forever to the old stories of the Prophets as they went current in the Arab
memory: how Prophet after Prophet, the Prophet Abraham, the Prophet Hud,
the Prophet Moses, Christian and other real and fabulous Prophets, had come
to this Tribe and to that, warning men of their sin; and been received by
them even as he Mahomet was,--which is a great solace to him. These things
he repeats ten, perhaps twenty times; again and ever again, with wearisome
iteration; has never done repeating them. A brave Samuel Johnson, in his
forlorn garret, might con over the Biographies of Authors in that way!
This is the great staple of the Koran. But curiously, through all this,
comes ever and anon some glance as of the real thinker and seer. He has
actually an eye for the world, this Mahomet: with a certain directness and
rugged vigor, he brings home still, to our heart, the thing his own heart
has been opened to. I make but little of his praises of Allah, which many
praise; they are borrowed I suppose mainly from the Hebrew, at least they
are far surpassed there. But the eye that flashes direct into the heart of
things, and _sees_ the truth of them; this is to me a highly interesting
object. Great Nature's own gift; which she bestows on all; but which only
one in the thousand does not cast sorrowfully away: it is what I call
sincerity of vision; the test of a sincere heart.

Mahomet can work no miracles; he often answers impatiently: I can work no
miracles. I? "I am a Public Preacher;" appointed to preach this doctrine
to all creatures. Yet the world, as we can see, had really from of old
been all one great miracle to him. Look over the world, says he; is it not
wonderful, the work of Allah; wholly "a sign to you," if your eyes were
open! This Earth, God made it for you; "appointed paths in it;" you can
live in it, go to and fro on it.--The clouds in the dry country of Arabia,
to Mahomet they are very wonderful: Great clouds, he says, born in the
deep bosom of the Upper Immensity, where do they come from! They hang
there, the great black monsters; pour down their rain-deluges "to revive a