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    ISLAMISM.*

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    SOLDIERS AXD THEIR SCIENCE.*

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    divine spirit indwelling in me , which is distinct frqm my l ^ aspn ^ I will never give wp seeking' for this spirit in the deepest depths ot the Witliout quoting further from worjcs which must , we feel sure , please and instruct everybody , we simply add that the old sentiment- ^ " Look in thy heart and write , " seems to have animated Schleiermacher in all his compositions . His translator , we must also say , has clothed his spirit in pure English , and her mtroduction of him here is worthy of the great theologian . In his own beautiful words we bring our remarks to a close , "You have invited me , dear friends , and here I am , come to live and love amid you all . 1 ? not the spirit of man there where it is . active ! If so then certainly I am among you . " ¦ ' . ¦ . ¦ , ¦ ....,., ¦ ' , He is welcome to join the great brotherhood of thinkers , who though dead yet speak , " and still influence , educate , and advance mankind . . _ ' '

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    ISLAM is Salvation , 'iue lineal qeseenaants me tribe of the Koreish , to which Mohammed belonged , had degenerated from the faith of Abraham , and looked in vain to their Christian or Jewish contemporaries for examples of that pure old piety , the restoration of which was desired by the more contemplative of the wild Arab minds that were nurtured in the wilderness ; yet not unmindful of ' .-their origin , and the great ancestor who was alike acknowledged by themselves , the Hebrew , and the followers of the Nazarene . The author of the work before us , Dr . Muehleisen Arnold , remarks that , out of all the nations of antiquity , only those descended from the two sons of Abraham have preserved their

    nationality . Phoenicians , Egyptians , Assyrians , Babylonians , and Persians , have either altogether disappeared , or they exist only in degenerated remnants . The Chinese and Hindoos , he reminds us , remain only in two great masses , inert and torpid ; and the Greeks a » d ltomans of the present day differ essentially from the Greeks and Eomans of classic times . But the sons of . 'Israel and the sons of Islmuiel stand yet iu the world as two separate and distinct nations , unchanged in character , and retaining' their ancient manners and customs . He acknowledges that the Mohammedan is a true tvpe of the . ishmaelite , and contends that the celebrated symbol of the Mohammedan creed , " there is no God but one , " was known to the Arabs before Islamism existed . Nevertheless , this simple creed had suffered corruption , and idolatry had supervened . Wise souls lamented the fact . We read of four men of the tribe of Koreish sitting in secret conclave , and spying that their

    fellowcountrymen were in a wrong path—they were far astray from the religion of Abraham . "What , " they asked , "is this pretended divinity to which they immolate victims , and around which they make solemn processions ? A dumb and senseless block of stone , incapable of good and evil . It is all a mistake . Seek we the truth ; seek we the pure religion of our father Abraham . To find it , let us quit our country , if need be , and traverse foreign lands . " And it is recorded that one of these men went day by day to the Kaaba , to pray to Allah to enlighten him ; and the other three , travelling forth , became Christians . Others , who were agitated with the same feeling's , were not so easily satisfied with the corrupted Christianity ° of the period ; and many Arabs accordingly expected " a prophet of their own , who would restore the religion of Abraham , and put an end to the state of ferment into which the Peninsula had been thrown by the concussion of Judtusm , Christianity , Sabseisrn , and the idolatry which they inherited from their

    foreapproaching death , and publicly announced it in the mosque to his people , and expired ( 632 ) iii the arms of his favourite wile Ayeslia , who had . been betrothed to him at the age of seven years . His followei-s remained faithful to his memory , and about two hundred millions of mankind continue to be called by his name to the present day . . " . . ' : ¦ .. . ¦ - . . ' . ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ;• "¦¦ . ¦ ¦ . . ¦ . ¦ ' ¦ ¦ . ' . ' ¦ . .. . For a long period it Lad heen the custom for Jewish and Christian writers to regard Mohammed as an impostor;—but the philosophical minds of this century have formed a more favourable opinion of-his character . For the most part , they seem disposed to recognise his mission ; at any rate , they are not prepared to dispute that it was accomplished . This , undoubtedly , is a great fact in his favour , and to Mi . thos . Carlyle in particular conclusive of his claims . Our author , however , is not satisfied ' with this view . By virtue of their Origin , he maintains that Jew and Mohammedan alike are the natural enemies of ¦ Christianity . , Judiaism , he says , is the embodiment of a dead orthodoxy , and Islamism the personification of a cold religion of the understanding;—and , being such , both are necessarily opposed to the Christian faith . Moreover , " being inflated with gross superstition , wild fanaticism , inconceivable pride , and a special animosity against the Christian , the Mohammedan ia far more difficult to convert than even the Jew . '' This difficulty is generally aeknowledg-ed , not only in reference to the Mohammedan , but likewise the Hindoo and Buddhist , and some other of the Oriental religionists . But this difficulty is not entirely nor even chiefly due to the causes assigned , but rather to the facfc that the ground is preoccupied . The East is the birth-place of religious systems ; and the Christian missionary is accordingly met with an already existing ; belief ; which naturally resists innovation . He seeks to instruct those who are also anxious , to instruct him . One might as well ainv at teaching music to the Italian as religion to the Oriental . Dr . Arnold traces Mohammedanism to the spread of Arianism ; and certainly , in the simplicity of its dog-ma , the former must be considered as the extreme of Protestantism in the ; Eastern Church . Our author ' s theory of Satanic influence , the despair of the theologian , will , We fear , little advance the cause he advocates . We find the theory coming immensely into fashion . It is used on all occasions ! Of Divine influence we now hear little;—of the diabolic too much . Such an assumption lays the axe to the root o £ religibus sentiment , and destroys the tree and its branches . We , therefore , fear that Dr . Muehleisen Arnolds book will , stand the missionary in little stead . It is bad to begin with the \ odium tlieologicxtm ; everyprudent man , Christian or Mohammedan , would avoid it . Easier , we think , it would be to convert by conciliation , and mutual agreement on some common truth , as the basis of a logical argument which might lead to a common result , namely , that Salvation which it is the purpose of Islam , and ought to be that of every religious creed , to secure for the souls of erring That the compilers of the Koran were bad Biblical critics , and mixed up Rabbinical ti-adition with Scriptural narrative in strange confusion , the author lias fully proved . This fact is , of course , available to the controversialist;—but we would rather leave it in the hands of the educator . It will tell with more force in the historical review thaii in . the polemical treatise . As education progresses , the stores of knowledge become common property ,. and all Scripture has to abide the searching scrutiny of the general intelligence . The relative value of literary productions will thus be tested , and the inferiority of the Koran-to the Bible made publicly manifest . Leave it to time ; and , in due season , the truth will be Bitrely discovered .

