The Press. — London, England, 1858-03-13 00:00:00

and conduct of tho " Prophet of Islam." Mr. Muir examines and probes rather than nar rates or proves; it is a display of research and reflection rather than of thoroughly finished history. The nature of the subject, and the author's modo of dealing with it, will necessarily limit the number of his readers. F o r ourselves, we can say that, as far as Mr. Muir has gone, we have folloiled him with interest, and the work certainly merits the notice of philosophic readers of history. Considerably more than two hundred and fifty pages of the first of these volumes is occupied with the " Introduction " to the work. Mr. Muir has not the art of getting rapidly into his subject, or• of managing the masses of knowledge that he has collected. He has wavered between the duties of critical dis sertation and of literary description. We should have preferred another arrangement. His introduction ought to have been briefer in space and more luminous in arrangement ; and much of the preliminary statement could have been broken up into notes, terse, close, and relevant. As it is, M►. Muir's " Introduc tion " contains a discussion on the sources for the life of Mahomet, remarks on the Koran and tradition, a dissertation on the commerce and aborigines of Arabia, besides lengthy dis quisitions on ante-Mahometan history and the early progress of Mecca. Much of this matter should have been placed in an appendix, or in supplementary notes. We are bound to say that the rook on which several of our modern English writers of history split is on introduction. The influence of German and French examples has appa rently induced some of our contemporary historians to make a display of their faculties as expositors of the laws of history. We do not ask from a professed dramatist that he should compose criticisins on his art like those of 'Schlegel, nor do we expect that a painter should produce volumes of grand views or suggestive thoughts on the fine arts like the lectures of Reynolds, Fuseli, or Haydon. We ask for plays from the first and pictures from the second And in the same way it is his tories, and not lectures on the law of narra tion, that we demand from historians. The philosophy of History is in itself a department of Belles Lettres Another fault, also, which Mr. Muir has in common with some of our contemporary narrators is to be seen in these volumes. He did not carefully design the general plan of his literary structure. The greater portion of these volumes appeared in a slightly different shape in the Calcutta Review, and the disjointed form almost inseparable from periodical publication can be traced in the arrangement of some of the chapters. The work was originally undertaken at the instance of Dr. Pfander, distinguished as a Christian apologist in the controversy on Mahomme danism, on whom, at the instance of the Arch bishop of Canterbury, not long since, an honorary degree of D.D. was conferred. Mr. Muir, we think, does not suffi ciently appreciate the distinction between mat vels proved by criticism to be false, and between the effects produced by heroic legends that have been believed in by generations. Traditions exercise an enormous influence on the mass of mankind, and though a philosophic historian must not accept them as verities, he should narrate them as they were once accepted ; and even the text of a history is often enlivened and varied iu interest by a spirited and graceful narration of their legends. Mr. Muir thus describes the birth of Mahomet : Passing over, as fabulous and unworthy of credit, the marvellous incidents attending the gestation of the Prophet an.l his first appearance in the world, it suffices to state that the widowed Amine gave birth to a son in the autumn of the year 570 A.D. It is a vain attempt to fix with certainty the precise date of the birth, for the materials are too vague and discrepant to be subjected to so close a calculation. We may be content to know that the event occurred about fifty-five days after the attack of Abraha ; and may accept, as an approximation, the date of Id. Canssin de Perceive (whose calculations have already been recommended for general acceptance), namely, the 20th of August, 570 A.D. That mode of composition chills the reader with its conjectural manner. Some of the notes on the passage should have been in corporated with the text. One of the woe row thus:— l ...a, THE PRESS, MARCH 13,1858. The miracles attending the birth of Mahomet are very favourite topics with modern Moslems. See exempligratid, the puerile tales from the Maulaid Shar(f, or Ennobled Natirity, in No. xxaiv. of the Calcutta Review, p. 404 et. seq. " Amine relates that she heard a fearful noise which cut her into an agony of terror, but immediately a white bird came, and laying its wing upon her bosom, restored her confidence ;—she became thirsty, and anon a cup of delicious beverage, white as milk, and sweet like honey, was presented by an unseen hand ;—heavenly