zation, are rising to higher conceptions of God
and of religious truth than have been entertained by Moslems hitherto.
Canon Taylor, in a little volume entitled "Leaves from an Egyptian
Note-Book," has drawn a picture of Islam which Omar and Othman would
hardly have recognized. In the first place it should be remembered that,
as he confesses, his reputation as a defender of Mohammed and his system
had gone before him to Cairo, and that he was understood to be a seeker
after facts favorable to his known views. This opened the hearts of
friendly Pashas and served to bring out all the praises that they could
bestow upon their own faith. It appears accordingly that he was assured
by them that polygamy is widely discarded and condemned by prominent
Moslems in such cities as Cairo and Alexandria, that many leading men
are highly intelligent and widely read, that they profess belief in most
of the doctrines held by the Christian Church, that they receive the
inspired testimony of the Old and New Testaments--except in so far as
they have been corrupted by Christian manipulation. This exception,
however, includes all that is at variance with the Koran. They advocate
temperance and condemn the slave trade. They encourage the general
promotion of education, and what seems to the credulous Canon most
remarkable of all is that they express deep regret that Christians do
not feel the same charity and fellowship toward Moslems that they feel
toward Christians!

Now, making all due abatement for the _couleur de rose_ which these
easy-going and politic Pashas may have employed with their English
champion, it is undoubtedly true that a class of Mohammedans are found
in the great cosmopolitan cities of the Levant who have come to
recognize the spirit of the age in which they live. Many of them have
been educated in Europe; they speak several languages; they read the
current literature; they are ashamed of the old fanatical Mohammedanism.
Though they cherish a partisan interest in the recognized religion of
their country, their faith is really eclectic; it comes not from Old
Mecca, but is in part a product of the awakened thought of the
nineteenth century. But Canon Taylor's great fallacy lies in trying to
persuade himself and an intelligent Christian public that this is Islam.
He wearies himself in his attempts to square the modern Cairo with the
old, and to trace the modern gentlemanly Pasha, whose faith at least
sits lightly upon his so