the simple account of the manner in which Sextus Tarquinius got possession of Gabii, which is another version of the story of Zopyrus in Herodotus, we behold "the symbolic language of mute Etruria." (Vol. i. p. 77). The domination of the Pelasgic Etruscans, (for M. Michelet admits none but Pelasgians), delivered the Latin Pelasgians from their oppression, for the sacred was more pleasing than the warlike patriciate. The Latins, the plebeians were much worse situated when the rule passed into the hands of the Etruscan Lucumones, denoted by the name of Servius Tullius (from servus). But after the final expulsion of the Etruscans, in the person of their chief, Tarquinius the proud, the heroic and aristocratic spirit of the Sabines prevailed, until the people secured for itself an equality of privileges. In this fashion, without any distinction between the true and the false, M. Michelet continues his history, which amuses and even instructs those who are previously versed in Roman history; but to learn it thoroughly, the reader must have recourse to Dr. Arnold's work.

ART. IV.-Muhammed's Religion, nach ihrer inneren Entwicklung und ihrem Einflusse auf das Leben der Völker.-The Religion of Mohammed considered in its internal developement, and its Influence on the Life of Nations. An Historical Treatise, by Dr. Döllinger, Professor of Theology at the University of Munich. Ratisbon, 1838.

T the very moment when Christianity had come forth victorious from her long struggle with heathenism, and after regenerating the individual and the family, was preparing to shed her beneficial influence on the state, the arch-heresy of Islam arose to impede this work of mercy and love. In a moral, intellectual, and political point of view, this religion formed the most decided contrast to the Christian faith. Christianity that law of perfect love-that developement of the primitive revelation, by proclaiming the great work of atonement, which her Divine founder had accomplished, whereby the hand-writing against the sons of Adam was obliterated, filled up the immense void which had subsisted between the creature and the Creator, and together with the guilt of original sin, removed from the heart of man much of the shame, misery and disquiet, which the consciousness of his fall had produced. Mohammedanism, by denying that Divine work of redemption,-by establishing in its room a sterile, abstract Monotheism,-by endeavouring to restore the primitive

Patriarchism without its hopes, its mysteries and its ethics,did nought else but bring back the infancy of mankind without its innocence and its consolations, and threw the human mind back into that state of spiritual ignorance, helplessness and torpor, from which Christianity had rescued it. The Christian ethics penetrated into the inmost recesses of the human heart, regarded outward actions only according to the spirit in which they were performed, watched over the slightest motions of the will, and brought the whole inward man under subjection. True to its spirit of dead legal formality, Islam, on the contrary, took cognizance more especially of outward actions, paid little regard to the discipline of the interior, and let the natural passions and appetites grow up in all their wild, rank luxuriance.

In her sacraments and her worship, Christianity symbolized the doctrines and the history of the redemption, unfolded all the graces of that Divine work in reference to the spiritual wants of humanity, and by the most august and touching ceremonies, enlisted the senses, the feelings, and the imagination, in the cause of piety. Islam, a hollow, superficial Theism, has no sacraments, for it has rejected the mystery of the atonement; it has no sacrifice, for one or two meaningless rites allusive to the typical sacrifices of the Old Law, deserve not that appellation: and its liturgy, devoid of all ceremony and figurative representations, is the most bald, frigid and meagre, that it is possible to conceive. In fact, Mohammedanism, in this respect, is what an illustrious German writer has characterized it, "a distorted, abortive Judaism, that came six hundred years too late into the world."*

If we consider the influence of the two religions on legislation and government, what a contrast do we here find! Christianity, by proscribing polygamy and divorce, has restored the dignity of the female sex; by abolishing the barbarous right of life and death of the parent over the child, has rescued from oppression the most helpless portion of humanity; and by first mitigating, and then abrogating, slavery, has imparted immeasurable happiness to the largest portion of mankind. She has mitigated the system of warfare, introduced mildness and equity into all international relations, and by confirming the authority of the sovereign, and ennobling the obedience of the subject, has gradually introduced into Christian states a degree of freedom, happiness, and civilization, of which antiquity can furnish no example.

Frederick Schlegel.

Islam, on the other hand, opened the most dangerous facility to divorce; sanctioned polygamy and concubinage to a more libidinous extent than the world had yet witnessed; reduced woman to be a mere ignoble instrument of lust; and if it relaxed in some degree the fetters of the slave, yet by the system of blood-thirsty warfare it encouraged, and the cruel rights of conquest it everywhere introduced, neutralized in this respect whatever services it had rendered to the cause of humanity. If in ethics, Mohammedanism has made man the passive instrument of the inevitable decrees of Allah; in politics, it has rendered him the trembling slave of his earthly vicegerent; and in every country, where it has become predominant, it has established the most unlimited despotism of

state.

But it is now time to introduce our readers to the excellent historical treatise at the head of this article. The name of Dr. Döllinger must be already familiar to our readers, for his writings have been more than once alluded to in the pages of this journal; and even in the last Number, we ourselves had occasion to notice his excellent Manual of Church History. This distinguished clergyman, who is as yet only in the prime of life, fills the chair of Theology at the University of Munich, and is not only one of the most eminent divines of Germany, but a most learned and critical historian, an elegant writer, and a scholar exceedingly well versed in ancient and modern literature.

