lestine, Egypt, and the
greater part of Natolia; then beaten; a fugitive; and at last murdered
by his own son; we are unable to conceive of a story more interesting,
or more worthy of our attention. But in contemplating the rife of the
Saracen khalifate, and the religion of Mahomet, which immediately
succeeded these events, we are compelled to acknowledge a more
astonishing object.

The following is the character of the impostor, as sketched by the
accurate and judicious pencil of our historian. We will leave it to the
judgment of our readers, only observing, that Mr. Gibbon has very
unnecessarily brought Christianity into the comparison; and has perhaps
touched the errors of the false prophet with a lighter hand, that the
disparity might be the less apparent.

"But Heraclius had a much more formidable enemy to encounter in
the latter part of his reign, than the effeminate and divided
Persian. This was the new empire of the Saracens. Ingenious and
eloquent, temperate and brave, as had been invariably their
national character, they had their exertions concentred, and
their courage animated by a legislator, whose institutions may
vie, in the importance of their consequences, with those of
Solon, Lycurgus, or Numa. Though an impostor, he propagated a
religion, which, like the elevated and divine principles of
Christianity, was confined to no one nation or country; but even
embraced a larger portion of the human race than Christianity
itself.

"Mahomet, the son of Abdallah, was born on the 9th of April,
571, in the city of Mecca. Having been early left an orphan by
both parents, he received an hardy and robust education, not
tempered by the elegancies of literature, nor much allayed by
the indulgencies of natural affection. He was no sooner able to
walk, than he was sent naked, with the infant peasantry, to
attend the cattle of the village; and was obliged to seek the
refreshment of sleep, as well as pursue the occupations of the
day, in the open air[A]. He even pretended to be a stranger to
the art of writing and reading. But though neglected by those
who had the care of his infancy, the youth of this extraordinary
personage did not pass away without some of those incidents,
which might afford a glimpse of the sublimity of his genius; and
some of those prodigies, with which superstition is prompt to
adorn the