To one who does not admit the divine mission of Mahomet it is very difficult to explain the pretensions of that remarkable man, and at the same time to uphold his sincerity. There have undoubtedly been instances where mere politicians have resorted to religious impostures as temporary expedients to advance their ends; for example, the woman whom Pisistratus got dressed up in the traditional costume of Pallas, and who conducted him back to Athens from exile, or the milk-white hind which followed Sertorius in Spain, and by means of which he was reputed to hold converse with the Gods. But a contrivance of this kind is a very different thing from the foundation of a religion which now numbers about a hundred and forty millions of votaries, and which possesses to this day a very singular power over the minds of its followers. By the persistent claim of being a messenger from God, after a struggle of twenty-one years Mahomet made himself master of the greater part of Arabia, and roused a mighty religious movement which continued after his death. In a few years more a number of wandering tribes, who had previously no more cohesion than the sands of their deserts, had run a mighty career of conquest, which bore them to the banks of the Loire and of the Oxus. It is generally admitted that men cannot excite in others feelings which are wanting in their own breasts. A man without honesty and destitute of religious faith could no more found a religious system like that of Islam than a man without an ear for music could compose an opera. The old notion that Mahomet was a mere impostor appears so difficult of belief that no one of any recognised skill in historical inquiry now upholds it. But it has always been a great difficulty to explain how Mahomet could in good faith say that he had seen the angel Gabriel, and heard voices from heaven calling him the Messenger of God, and revealing chapter after chapter of the Koran. It had long seemed to me that the question was beyond human solution, and that it might have been a very difficult one, even had the inquirer lived in Mecca or Medina during the time of Mahomet's mission.