    fathers . " . ^ Such was the state of the Arabian intelligence previous to the appearance of Mohammed . His coining satisfied a need , and answered to a craving- in the human mind . Men saw that he was the Man for the Hour that had stricken ; ahd ho felt that he had the mission to perform the work that was demanded . It was from the first a work of danger and difficulty , and required a man of genius and courage . He surmounted those difficulties ; he escaped those 'dangers ; not , however , without showing symptoms of human weakness , making occasional concessions to tho evil he came to destroy , but recovering himself and his cause by a timely repentance . Nor was he ashamed to confess his shortcomings , but in the Koran records them faithfully , with his sucoossos . Like many men , tpo , of his character , he was a visionary ; his excited X-magination mistook dreams for facts ; which his reason was'foot instructed enough to

    distinguish from each other . The subjective ? and the objective wero frequently confounded in his experience . The inward'and outward worlds wore often identified in his apprehension . It was late in life before ho began his mission ; and lie was , therefore , naturally impatient of delay . At first , he . tried to persuade amd convince by argument ; but , in duo course , deemed force necessary , and appealed to the Sword . And lo , the Sword was placed nt ' his command . The feeble , unfriended , persecuted teacher oJt Truth beemmoa Conqueror , and imposed his creed on subject millions . His practice , however , was not so pure as his precepts ; and , as ho declined into tho vale ot ' years , ho rowardod himself for his exertions , like many other men of his time and country , by polygamous sensuality . On tho other hand , it might have been an unavoidable concession to deep-rooted custom , or ho might have been convinced of the lawfulness ' of tho prnotico , and expected an advantngo from it . iu the increaso of numbers , Oil this score , ^ Y 0 must not judge him by European notions . Finally , having established tlio worship of tho One God , and destroyed innumerable idols , Mohaminod beoamo conscious of his

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    rpHE work just published by Messrs . Parker and S ? on , entitled JL Soldiers and their Science , " is more useful and entertaining than may , at first sight , appear . If anybody cares to know anything abyub " battles and sieges , " from the first battle which was fought by the four kings in tho vale of Siddhn , to that which was won by the allied armies of England and France , as if but yesterday , on tho heights of Alum , he niay find the information in the present work . Although so long- a period Qf time Uns elapsed , since the first and last of human conflicts , war itself , lias not ditfbred very materially

    in its nature and object . Of course , through four ov five thousand years , we must oxptfet to find that military tactics and systems have essentially changed either for the better or worse . But while we recognise a groat change in tho mode of warfare , wo perceive no change in tho spirit which first prompted one man , to attack and another to defend himself , his home , his territory , and his rights . As far as tho outward means and instruments of wav are concerned , those of the armies ongiigod in tho first battle woro no more like those of tho . armies that lor several weary months besiogod and took Sebaatopol , than aivauciunt orchestra is like a modern one in skill , execution , and variety of instruments ami of music .

    However , tho sketches of the groat battles and sieges , culled from tho rest of tho history of the world by tho pon of Oiiptnin Brnbazpii , will afford tho reader ample illustrations of tho way in which military science has altered and improved . Taking for granted that our author can direct tho flro of artillery , or Nyjeld tlio sword as well as ho does tho pen , we may well trust to such heiuls and hands as his the honour and independence of tho oountry . His work , however , is timely for moro reasons than one . War , in tins age of consummuto civilisation—of civilisation which is tho result ot iiitp ] - lootual and moral progress—and of the meohamoul iiiut ) n < ln » tru * i

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    Feb . 18 , 18 G 0 . J ; The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 165

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    * Xalwutcl ; Or , a Tfntnrol Jltetoiy <\ f Jnlawlsm , iuhC it * Jtulathm (<> Cthrtellaiiit , !/ , ISy tho Xtov . Pr . if . MuE « i . wiSEN Ahwolu , Klvlnatona ,

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    * tioldhra and their pohuco . By Oftptivin BiuuASSOW , W . A . London ; John l ' urkor nnd Sou ,

    Islamism.*

    ISLAMISM . *

    Soldiers Axd Their Science.*

    SOLDIERS AXD THEIR SCIENCE . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2334/page/17/