it was only piecemeal, that the
several parts were _revealed_ by the angel to the prophet, and that he
immediately dictated what had been revealed to his secretary, who wrote
it down. Each part, as soon as it was thus copied out, was communicated
to his disciples, to get by heart, and was afterward deposited in what
he called the chest of his apostleship. This chest the prophet left in
the custody of his wife Hafsa.

When we consider the way in which the _Koran_ was compiled, we cannot
wonder that it is so incoherent a piece as we find it. The book is
divided into chapters; of these some are very long; others again,
especially a few toward the end, very short. Each chapter has a title
prefixed, taken from the first word, or from some one particular thing
mentioned in it, rarely from the subject-matter of it; for if a chapter
be of any length, it usually runs into various subjects that have no
connection with each other. A celebrated commentator divides the
contents of the _Koran_ into three general heads: 1. Precepts or
directions, relating either to religion, as prayers, fasting,
pilgrimages, or to civil polity, as marriages, inheritances,
judicatures. 2. Histories--whereof some are taken from the Scriptures,
but falsified with fabulous additions; others are wholly false, having
no foundation in fact. 3. Admonitions: under which head are comprised
exhortations to receive Islamism; to fight for it, to practise its
precepts, prayers, alms, etc.; the moral duties, such as justice,
temperance, etc., promises of everlasting felicity to the obedient,
dissuasives from sin, threatenings of the punishments of hell to the
unbelieving and disobedient. Many of the threatenings are levelled
against particular persons, and those sometimes of Mahomet's own family,
who had opposed him in propagating his religion.

In the _Koran_ God is brought in saying, "We have given you a book." By
this it appears that the impostor published early, in writing, some of
his principal doctrines, as also some of his historical relations. Thus,
in his life of himself we find his disciples reading the twentieth
chapter of the _Koran_, before his flight from Mecca; after which he
pretended many of the revelations in other chapters were brought to him.
Undoubtedly, all those said to be revealed at Medina must be posterior
to what he had then published at Mecca; because he had not yet been at
Medina. Many parts of the _Koran_ he declared were brought to hi