1882




PREFACE.


These essays, written for the _Fortnightly Review_ in the summer and
autumn of 1881, were intended as first sketches only of a maturer work
which the author hoped, before giving finally to the public, to complete
at leisure, and develop in a form worthy of critical acceptance, and of
the great subject he had chosen. Events, however, have marched faster
than he at all anticipated, and it has become a matter of importance
with him that the idea they were designed to illustrate should be given
immediate and full publicity. The French, by their invasion of Tunis,
have precipitated the Mohammedan movement in North Africa; Egypt has
roused herself for a great effort of national and religious reform; and
on all sides Islam is seen to be convulsed by political portents of
ever-growing intensity. He believes that his countrymen will in a very
few months have to make their final choice in India, whether they will
lead or be led by the wave of religious energy which is sweeping
eastwards, and he conceives it of consequence that at least they should
know the main issues of the problem before them. To shut their eyes to
the great facts of contemporary history, because that history has no
immediate connection with their daily life, is a course unworthy of a
great nation; and in England, where the opinion of the people guides the
conduct of affairs, can hardly fail to bring disaster. It should be
remembered that the modern British Empire, an agglomeration of races
ruled by public opinion in a remote island, is an experiment new in the