tised in all degrees of purity, from the orthodox worship,
conducted in the grand and beautiful mosques of Delhi and Agra, to the
grovelling, superstitious, heathenish ceremonies which obtain among,
and which constitute the religious pabulum of, the masses of Islam in
remote villages and in distant sections of the land.

Generally speaking, the religion of Mohammed is not calculated to
appeal to the highly poetic mind of India. It is too severe and
prosaic in its character. The mind of India delights in mystical
elaborations and in the multiplication of fanciful incarnations and
other divine manifestations. The Allah of Islam is almost as remote
and as unknowable a deity as is the Brahm of the Vedantist. But in the
absence of a personal god the Vedantist and Hindus in general have
built up a system of numberless incarnations which "play" upon the
imagination of the votaries and give ample scope to the remarkably
poetic genius of this people.

Mohammedanism has nothing of the kind; it denies even the possibility
of divine "descent," and its animus throughout the centuries has been
one of antagonism to the incarnation doctrine of other faiths.

The Quran is largely wanting in the tropical warmth and legendary
lore which is such a resource and comfort to the Indian mind, and
which therefore abounds in the sacred writings of the Brahmans.

Doubtless, the simplicity and intelligibility of its creed--one God,
one prophet, one book--commends Mohammedanism to the minds of many.
But simplicity is not a foible of the religious mind of India. It has
always craved the complex, the mystical, and the unfathomable. It
delights in inconsistencies, and indulges freely in the irreconcilable
mysteries of faith. Hinduism, being the child of the Hindu mind,
abounds in tropical exuberance of spiritual exercise and "amusements,"
which seem childish and inane to all other people.

The teaching of Mohammed has, therefore, very little that can appeal
with power, carry conviction, and bring contentment to the people of
India.

In nothing, perhaps, is this more manifestly marked than in the
conception of the deity above referred to. Islam is a most
uncompromising form of Unitarianism. It is bitterly opposed to any
doctrine which brings God down to men and renders Him intelligible to
the common mind. It denies the possibility of the divine putting on
human, or any other, nature.

Hinduism, on the other hand, is the very antithesis of all th