MAHOMED ANISM. 143 



assailed. The fears of his Christian, and the hopes 

 of his Islam subjects, that he would renounce the 

 faith in which he has been brought up, and profess 

 Islamism, redounds considerably to his character as 

 a reflecting man, and a proof of the really 

 capacious mind he possesses ; for none who are 

 aware of the gross superstition and confusion most 

 confused, of the tenets of the Greek Church as 

 professed in Abyssinia, can feel surprised that a 

 naturally sagacious mind, should refuse the tram- 

 mels of absurdity and error, to embrace the reason- 

 able simplicity of the profession of one true and 

 only God, which is the real basis and great recom- 

 mendation of the Mahomedan belief. 



It is the false consolation of an easily-satisfied 

 Christianity to believe, that the licentiousness, which 

 an abuse of the Mahomedan religion most certainly 

 encourages, is the chief inducement which con- 

 verts so rapidly, whole states to the profession of 

 the Islam faith. A little observation soon proves, 

 that although the sensual indulgences it sanctions, 

 and the promises contained in the Koran, enlist the 

 worst passions of man in favour of its continuance, 

 when once that religion has obtained a firm hold 

 upon the opinion of a people; still, that these 

 causes have but little influence in effecting a change 

 from a previous belief. 



Wherever a patriarchal, or even a feudal govern- 

 ment exists, there the mass of the people are 

 directed in their conduct, and in their ideas of 