voices and the tread of steps were heard around her, but no person was seen ; a sheet was let down from heaven, and a voice proclaimed that the blessed Mohammed was to be screened from mortal view ;—birds of Paradise, with ruby beaks and wings of emerald, strutted along regaling her with heavenly warbling; persons from above scattered aromas around her, dco. That note, and many others of a similar character, would have been absorbed and assimilated with the text in the workmanship of a Hume or Gibbon; and a similar fault of composition runs through this learned per formance. The criticism on the date of Ma hornet's birth in our first extract should have been placed in the notes- The value of " tradition," and the degree of acceptance to which it is entitled by an his torical explorer, is understood by Mr. Muir. As a specimen of Mr. Mtließ philosophic man ner we shall cite the following passage, in which the author explains the sources of the traditions on Mahomet The supposed communication with heavenly messengers, thus countenanced by Mahomet himself, was implicitly believed by his followers, and led them even during his lifetime to regard him with a superstitious awe. On a suljt-ct so impalpable to sense, so readily apprehended by imagination, it may be fairly assumed that reason had little share in controlling the fertile productions of fancy ; that the conclusions of his susceptible and credulous followers far exceeded the premises granted by Mahomet; that even simple facts were construed by their b :cited faith as preg nant with marks of supernatural power and unearthly companionship ; and that, after the object of their veners. tion had passed from their sight, fond devotion perpetuated and enhanced the fascinating legends. If the Prophet gazed into the heavens, or looked wistfully to the right hand or to the left, it was Gabriel with whom he was holding mysterious converse. Passing gusts raise a cloud from the sandy track; the pious believer exults in the conviction that it is the dust of Gabriel and kis mounted squadrons scouring the plain, and going before them to shake the foundations of the doomed fortress. On the field of Bear, three stormy blasts sweep over the mar• shelled army ; again, it is Gabriel with a thousand horse flying to the succour of Mahomet, while Michael and Serafil each with a like angelic troop wheel to the right and to the left of the Moslem front. Nay, the very dress and martial uniform of these helmed angels are detailed by the earliest and most trustworthy biographers with as much naiveté as if they had been veritable warriors of flesh and blood! Stich is a specimen of the vein of legend and extravagance which pervades even the purest sources of tradition. No do•rbt real facts have not seldom been thus adorned or distorted by the colouring of a superstitious fancy. The subjective conceptions of the fond believer have been reflected back upon the biography of the Prophet, and have encircled even the chjective realities of his life, u in the pictures of our saints, with a lustrous halo. The false colouring and fictitious light so intermingle with the picture, as to place its details beyond the reach of analy tical criticism. Mr. Muir accepts the Koran as an authentic record of Mahomet's pretended revelations, and thinks that the edition of Abu Bakr was a faithful copy of the Koran, and that the text of (Allman ma:: be taken as a faithful repro duction of the edition of Abu Bakr. Mr. Muir has two manners, one critical, and the other descriptive and popular. As he is a new candidate for historical laurels we shall give a specimen of his more popular style. The narrative portion commences with a de scription of Mecca, a part of which we shall extract : Within the great mountain range which skirts the Red Sea, and about equidistant by the caravan track from Yemen and the Gulph of Akaba, lies the holy valley. The traveller from the seashore, after a journey of about fifty miles. reaches it by an almost imperceptible ascent, chiefly through sandy plains and defiles hemmed in by low hills of gneiss ard quartz, which rise in some places to the height of 41k) or .500 feet. Passing Mecca, and purming his eastward comae, he proceeds with the same gentle rise between hills partly composed of granite through the valley of Mini, and in five or six hours arrives at the sacred eminence of Arafat. Onwards the mountains ascend to a great height, till about eighty miles from the sea the granite peaks of .Jebel Kora crown the range, and Tiif comes in sight thirty miles farther teat. Between Jebel Kora and Tiif the country is fertile and lovely. Rivulets every here and there descend from the hills: the plains are clothed with verdure, and adorned by large shady trees. Tiif is famous for its fruits. The grapes are of la " very large size and delicious flavour." And there is no want of variety to tempt the appetite ; for peaches and pomegranates, apples and almonds, figs, apricots and qulnoes, grow in abundant* and