misfortune of the republic of letters." ]

"The plan was carefully reserved by Mahomet for the mature age
of forty years. Thus digested however, and communicated with the
nicest art and the most fervid eloquence, he had the
mortification to find his converts, at the end of three years,
amount to no more than forty persons. But the ardour of this
hero was invincible, and his success was finally adequate to his
wishes. Previous to the famous aera of his flight from Mecca, he
had taught his followers, that they had no defence against the
persecution of their enemies, but invincible patience. But the
opposition he encountered obliged him to change his maxims. He
now inculcated the duty of extirpating the enemies of God, and
held forth the powerful allurements of conquest and plunder.
With these he united the theological dogma of predestination,
and the infallible promise of paradise to such as met their fate
in the field of war. By these methods he trained an intrepid and
continually increasing army, inflamed with enthusiasm, and
greedy of death. He prepared them for the most arduous
undertakings, by continual attacks upon travelling caravans and
scattered villages: a pursuit, which, though perfectly consonant
with the institutions of his ancestors, painted him to the
civilized nations of Europe in the obnoxious character of a
robber. By degrees however, he proceeded to the greatest
enterprizes; and compelled the whole peninsula of Arabia to
confess his authority as a prince, and his mission as a prophet.
He died, like the Grecian Philip, in the moment, when having
brought his native country to co-operate in one undertaking, he
meditated the invasion of distant climates, and the destruction
of empires.

"The character of Mahomet however was exceeding different from
that of Philip, and far more worthy of the attention of a
philosopher. Philip was a mere politician, who employed the
cunning of a statesman, and the revenues of a prince, in the
corruption of a number of fallen and effeminate republics. But
Mahomet, without riches, without rank, without education, by the
mere ascendancy of his abilities, subjected by persuasion and
force a simple and generous nation that had never been
conquered; and laid the foundation of an empire, that extended
over half the globe; and a r