Rome, he never knew their philosophies or the sum of their knowledge. His
religion could never he built upon such basic strength as Christianity.
It sprang too rapidly into prominence, and had no foundation of slowly
developed ideas upon which to rest both its enthusiasm and its earthly
endeavour.

Mahomet bears closer resemblance to the ancient Hebrew prophets than to
any Christian leader or saint. His mind was akin to theirs in its
denunciatory fury, its prostration before the might and majesty
of a single God. The evolution of the tribal deity from the local
wonderworker, whose shrine enclosed his image, to the impersonal and
distant but awful power who held the earth beneath his sway, was
Mahomet's contribution to the mental development of his country, and the
achievement within those confines was wonderful. But to the sum of the
world's thought he gave little. His central tenet had already gained its
votaries in other lands, and, moreover, their form of belief in one God
was such that further development of thought was still possible to them.
The philosophy of Islam blocks the way of evolution for itself, because
its system leaves no room for such pregnant ideas as divine incarnation,
divine immanence, the fatherhood of God. It has been content to formulate
one article of faith: "There is no God but God," the corollary as to
Mahomet's divine appointment to the office of Prophet being merely an
affirmation of loyalty to the particular mode of faith he imposed.
Therefore the part taken by Islam in the reading of the world's
mystery ceased with the acceptance of that previously conceived central
tenet.

In the sphere of ideas, indeed, Mahomet gave his people nothing original,
for his power did not lie in intellect, but in action. His mind had not
passed the stage that has just exchanged many fetishes for one spiritual