260 KECEIVES HIS MISSION. 



• And then a new idea possessed his mind. He lived 

 much in the open air, gazing on the stars, watching 

 the dry ground grow green beneath the gentle rain, 

 surveying the firmly rooted mountains, and the broad 

 expanded plain ; he pondered also on the religious 

 legends of the Jews, which he had heard related on his 

 journeys, at noonday beneath the palm tree by the well 

 mouth, at night by the camp fire ; and as he looked 

 and thought, the darkness was dispelled, the clouds 

 dispersed, and the vision of God in solitary grandeur 

 rose up within his mind ; and there came upon him an 

 impulse to speak of God, there came upon him a belief 

 that he was a messenger of God sent on earth to restore 

 the religion of Abraham, which the Pagan Arabs 

 had polluted with their idolatry, the Christians in mak- 

 ing Jesus a divinity, the Jews in corrupting their holy 

 books. 



In the brain of a poet stanzas will sometimes arise 

 fully formed without a conscious effort of the will, as 

 once happened to Coleridge in a dream ; and so into 

 Mahomet's half-dreaming mind there flew golden- 

 winged verses, echoing to one another in harmonious 

 sound. At the same time he heard a Voice ; and 

 sometimes he saw a human figure ; and sometimes he 

 felt a noise in his ears like the tinkling of bells, or a 

 low deep hum, as if bees were swarming round his 

 head. At this period of his life, every chapter of the 

 Koran was delivered in throes of pain. The paroxysm 

 was preceded by depression of spirits ; his face became 

 clouded ; his extremities turned cold ; he shook like a 

 man in an ague, and called for a covering. His face 

 assumed an expression horrible to see ; the vein be- 

 tween his eyebrows became distended ; his eyes were 

 fixed ; his head moved to and fro, as if he was con- 





