deration of
Abubeker. "Is it Mahomet," said he to Omar and the multitude, "or the
God of Mahomet, whom you worship? The God of Mahomet liveth forever; but
the apostle was a mortal like ourselves, and according to his own
prediction, he has experienced the common fate of mortality." He was
piously interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman, on the same spot
on which he expired. Medina has been sanctified by the death and burial
of Mahomet, and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca often turn aside from
the way, to bow in voluntary devotion before the simple tomb of the
prophet.

At the conclusion of the life of Mahomet it may perhaps be expected that
I should balance his faults and virtues, that I should decide whether
the title of enthusiast or impostor more properly belongs to that
extraordinary man. Had I been intimately conversant with the son of
Abdallah, the task would still be difficult and the success uncertain:
at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly contemplate his shade
through a cloud of religious incense; and could I truly delineate the
portrait of an hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally apply to
the solitary of Mount Hera, to the preacher of Mecca, and to the
conqueror of Arabia. The author of a mighty revolution appears to have
been endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition; so soon as
marriage had raised him above the pressure of want, he avoided the paths
of ambition and avarice; and till the age of forty he lived with
innocence, and would have died without a name. The unity of God is an
idea most congenial to nature and reason; and a slight conversation with
the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and detest the
idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart the
doctrine of salvation, to rescue his country from the dominion of sin
and error. The energy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object
would convert a general obligation into a particular call; the warm
suggestions of the understanding or the fancy would be felt as the
inspirations of Heaven; the labor of thought would expire in rapture and
vision; and the inward sensation, the invisible monitor, would be
described with the form and attributes of an angel of God. From
enthusiasm to imposture the step is perilous and slippery: the daemon of
Socrates affords a memorable instance how a wise man may deceive
himself, how a good man may deceive others, how the conscience may
slumber in a mix