But
Mahomet, without riches, without rank, without education, by the
mere ascendancy of his abilities, subjected by persuasion and
force a simple and generous nation that had never been
conquered; and laid the foundation of an empire, that extended
over half the globe; and a religion, capable of surviving the
fate of empires. His schemes were always laid with the truest
wisdom. He lived among a people celebrated for subtlety and
genius: he never laid himself open to detection. His eloquence
was specious, dignified, and persuasive. And he blended with it
a lofty enthusiasm, that awed those, whom familiarity might have
emboldened, and silenced his enemies. He was simple of
demeanour, and ostentatious of munificence. And under these
plausible virtues he screened the indulgence of his
constitutional propensities. The number of his concubines and
his wives has been ambitiously celebrated by Christian writers.
He sometimes acquired them by violence and injustice; and he
frequently dismissed them without ceremony. His temper does not
seem to have been naturally cruel. But we may trace in his
conduct the features of a barbarian; and a part of his severity
may reasonably be ascribed to the plan of religious conquest
that he adopted, and that can never be reconciled with the
rights of humanity.
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