nothing in the ethics or the moral code of the Prophet with
which he disagreed; the excellence of his teachings as laid down in the
Koran was extraordinarily far-reaching and comprehensive. Michael's
whole being for the moment was filled with the devotion and abandonment
of Islam. Mohammed's mission was to turn the hearts of his people to
the worship of the one and only God; his desire, like Akhnaton's, was
to throw down the false gods from the altars, and reinstate the simple
and undivided worship of the Creator in men's hearts and minds. To
Michael, his teachings had always been the teachings of a great and
inspired reformer. At that moment, when the spell of Islam was
baptizing him, he forgot that Mohammed's God was not the Sweet Singer
in the spring-time, or the bright eye of the daisy in June, or the
laughter of the babbling brooks. The beauty of God, to the Moslem,
consists in His unity, His majesty, His grandeur and His lofty
attributes. Michael overlooked the difference. He loved to walk with
God in the cornfields, to speak to Him when he visited the
lotus-gardens on the Nile. The Moslem succeeds in abandoning himself
to God's will, but he fails to enjoy Him in the scent of the hawthorn,
or hear His voice in the whisper of the pines.

The Moslem city was pouring into his veins the beauty of its spiritual
calm; the hour was kind to its imperfections, its hidden sores were
forgotten.

His feet mechanically descended the flights of stone steps which had
raised him above the level of the street and had placed him under the
shadow of the ancient doorway of the mosque. Without asking himself
where he was going, or what he intended to do, he walked in the
direction of el-Azhar.

As he threaded his way through the narrow streets, darkness was quickly
obliterating the dirt and unsightliness which was visible in the
noonday. His mind was vexed with a thousand questions. Why did a
Western civilization and the Protestant religion make human beings
restless and questioning? Why were they for ever desiring the things
which are withheld? Why had his life and his interests suddenly
tottered to the ground? Surely it was because he had not learned to
put the things of the spirit above things material? If he resigned his
will to Islam, would he in return be granted the calm philosophy of a
Moslem, who accepts his condition and his disappointments as the
unquestionable and far-seeing decree of the Cause of all cau