1896.] Psychology. 601 
the solitudes of the bare and desolate Mount Hira, and meditated there 
with prayers and ascetic exercises. This state of things continued for 
many years, when in the month of Ramadan [which it will be remem- 
bered entails the severest form of fasting] the final revelation came 
which converted an illiterate Cameldriver® into one of the great 
religious teachers of the world. As he was repeating his pious exer- 
cises and meditations on Mount Hira the “divine voice” came to him. 
The angel Gabriel held a silken scroll before him, and bade him, though 
he could not read, recite what stood written init. The words with 
which Gabriel had summoned him remained graven on his heart, and 
are found—as Mahomet at least imagined he heard them—in the 96th 
Sura of the Koran. 
Mahomet returned to his wife Khadijah in great distress imagining 
he was possessed. But she comforted him and impressed upon him 
the belief that he had received a message from God. 
Yet his doubts returned again and again, and reached a distressing 
height so that he was tempted to cast himself down from Mount Hira 
and this conflict lasted for two or three years. 
Then one day he came to Khadijah in a state of great excitement 
exclaiming “ Wrap me up, wrap me up!” (which was done when he 
fell into a fit, or swoon) and then the angel Gabriel appeared a second 
time, and revealed to him the Sura beginning “ O thou enwrapped one!” 
* Henceforth there was no interruption and no doubt, the revelations 
followed without a break, and the Prophet was assured of his vocation. 
The revolt of the idolatrous arabs against a creed of pure monotheism 
caused Mahomet at one time to yield to the temptation to humour 
them, and this temptation took the form of voice from the evil one, 
causing him to say in the pulpit that two of the heathen goddesses were 
sublime beings whose “ intercession might be hoped for.” His auditors 
were surprised and delighted, but the prophet went home disquieted. In 
the evening Gabriel came to him and Mahomet repeated the new Sura, 
whereupon the angel said “ What hast thou done? Thou hast spoken 
in the ears of the people words I never gave thee.” Mahomet now fell 
into deep distress fearing to be cast out from the Lord. - But the Lord 
took him back to his grace and raised him up; the Sura of diabolical 
suggestion was erased, and the fury of the idolatrous party broke out 
with fresh violence. Mahomet was long and salutarily humbled by the 
remembrance of his temptation and fall, but he never abandoned faith 
3 It is still a subject of dispute amongst Moslems whether Mahomet couid read 
it seems, however, more probable that he could not. 
*Sura, 75 of the Koran. 
