might not be incompatible with the exercise of
their reason and memory; and the diversity of their genius is strongly
marked in the style and composition of the books of the Old and New
Testament. But Mahomet was content with a character, more humble, yet
more sublime, of a simple editor; the substance of the Koran, according
to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and eternal; subsisting in the
essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen of light on the table of
his everlasting decrees. A paper copy, in a volume of silk and gems, was
brought down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel, who, under
the Jewish economy, had indeed been despatched on the most important
errands; and this trusty messenger successively revealed the chapters
and verses to the Arabian prophet. Instead of a perpetual and perfect
measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at
the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the emergencies
of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by the
saving maxim, that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any
subsequent passage. The word of God, and of the apostle, was diligently
recorded by his disciples on palm-leaves and the shoulder-bones of
mutton; and the pages, without order or connection, were cast into a
domestic chest, in the custody of one of his wives. Two years after the
death of Mahomet, the sacred volume was collected and published by
his friend and successor Abubeker: the work was revised by the caliph
Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira; and the various editions
of the Koran assert the same miraculous privilege of a uniform and
incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet
rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book; audaciously
challenges both men and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page;
and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate this incomparable
performance. This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout
Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture; whose ear is
delighted by the music of sounds; and whose ignorance is incapable of
comparing the productions of human genius. The harmony and copiousness
of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel: he will
peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and
precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea,
which sometimes crawls in the dust, an