er it unsuitable to speak of such topics here, it might be shown
how feeble is his physiology when he has occasion to allude to the
origin or generation of man. He is hardly advanced beyond the ideas of
Thales. One who is so untrustworthy a guide as to things that are past
cannot be very trustworthy as to events that are to come.

Of the literary execution of his work, it is perhaps scarcely possible
to judge fairly from a translation. It is said to be the oldest prose
composition among the Arabs, by whom Mohammed's boast of the
unapproachable excellence of his work is almost universally sustained;
but it must not be concealed that there have been among them very
learned men who have held it in light esteem. Its most celebrated
passages, as those on the nature of God, in Chapters ii., xxiv., will
bear no comparison with parallel ones in the Psalms and Book of Job.
In the narrative style, the story of Joseph in Chapter xii., compared
with the same incidents related in Genesis, shows a like inferiority.
Mohammed also adulterates his work with many Christian legends,
derived probably from the apocryphal gospel of St. Barnabas; he mixes
with many of his own inventions the Scripture account of the
temptation of Adam, the Deluge, Jonah and the whale, enriching the
whole with stories like the later Night Entertainments of his country,
the seven sleepers, Gog and Magog, and all the wonders of genii,
sorcery, and charms.

An impartial reader of the Koran may doubtless be surprised that so
feeble a production should serve its purpose so well. But the theory
of religion is one thing, the practice another. The Koran abounds in
excellent moral suggestions and precepts; its composition is so
fragmentary that we cannot turn to a single page without finding
maxims of which all men must approve. This fragmentary construction
yields texts and mottoes and rules complete in themselves, suitable
for common men in any of the incidents of life. There is a perpetual
insisting on the necessity of prayer, an inculcation of mercy,
almsgiving, justice, fasting, pilgrimage, and other good works;
institutions respecting conduct, both social and domestic, debts,
witnesses, marriage, children, wine, and the like; above all, a
constant stimulation to do battle with the infidel and blasphemer. For
life as it passes in Asia, there is hardly a condition in which
passages from the Koran cannot be recalled suitable for instruction,
admonition, consolation