There yet hangs in the inner chamber of my soul a fadeless picture of the whole landscape. The mountains are as blue, the valleys as soft and dreamy, the river as clear, the cascades as lively, the cottages as white, the hills as green, and the ravines as romantic as when they all stood within the circle of my visual horizon.

Strange, mysterious seems the conceptual power of mind, by which we create at pleasure spiritual images of the objects of sense, the perfect counterpart of past per ceptions. By what daguerreian process are the forms, lineaments, and even color of beautiful objects drawn and fixed on the soul?

THOUGHTS ON THE CAREER OF MAHOMET.

THAT all events in the progress of human history are under the control of a superintending Providence ; that men, though free to will, and free to act, have no power to determine the final result of their agency in human affairs; that the almighty One can use, and the omniscient One does use, the good, the bad, and the indifferent, as instruments, willing or unwilling, to promote his own glory and the interests of humanity; and that, in the final consummation of all things, the grand result will appear consistent with the power, wisdom, and benevolence of the Deity, however untoward may have been the spirit and perverted the ways of men, are truths taught by revelation, by reason, and by observation.

In looking over the history of the world, we may frequently, after the lapse of a few centuries, trace clearly the course of Providence in educing good from evil. Sometimes, however, the final result of the events evolved from human history may not appear for many thousand years. Yet he who believes in Providence will never suffer himself to despond of good amid the changes and revolutions of time.

In tracing the strange career of Mahomet, and in observing the surprising fact, that, the great cycle of twelve centuries having passed away, his system of religion, false and worthless as it appears to Christians, does yet retain much of life, of power, and of influence, we are led to inquire what could be, and what can yet be, the designs of Providence in permitting so extensive a

range, so vast an influence, and so long a period of time to Islamism?

Mahomet was born at Mecca, in Arabia, about the middle of the sixth century. At the time of his birth his father was absent on a journey. While on his way home he fell sick, and died at Medina, without once looking on the face of his only child. Some little property was left; but being, according to Arabian law and usage, all appropriated to the brothers, the widow and orphan were left homeless and penniless. The mother of Mahomet, by her own energies, protected and maintained him for six years, when she died, leaving him to the charities of his grandfather, a very aged man, one of the hereditary guardians of the sacred temple of Mecca. After about two years, the venerable man also died, leaving the poor child, at the age of eight years, utterly alone. From family pride, more than from love to the orphan, one of his uncles consented to give him a place in his tent.

The sorrows and bereavements which he had so early suffered; the knowledge of his father's influence, which was lost to him, and property of which he had been unjustly deprived; the memory of his amiable and beautiful mother, who had died in her youth of a broken heart; and the ever-present reality of his own lonely and dependent condition, induced in him habits of serious meditation and anxious thought. He would wander away alone over the hills, and sit for hours in some hidden cave, brooding over his hapless lot. At times he would feel conscious of inherent energy and personal power yet to rise, in spite of fate, to a station of influence among his people. He resolved not to yield without a struggle to the force of unfortunate circumstances. "Misfortune," said he, "shall not triumph over me, if I can help it." He began to exhibit indications of an

excitable mind, of vivid imagination, of brilliant wit, of quick perception, and of sound judgment.

As soon as he became of an available age, he was put by his uncle to business, in mercantile expeditions over the desert. From the age of thirteen to twenty-five, he was constantly engaged in traffic, and in crossing and recrossing the desert with caravans, from Mecca to Damascus. This kind of life afforded no means of acquiring knowledge from books, but great opportunities for becoming acquainted with men. All these advantages he improved in the best possible manner. He observed and he inquired. By the evening fire, and in the noontide shade, he listened to the stories of his fellow-travelers, rehearsing the wonderful things they had seen and heard in many an adventurous expedition. In the marts which he visited, he met strangers from places various and far distant, and often learned from them new and valuable facts. He frequently met Jews and Christians, and learned from them the story of Moses and of Christ. All these things he treasured up, and pondered in his heart.

At the age of twenty-five, having become expert in the usual mode of mercantile dealing, he was appointed agent of a wealthy widow, who was continuing the business of caravan traffic, in which her husband had been engaged. By his business talents he won the respect, by his honesty the confidence, and by his amiable deportment the love of the lady, and she offered him her heart, her hand, and her fortune. The offer was gratefully accepted; and Mahomet found himself in possession of property sufficient to raise him to distinction in Mecca, and of a wife whose mind and person proved a greater prize than her fortune.

Being no longer obliged to work for a living, he had leisure for retirement and meditation The religious

office held by his grandfather may have made him early conversant with sacred rites, and disposed him to divine contemplation. Though brought up, as were all his people of that age, an idolater, yet he had learned from the Jews and Christians that great truth, fundamental of all religious truth, that God is One. Idolatry he knew to be wrong in spirit, and degrading in practice. Yet idolatry was the established religion of his people and of his country-idolatry, with its horrid rites, even human sacrifices-idolatry, with its long train of barbarous usages and cruel superstitions. Infanticide, the most unnatural, the most shocking of all crimes, was only one of the fruits of idolatrous, Arabic superstition in the sixth century. Mahomet's own grandfather had escaped sacrifice in infancy only by accident. The terrible destiny of infant sacrifice fell more often on the lovely and beautiful of the race- the female child. The fair and delicate being was permitted to grow up in the family to the age of five or six years, and then, when it had become most interesting to the household and most fond of life, its own father, with his own hands, would thrust it alive into the grave, reckless of its fearful cries and its imploring entreaties, smothering the voice of weeping, and shutting out forever the sunlight from the fair face of the youthful innocent. Such was the religion, such were the dreadful customs, of the people, among whom was cast the lot of Mahomet. Such a religion he determined to subvert--such customs he resolved to abolish. Poetic in temperament, ardent in feeling, sensitive to emotion, imaginative in conception, strong in thought, and bold in enterprise, he applied himself with all his power to the work.

He had no adequate notion of the great scheme of the Divine revelation, of the nature and office of Christ, of the plan of redemption, of the way of salvation, and of