book of truth, or that at the day
of judgment he shall be found with those who have escaped Jehannem
through their professed acknowledgment of God and of His apostle.

I have heard strange stories in corroboration of this from persons whom
I could not doubt, and about persons whom all the world knew. Thus, one
who was with Fuad Pasha, the most European of Ottoman diplomatists, in
his last days at Nice, assures me that his whole time was spent in a
recitation of the Koran, learning it by heart. Another, who was called
the Voltaire of Islam, performed his prayers and prostrations with
scrupulous regularity whenever he found himself in private; and a
third, equally notorious as a sceptic, died of religious mania. All,
too, who have mingled much with Mussulmans, must have been struck with
the profound resignation with which even thoughtless and irreligious men
bear the ills of life, and the fortitude with which they usually meet
their end--with the large proportion that they see of men who habitually
pray and fast, and who on occasion, at great risk and sacrifice, make
the pilgrimage, and with the general absence of profanity, and the fact
that an avowal of religion is never proffered apologetically as with us,
nor met