whom they reside. This, then, brings this slight sketch of women in the east to a conclusion; if it has not given much information, it will show on the whole, what a degraded being woman is, in lands where nature has poured forth her all, but where beauty and virtue have seldom gone hand in hand together."

We cannot now do better, in drawing our somewhat rambling and discursive remarks to a close, than gravely admonish all who have entered the married state, to cherish in lively remembrance one of the true secrets of happiness,-and that is, to manifest an habitual readiness to please, and an habitual disposition to be pleased-studiously to avoid occasions of offence and as studiously to repress the aptitude to be offended-carefully to cultivate the habit of proving oneself to be above trifles and of putting the mildest construction on all domestic occurrences, whether of a trivial or momentous character. "Do not expect," said Johnson, "more from life than life will afford. You may often find yourself out of humour, and you may often think your wife not studious enough to please you; and yet, you may have reason to consider yourself as, upon the whole, very happily married." "Two persons," remarks the Spectator, "who have chosen each other out of all the species, with design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment, have, in that action, bound themselves to be good humoured, affable, discreet, forgiving, patient, joyful, with respect to each other's frailties and imperfections, to the end of their lives." Or, if the substance of our admonition win its way more effectually to the conscience and the heart, when "wedded to immortal verse," let us listen to the soft sweet strain of the poet of Olney:

“The kindest and the happiest pair
Will find occasion to forbear;
And something, every day they live,
To pity, and, perhaps, forgive.

The love that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against sickness and old age,
Is gentle, delicate, and kind,
To faults compassionate, or blind,
And will, with sympathy, endure
Those evils it would gladly cure."

ART. VI.-1. Controversial Tracts on Christianity and Mahommedanism, &c., by the Rev. S. Lee, A. M. Cambridge, 1824. 2. Mahommedanism unveiled, by the Rev. Charles Forster, B. D., 2 vols. London, 1829.

3. Mizan-ul-Haqq, or a resolution of the controversy between Christians and Mahommedans; in Persian. By the Rev. C. G. Pfander. Shúshy, 1835. Ditto translated into Urdu, Mirzapúr, 1843.

4. Miftah-ul-Asrár: a Treatise on the Divinity of Christ, and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in Persian, by the same author. Calcutta, 1839. Ditto in Urdu. Agra, 1843.

5. Tarik-ul-Hyát: a Treatise on Sin and Redemption, in Persian; by the same author. Calcutta, 1840.

6. Controversial Epistles between the Rev. C. G. Pfander and Syud Rehmat Ali and Mahommed Kazin Ali: Urdu manuscript.

7. Controversy between the Rev. C. G. Pfander and Moulavi Syud Ali Hassun, in Urdu: published in the "Khair Khah Hind," papers, from January to August, 1845.

8. Khulása-i-Saulat-uz-Zaigham; an Urdu Tract in refutation of Christianity. Lucknow, 1258 Hegiri.

9. Answer to the above; in Urdu. Allahabad, 1845.

MAHOMMEDANISM is perhaps the only undisguised and formidable antagonist of Christianity. Popery on the one hand, and Socinianism on the other, may pervert or neutralize her principles, but they alike professedly bend to her sole authority. From all the varieties of Heathen religions, Christianity has to fear no aggression, for they are but the passive exhibitions of gross darkness, which must vanish before the light of the Gospel. But in the doctrines of Islam we have an active and powerful enemy;-a subtle usurper, who has climbed into the throne under pretence of legitimate succession, and who has seized upon the forces of the lawful sovereign to make war against him. It is just because Mahommedanism acknowledges the divine original, and has borrowed many of the weapons of Christianity, that it is so dangerous an adversary. The length too, of its reign, the rapidity of its early conquests, and the iron grasp with which it has retained and extended them, the wonderful tenacity and permanent character of its creed,-all combine to add strength to its claims, and authority to its arguments.

When the first tide of Mahommedan invasion set in towards the west, its irresistible flood seemed about to overwhelm the whole of Europe, and extinguish every trace of Christianity, just as its proud waves were repelled by the Pyrenees; but though different portions of Europe successfully resisted the attack, yet Mahommedan settlements continued for centuries to exist upon it. Again, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Europe poured her millions into the East, the invaders established, for a length of time, and in the midst of their foes, a succession of posts, which were gradually rolled back by the Turkish arms. And, finally, in the 15th century, the closing conquest of Constantinople and European Turkey, and the extended frontier towards Hungary and Italy, confirmed and perpetuated the last and most intimate connection which has taken place between Christian Europe and the Eastern infidels.

