he same loose but roughly
effective organisation that it possessed under the Hashim branch. The
intellect that could see the potentialities of such a polity, once it
could be knit together by some common bond, had not arisen; but the scene
was prepared for his coming, and we have to think of the Mecca of that
time as offering untold suggestions for its religious, and later for its
political, salvation to a mind anxious to produce, but uncertain as yet
of its medium.

Mahomet returned with Abu Talib, and passed with him into obscurity of a
poverty not too burdensome, and to a quiet, somewhat reflective
household. He lived under the spell of that tranquillity until he was
twenty-five, and of this time there is not much notice in the traditions,
but its contemplation is revealed to us in the earlier chapters of the
Kuran. At one time Mahomet acted as shepherd upon the Meccan hills--low,
rocky ranges covered with a dull scrub, and open to the limitless vaults
of sky. Here, whether under sun or stars, he learned that love and awe of
Nature that throbs through the early chapters of the Kuran like a deep
organ note of praise, dominated almost always with fear.

"Consider the Heaven--with His Hand has He built it up, and given it its
vastness--and the Earth has He stretched out like a carpet, smoothly has
He spread it forth! Verily, God is the sole sustainer, possessed of
might, the unshaken! Fly then to God."

Indeed, a haunting terror broods over all those souls who know the
desert, and this fear translated into action becomes fierce and terrible
deeds, and into the world of the spirit, angry dogmatic commands. It is
the result of the knowledge that to those who stray from the well-known
desert track comes death; equally certain is the destruction of the soul
for those who transgress against the law of the Ruler of the earth. The
God of the early Kuran is the spiritual representative of the forces
surrounding Mahomet, whether of Nature or government. The country around
Mecca conveys one central thought to one who meditates--the sense of
power, not the might of one kindly and familiar, but the unapproachable
sovereignty of one alien and remote, a dweller in far-off places, who
nevertheless fills the earth with his dominion. Mahomet passing by, as he
did, the gaieties and temptations of youth, had his mind alert for the
influences of this Nature, full of awful power, and for the contemplation
of life and the Universe around h