his ill-concocted reflections) that the character of the Turks 

 is composed of nothing but contrarieties, and that every 

 Turk is both humane and cruel, cowardly and courageous; 

 such incongruities can exist only in the mind of the writer. 

 The character of a man is as single and identical as his 

 person. Although the ways of the individual, as well as 

 of society, may be all chaos and discordance to an unskilful 

 observer, yet order and connection are restored to the 

 picture when the survey is made from the just point of 

 view. A sagacious eye can always command the drift of 

 fluctuating humours, and in the complicated eddies of life 

 detect the central springs of action. The history of a nation 

 is the best portrait of its character; and we learn more of a 

 people from its laws, religion, and domestic usages, than 

 from the conflicting testimony of travellers. From the 

 institutions of the Turks, therefore, we shall endeavour, in 

 the first place, to trace the peculiarities of their manners, 

 and afterwards venture to examine the influence which the 

 character of the nation is likely to exert on its future destiny. 

 The rites of Mahometanism are so numerous, and its 

 precepts so strictly inculcated, that the true believer is 

 unceasingly exercised in a servile obedience to his faith. 

 The Turks are in fact a nation of puritans; every act of 

 life, from the highest to the lowest, from the murder of a 

 sultan to the purchase of a slipper, is begun and ended in 

 the name of God and the Prophet. The sacred standard 

 leads the Musulman to war; the bayonet is introduced with 

 the benediction of the muphty; and gun-rammers of hogs' 

 bristles, a stumbling block to the faithful, are admitted in 

 defence of the Prophet, amidst pious ejaculations of 

 " Praise be to God ! " The great multitude of forms pre- 

 scribed by the Koran derogates from the importance of its 

 moral precepts ; he who observes them carefully has good 

 reason to be satisfied with himself, and every text of the 

 sacred volume promotes the facility of self-justification. 

 The great superiority of the Musulman over unbelievers, 

 and the certainty of his temporal as well as spiritual triumph, 

 are perpetually inculcated ; he is forbidden to mingle with, 

 or even to resemble those who reject the Prophet : arrogant 

 unsociability is made the safeguard of the faith, and by 



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