The present treatise is a most masterly exposition of the internal nature and moral and political influence of the Mohammedan religion. Much as the previous works of the writer are distinguished for solid judgment, critical sagacity, and delicate perception, he reveals in this disquisition a power of profound observation, superior, we think, to anything he had yet evinced. The learning displayed in this treatise is very various and extensive. Every important assertion is supported by copious citations, or minute references. The authorities quoted are the Koran, or the religious and judicial writings of the Mohammedans, the narratives of the Mussulman historians, the testimonies of the most judicious European travellers, and the researches of the learned orientalists of Europe. The works of our Oriental Translation Society are among the sources, from which our author has most copiously drawn. We have only to add, that the style of this disquisition is remarkably elegant and attractive.

* See Dublin Review, No. XI. p. 281.

We shall now proceed to give our readers an analysis of its

contents.

Our author commences with a rapid view of the state of religious parties in Arabia, prior to the introduction of Mohammedanism. The Jews at that period were numerous and active in the Peninsula: the Christians split into a variety of sects, and much degenerated in morals; the Parsi powerful in some districts; while the old Arabian idolaters, and particularly the tribe of Koreish, to whom Mohammed belonged, entertained the hope that they were soon destined to be favoured by Heaven with some extraordinary revelation. They argued, that as the Jews and Christians, the natural and adopted sons of Abraham, had shown themselves unworthy of the Divine Revelations successively imparted to them, it was their turn, as the descendants of the patriarch by his son Ishmael, to become the organs and defenders of a new revelation, more perfect than Judaism and Christianity. So widely spread was this feeling among the Arabian idolaters, that several pretended prophets arose simultaneously with Mohammed, to proclaim to their nation what they conceived, or pretended, to be the new manifestations of Heaven.

In the following passage, the causes of the success, and rapid diffusion of the Mohammedan religion, are, we think, stated with great force, clearness and precision.

"The fortune of arms, however, decided in part only, after his death, in favour of the son of Abdallah; and thus did a rigid Judaism, founded on the abstract unity of God, divested of his redemptorial character, and of all the deeper spiritual elements connected therewith, become the predominant religion in the Peninsula, and shortly afterwards, in the larger portion of Asia and Africa.

"The yoke which Islam imposed on the first believers, was, on the whole, not oppressive. The articles of faith were short, and extremely simple; the unity of God, the mission of a series of prophets, which terminated with Mohammed, the resurrection, last judgment, and final retribution. We find no mystery, no atonement, no sacrament, no painful penitence; self-denial, renunciation of man's dearest inclinations, was not required: the passions were not so much restrained and brought under discipline, as concentrated on one object, the struggle for the diffusion of the new faith. To the most violent impulse in the human breast, such limits only were set, as the voluptuary would easily endure. The prohibition of wine could not be burdensome in a country, where the fruit of the vine does not flourish; nor could the periodical fasts be very inconvenient, where the sterility of the soil often imposes privations on the wealthy, and even the climate invites to the greatest moderation in diet. The heaviest burden was the tax for religion, originally instituted under the name

of alms; but this tax was repaid a hundred fold by the richest spoils. By this small sacrifice, the believers purchased the chance of endless enjoyment in a paradise of lust.

“The new Ishmaelism was like that illegitimate son of the patriarch, from whom, the founder and the principal believers were descended, and of whom it had been foretold that he would be a wild man,' that his hand would be against every man, and every man's hand against him. Like a destructive fire, the new religion, with an uncontrollable, all-consuming violence, suddenly burst forth, from the deserts of Arabia, and in tenfold less time than the Romans had once taken to establish their universal empire, the nations from the Chinese wall to the pillars of Hercules, from the Caspian sea to the Niger, were subjected to the rule of Islam, or to the power of its professors.

"Was it pure religious enthusiasm, was it the fresh vigour of a faith, in its first expansive bloom, that in every battle attached victory to the standard of the Arabs, and in such an incredibly short period, founded the most extensive empire, which mankind had ever beheld? Far other was the case.

"Small as was the number of those, who, from a spontaneous inward conviction, acknowledged the prophet, and the truth of his doctrine, great also was the multitude whom external coercion or the hope of earthly advantage, brought into the ranks of the Moslems. Well did Kaled, that sword of the swords of God, describe the union of power and persuasion, whereby, he and many of the tribe of Koreish had been converted, when he said, 'God had seized them by the heart and by the hair, and had forced them to follow the prophet.'*

"Much weight must also be ascribed, to the proud sense of nationality, which was then perhaps more alive among the Arabs, than among any other people, and which alone induced thousands to prefer their countryman and his religion, to foreign teachers. 'Ye fools,' exclaimed the Moslem general, to the Christian Arabs of Hira, who refused to embrace the Mohammedan faith, ye fools, would ye in the wilderness of error, where two guides presented themselves to you, a stranger and an Arab, forsake the latter, and follow the former ?' More powerful still, was the attraction, furnished by the certain prospect of obtaining the richest booty in combating for the new faith, and of exchanging their naked stoney wastes, which furnished them with a miserable subsistence, for the fruitful and luxuriant plains of Persia, Syria, and Egypt. If even we did not combat for the cause of God,' said Kaled to his warriors, on crossing the Persian frontier, but merely wished to provide for our sustenance, we should seek to obtain possession of these fields, and henceforth to leave poverty and hunger to others.'t Lastly, the sincere believers were stimulated by the confident hope of gaining immediate participa

• "Taberistanensis Annales regum atque legatorum Dei," ed. Rosegarten, 1835, vol. ii. p. 103. + Taberistanensis, vol. ii. p. 25.