Here then we have a long period of twelve centuries, during which Christianity has been in contact with her mortal foe; and upon three marked occasions, that foe was the grand object of her hopes and fears. It would be natural, therefore, to expect that Christian Europe would have entered the lists not merely with the sword and with the shield, we might have anticipated that her learned divines and casuists would have advanced to the combat clad in the celestial armour of the Gospel;-that the Popes, besides pouring forth the martial bands of their subjects, would have strenuously and unremittingly applied themselves and their hosts of learned monks and ecclesiastics, to overcome the adversary with those spiritual weapons which would better have suited their sacred character. The banners of Islam approached close to the Papal see, and the crescent, almost within sight of imperial Rome, shone brightly upon Spain, Turkey and Sicily. Might we then have hoped that its inauspicious rays would have become dim and waned before the transcendent glory of the Sun of Righteousness? How fallacious were such expectations! We learn, indeed, that" in later times, when in the vicissitudes of military adventure, the arms of the Mahommedan were found to preponderate, some faint attempts were made, or meditated, to convince those whom it proved impossible to subdue ;"-and still farther, that, "in 1285, Honorius IV. in order to convert the Saracens strove to establish at Paris, schools for Arabic and other oriental languages. The council of Vienna, in 1312, recommended the same method; and Oxford, Salamanca, Bologna, as well as Paris, were places selected for the establishment of the Professorships. But the decree appears to have remained without

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effect until Francis I. called it into life."* And where are the marks and effects of this feeble resolution so tardily executed? -as far as practical controversy is concerned, they are buried in obscurity learned works upon the Arabic tongue, translations from its authors,-or at best, notes and commentaries, which too often fight with the air, and sometimes betray gross ignorance of the real views and tenets of Mahommedans, are all that remain. The dominion of the False Prophet needed to fear but little from such contemptible efforts, which even had they been known to his followers, would most probably have served only to confirm them in their belief. In truth, the spirit of the age was adverse to any spiritual success. Clogged and obscured by the errors of Popery, Christianity had abandoned her vantage ground, and what but defeat and dishonour were to be looked for? We are not prepared, indeed, to say that the entire labours of the Christian world, from the time of Mahommed to the Reformation, were of this futile character. On the contrary, we believe that devoted Christians, during this interval, frequently and with zeal attempted the conversion of the Mussulmans: but it is a melancholy reflection, that we have not a single account of their success, or of any benefical effects resulting from their efforts. We find, it is true, in the twelfth century, the eastern Emperor erasing from his creed the anathema against the God of Mahommed, as likely to offend those Mahommedans who had embraced, or were disposed to embrace, Christianity; but except for such transient hints, we should hardly be aware that the controversy was going on;-no fruits at least give token of its vitality.

How, then, are we to account for the want of success which characterized this period, in which neither party gained ground in this grand and momentous struggle? There are four causes to which it may be attributed. And chief among these we place the errors among Christians, which, before the development of Mahommedanism, had already gained much ground in the time of Gregory, and which afterwards so rapidly increased, and sprang up so thickly;-these crippled its exertions and stifled its efforts. The poison of tradition and superstition stagnated the circulation, and the blight of monachism and legality froze the current, which should have flowed unceasingly,-diffusing to the nations around the genial and healing streams of Christianity. Again, the want of any communication or interchange of sentiment, or even of the usual offices of courtesy, between the

* Waddington's History of the Church.

contending parties,-occasioned partly by their mutual intolerance which absolutely separated them, and partly by political circumstances, not only stopped the mouth of the Christian advocate by affording him no opportunity for discussion, but debarred him from those scenes and intimacies of social life, which, by rendering him conversant with the ideas and real tenets of Mahommedans, would have enabled him to dispute with them to advantage. Thirdly, the bigoted views of the Mussulmans, and their worldly, sensual and ceremonial temperament-the essence of the "natural man who understandeth not the things of God"-acted then, even as they act now,-excluding light, and rebuting conviction with contempt. Lastly, the actual hostility of the Mahommedan Governments towards Christianity checked all enquiry, prohibited all attempts at missionary labours, and suppressed every approach to conversion by sanguinary measures and summary punishment. The last three causes extenuate, though they by no means wholly remove, the guilt which the Christians of those ages incurred by indifference towards this great controversy.

The fourth grand era of the connection of Christianity with Mahommedanism arose with the dominion of Europeans in India. And here every circumstance was in our favour. The presence of Europeans was generally the effect of conquest, which, after the first feelings of irritation subside, invests the conqueror's faith and opinions with the prestige of power and authority: here, too, our foes are but a moiety of the population and the mixed character of the inhabitants might be expected to have broken the bond of Mahommedan union, so far at least as to weaken the thraldom of opinion and custom, to diminish the intensity of bigotry, and to exchange the narrow-mindedness of the Turk and the Persian, for somewhat of enlightened liberality in the Mussulman of India. Now, at least we might have expected that Christian Europe would early have improved her advantages for evangelizing the east ;-that Britain, the bulwark of religion in Europe, would have stepped forth as its champion here, and have displayed her faith and her zeal where they were most urgently required. How different are the conclusions which the 18th century forces us to draw! England was then fearfully neglectful of her responsibility; her religion was shown only at home, and she was careless of the spiritual death of

* We recollect to have read some time ago, in the Calcutta Christian Observer, an account of the ineffectual and dangerous labours of a Christian Missionary in the middle ages, which, if we remember rightly, illustrated some of the hindrances which were thrown in the way of the Evangelists of those days.