perfection. Far different is it with the frowning hills and barren valleys for many a mill around Max.. StitoOd b,ruittwo94 and Nitro] 257 acacias occasionally relieve the eye, and furnish scanty repast to the hardy camel ; but the general features are rugged rocks unrelieved by a trace of foliage, with gaudy and stony glens from which the peasant in vain looks for the grateful returns of tillage. Even at the present day, after the riches of Asia have for twelve centuries been poured into the city, and a regular supply of watPr may be secured by a conduit from the fresh springs of Arafat, Mecca can hardly boast a garden or cultivated field, and only her , - and there a t ree . a - • • • • Such is the spot, barren and unpromising though it be on which the Arabs look with fond and superstitions re verence as the cradle of their destiny, anti the arena of the remote events which gave birth to their faith. Here Hagar alighted with Ishmael, and paced with troubled steps the space between the little hill of Safi ( a spar of Abu Cobeis ), and the eminence of Marwi, an offshoot on the opposite side of the valley from the lower range of Keyckitin. Here the Bani Jorhom established themselves upon the falling fortunes of the ancestors of the Coreish; and from hence they were expelled by the Beni Khozia, the new invaders from the south. It was in this pent-up vale that Cossay nourished his ambitious plans, and in the neighbouring defiles of Mini asserted them by a bloody encounter with the Beni Sufi : and here he estab lished the Coreish in their supremacy. It was hard by the Kaaba that his descendants, the children of Abd al Dir and of Abd Menif, were drawn up in battle array to fight for the sovereign prerogative. It was here that Hishitn exhibited his glorious liberality; and on this spot that AM al Muttalib toiled with his solitary son till he discovered the ancient well of Zamzain. Thousands of such associa tions crowd upon the mind of the weary pilgrim, as the minarets of the Kaaba rise before his longing eyes ; and in the long vista of ages reaching even to Adam, his imagi nation pictures multitudes of pious devotees in every age and from all quarters of the globe, flocking to the littla valley, making their seven circuits of the holy house, kissing the mysterious stone, and drinking of the sacred water. Well then may the Arab regard the Pane, and its surround ing rocks, with awe and admiration. On the character of Mahomet we cannot say that new light of a positive character is thrown by this work, nor is Mr. Muir clear in his own view of Mahomet's personal nature, on which a cloud must always remain. He seems to think that Mahomet partly de ceived himself, and that some of his imposture was not wilful. We cannot say that the force and vigour of Mahotnet's mind are entirely grasped by Mr. Muir as far as he has gone hitherto, but enough of his peaformance has been executed to give hope that by its com pletion a valuable addition will be given to the library of Orientalist°. Andromeda, and Other Poems. By Charles Kingsley, Rector of Eversley. London : J. W. Parker and Son. WHEN a writer who has achieved the highest distinction in any one department of litera ture first comes before the world in a new character, his judges must he upon their guard against two opposite temptations. They may be tempted on the one hand to measure him by too high a standard of excellence, or on the other to accept his previous performances as a guarantee of his present merit, and to believe that if they fail to appreciate him it is thcir own fault rather than his. We will, however, do all we can to divest ourselves of preconceived opinions, and to return an honest answer to the question are these poems such as we should have hailed with enthusiasm from an unknown author? So long an inter val has clap aed since the publication of "The Saints' Tragedy," and Mr. Kingsley's fame is founded so exclusively on his prose works, that we may fairly regard the present volume as a sort of second first appearance in poetry. To the genuine poet, poetry is an end. With Mr. Kingsley it seems to us to be a means— an ornament of truth rather than one form of truth. All the poems iu the present volume which are purely original are conducive to the inculcation of some moral or political lesson : and that not in virtue of their being poetry, but directly, consciously, and superaddition ally. Nature herself is one great lesson, but we learn it unconsciously and passively. True poetry, which is the reflex of nature, operates in the same manner. But Mr. Kingsley's temperament is a singular union of the prac tise' and the imaginative. Every moral must be pointed with a fact. Every fact must be generalised into a moral. He cannot throw of the gown. and by the side of his most beautiful productions hangs the black board, with the chalk and wand, of the lecturer. One poem in the volume now before us is an exception to this rule. "Andromeda," however, is i 4 ao wad au Original FOAM" Ji if