by morality and reason. His faith in Islam was fading away.
Mahomet had married a girl of ten; he had taken another man's wife;
therefore he could not have been a prophet sent by God. Akbar
disbelieved the story of his night-journey to heaven. Meantime Akbar was
eagerly learning the mysteries of other religions. He entertained
Brahmans, Sufis, Parsis, and Christian fathers. He believed in the
transmigration of the soul, in the supreme spirit, in the ecstatic
reunion of the soul with God, in the deity of fire and the sun. He
leaned toward Christianity; he rejected the trinity and incarnation.

The gravitations of Akbar toward Christianity are invested with singular
interest. He had been impressed with what he heard of the Portuguese in
India; their large ships, impregnable forts, and big guns. He sent a
letter to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa inviting Christian fathers to
come to his court at Fathpur Sikri and instruct him in the sacred books.
The religious world at Goa was thrown into a ferment at the prospect of
converting the Great Mogul. Every priest in Goa prayed that he might be
sent on the mission. Three fathers were despatched to Fathpur, which was
more than twelve hundred miles away. Akbar awaited their arrival with
the utmost impatience. He received them with every mark of favor. They
delivered their presents, consisting of a polyglot Bible in four
languages and the images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. To their
unspeakable delight the Great Mogul placed the Bible on his head and
kissed the images. So eager was he for instruction that he spent the
whole night in conversation with the fathers. He provided them with
lodgings in the precincts of his palace; he permitted them to set up a
chapel and altar.

Akbar had ceased to be a Mussulman; he still maintained appearances. He
set apart Saturday evenings for controversies between the fathers and
the mollahs. In the end the fathers convinced Akbar of the superiority
of Christianity. They contrasted the sensualities of Mahomet with the
pure morality of the Gospel; the wars of Mahomet and the caliphs with
the preachings and sufferings of the Apostles. The Mussulman historian
curses the fathers; he states that Akbar became a Christian. The
fathers, however, could never induce Akbar to be baptized. He gave them
his favorite son Amurath, a boy of thirteen, to be educated in
Christianity and the European sciences. He directed Abul Fazl to prepare
a translation of the Gosp