originated with an obscure inhabitant of a desert corner of Asia; and numbered, in the first three years of the Hejra, only fourteen proselytes. The perfectness of the coincidence in this particular deserves to be noted, as of great force in the present application of the prediction of Daniel, since it is an agreement with the prophecy in the character of its fundamental symbol.

The little horn was presently to wax “exceeding great, toward the South, and toward the East, and toward the pleasant land." And Mahometanism, again, in its primitive course of conquest, did so extend itself, by the successive, or almost simultaneous, occupation of Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Palestine: which countries were not only the first-fruits, but became, and continue to the present day, the main seed-plots and store-houses of the great Mahometan commonwealth.

It has been objected, indeed, that no mention is made in the prophecy, of progress westward; while it is well known, that the Saracens extended their creed with their conquests, along the entire continent of Africa; and that Mahometanism retained in its fatal grasp, for centuries, the western extremity of Europe.

The objection has been anticipated by the historical fact just noticed, that Asia ever constituted the seat of the Mahometan empire: and the pretermission may be satisfactorily accounted for by the further considerations, that Western Africa was comparatively an inconsiderable accession; and that the Saracen kingdom of Spain, though long eminently prosperous and powerful, was relatively a late acquisition *, became early insulated from the empire of the Asiatic Caliphs, never afforded a prize for the extension of the Mahometan dominion in Europe, and eventually expired, not merely as a state, but by the total extirpation or expulsion of its Mussulman population. Toward the West, therefore, Mahometanism could not properly be said, in the language of the prophecy, to have "waxed exceeding great."

* Between the conquest of Egypt and the invasion of Spain there occurs an interval of above seventy years; a chasm which Mr. Lowman conceives sufficient to mark two distinct epochs in the history of the Saracens. Western Africa submitted to the yoke only a few years earlier.

+ Nor should it be omitted, that the seeds of the future overthrow of the Saracenic empire in Spain were sown simultaneously with those of its first rise, in the establishment, by the heroic Pelagius, of the infant state of Asturias; the germ of that Christian Spanish monarchy, which should one day extirpate Mahometanism from the peninsula. The readers of "Roderick the last of the Goths," perhaps the most finished production of the first English writer of his age, have seen the character of Pelagius drawn, at once, with the genius of a poet, and with the fidelity of an historian. Compare Des Marlès, Hist. de la Dom. des Arabes en Espagne, tome i. pp. 118-124. 147, 148.

But the theatre of fulfilment, marked out.by the terms of the prophecy, supplies a conclusive reason for the omission of progress westward. For its scene is laid in the Macedonian empire; and the directions taken in its growth by the little horn carry us in the lines, in which, assuming Babylon, where Daniel saw the vision, as its central point, that empire chiefly extended. Now the kingdom of the he-goat being thus the geographical limit of the prophecy, its fulfilment by Mahometanism is most complete. The Mahometan apostasy, in the present age, literally overspreads the Macedonian empire. The conquests of Alexander in Asia formed the original seat and strength of the Saracenic dominion; and, what is singularly remarkable, after centuries of defeat and failure on the part of Mahometanism, in its reiterated efforts to penetrate towards the West, the primitive seat of Alexander's power in Europe, Greece with its. dependencies, and this portion alone of the European continent, has fallen permanently under the iron rule of their successors, the Turks.

4. The little horn of the vision, in the interpretation, is represented as " a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences." The sense of the first characteristic is obvious; but it is of importance to fix the meaning of the second..

The expression, "dark sentences," is equivalent to the familiar scriptural phrases, "dark sayings," and, "dark sayings of old." These phrases, in the language of the sacred writers, will be found uniformly to convey a spiritual signification. Thus the Psalmist, "I will open

my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old." It seems probable, therefore, that the equivalent expression," dark sentences, relates, in one shape or other, to religion; and the "understanding dark sentences," to real or pretended skill in the interpretation of things spiritual.

Now, let Mahometanism be brought to the test of a comparison with this part of the prophecy, according to its authorized meaning. As the founders of an universal despotism, and the promulgators of a fierce and sanguinary superstition, Mahomet and his successors manifestly answer the description of " a king of fierce countenance." And, as the author of the Koran, Mahomet has himself erected a lasting testimonial of the supremacy of his claim to the prophetic distinction of "understanding dark sentences;" for it is the declared object of this pretended revelation, to revive the traditions of ancient times concerning God and religion;

and it professes, further, to unfold the history of futurity, and the secrets of the invisible world.2

5. But the correctness of the application to Mahometanism, of this part of the prophecy, may be yet further ascertained by a comparative examination of the context; every expression of which has distinct reference to a spiritual desolation. Throughout, the vision and the interpretation of Daniel join hand in hand, to point out the power symbolized by the eastern little horn, as an effectual confederation of a temporal with a spiritual tyranny for the subversion of the true religion, circumstantially corresponding with the character exhibited, and the accomplishment effected, by the arch-heresy of Mahomet.

In the vision, the little horn" waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars* to the ground, and stamped upon them." The interpretation explains this prediction as applying to the king of fierce countenance, "who shall destroy the mighty and the holy people." Mahometanism realized the prophecy from the date of its first promulgation, when it stood up against Christi

* Stars, in the idiom of prophecy, signify rulers, temporal or spiritual. Dan. xii. 3. may be instanced to show, that this prophet applies the symbol peculiarly, if not exclusively, to the priestly and pastoral offices. Compare Rev, xii. 4.