upholstery to the defects of his
scandalous morals. Mr. Smith has even undertaken to palliate his
appropriation of another man's wife, and the blasphemy of his pretended
revelation in which he made God justify his passion.[105] These authors
base their chief apologies upon comparisons between Mohammed and the
worse depravity of the heathen Arabs, or they balance accounts with some
of his acknowledged virtues.

But the case baffles all such advocacy. The real question is, what was
the _drift_ of the prophet's character? What was the influence of his
professed principles on his own life? It cannot be denied that his moral
trend was downward. If we credit the traditions of his own followers, he
had lived a virtuous life as the husband of one wife,[106] and that for
many years. But after the death of Kadijah he entered upon a career of
polygamy in violation of his own law. He had fixed the limit for all
Moslems at four lawful wives; and in spite of the arguments of R.
Bosworth Smith, we must regard it as a most damning after-thought that
made the first and only exception to accommodate his own weakness. By
that act he placed himself beyond the help of all sophistry, and took
his true place in the sober judgment of mankind. And by a law which is
as unerring as the law of gravitation, he became more and more sensual
as age advanced. At the time of his death he was the husband of eleven
wives. We are not favored with a list of his concubines:[107] we only
know that his system placed no limit upon the number.[108] Now, if a
prophet claiming direct inspiration could break his own inspired laws
for his personal accommodation; if, when found guilty of adultery, he
could compel his friend and follower to divorce his wife that he might
take her; if upon each violation of purity and decency he did not shrink
from the blasphemy of claiming a special revelation which made God the
abettor of his vices, and even represented Him as reproving and
threatening his wives for their just complaints--if all this does not
stamp a man as a reckless impostor, what further turpitude is required?

At the same time it is evident that constant discrimination is demanded
in judging of the character of Mohammed. It is not necessary to assume
that he was wholly depraved at first, or to deny that for a time he was
the good husband that he is represented to have been, or that he was a
sincere and enthusiastic reformer, or even that he may have interpreted