ing in shame and disaster, but ending in triumph and, let
us hope, in peace.

I desire for a moment to take a more general view of the Mahdi's
movement than the narrative has allowed. The original causes were social
and racial. But, great as was the misery of the people, their spirit was
low, and they would not have taken up arms merely on material grounds.
Then came the Mahdi. He gave the tribes the enthusiasm they lacked. The
war broke out. It is customary to lay to the charge of Mohammed Ahmed
all the blood that was spilled. To my mind it seems that he may divide
the responsibility with the unjust rulers who oppressed the land, with
the incapable commanders who muddled away the lives of their men, with
the vacillating Ministers who aggravated the misfortunes. But, whatever
is set to the Mahdi's account, it should not be forgotten that he put
life and soul into the hearts of his countrymen, and freed his native
land of foreigners. The poor miserable natives, eating only a handful
of grain, toiling half-naked and without hope, found a new, if terrible
magnificence added to life. Within their humble breasts the spirit
of the Mahdi roused the fires of patriotism and religion. Life became
filled with thrilling, exhilarating terrors. They existed in a new and
wonderful world of imagination. While they lived there were great things
to be done; and when they died, whether it were slaying the Egyptians
or charging the British squares, a Paradise which they could understand
awaited them. There are many Christians who reverence the faith of Islam
and yet regard the Mahdi merely as a commonplace religious impostor whom
force of circumstances elevated to notoriety. In a certain sense, this
may be true. But I know not how a genuine may be distinguished from a
spurious Prophet, except by the measure of his success. The triumphs of
the Mahdi were in his lifetime far greater than those of the founder
of the Mohammedan faith; and the chief difference between orthodox
Mohammedanism and Mahdism was that the original impulse was opposed only
by decaying systems of government and society and the recent movement
came in contact with civilisation and the machinery of science.
Recognising this, I do not share the popular opinion, and I believe that
if in future years prosperity should come to the peoples of the Upper
Nile, and learning and happiness follow in its train, then the first
Arab historian who shall investigate the early annals of t