thoughts, as it is said, 'He Who fashioned all their hearts, understandeth all their actions." "

ISLÂM.

Muhammadanism, or Islâm, may be shortly described as the religion of Abraham touched with Sabæanism. The founder himself said, "We have spoken unto thee by revelation; follow the religion of Abraham." The term Muslim was applied to Muhammad's forerunners, known as Hanifs, and seems first of all to have meant a man striving after righteousness; then, one wholly resigned to the divine Will. "These Hanifs," says Dr. Deutsch, "form a very curious and most important phase of Arabian faith before Mohammed-a phase of Jewish Christianity or Christian Judaism. They loved to style themselves also Abrahamitic Sabians,' and Mohammed, at the outset, called himself one of them. They were, to all intents and purposes, 'heretics.' They believed in One God. They had the Law and the Gospel, and further certain 'Rolls of Abraham and Moses' called Ashmaat, to which Mohammed at first appeals."

Kot'an, afterwards styled Muhammad or "the Praised," was born in the year 571. His father died before his birth, and his mother when he was only six. Most of his youth was spent in the attempt to earn a livelihood, first as shepherd and then as camel-driver; but at the age of twenty-four he married a rich widow and was thenceforth freed from the common cares of life. The principal event in his career occurred when he was about forty.

With many of the ancient Arabs it was the custom to spend the Ragab on Mount Hirâ, an hour's walk from Mecca. Muhammad, too, at this age, went to the huge, barren rock, for the month of universal armistice, and spent the time in prayer. Suddenly, in the middle of the "blessed night Al Kadar,” he heard a voice thrice calling

"Cry! Cry!

Cry! in the name of thy Lord!"

And this was the beginning of his mission, and such, by common consent, though now found in the ninety-sixth Sura, were the opening words of the Kurân, that wonderful book written in the choicest Arabic, the first edition of which was prepared "from date leaves and tablets of white stone, from shoulder-bones and bits of parchment thrown promiscuously into a box, and from the breasts of men," one year after the prophet's death.

SûFÎISM.

The origin of this profound and harmonious system, which has its home in Persia and is spread over the whole Muhammadan world, is still wrapped in obscurity. It cannot be said to be of ancient date, its earliest appearance being in the eighth century, about a hundred years after the death of the Arabian prophet. When, with the fall of Jaşdigird, the whole of the Persian Empire was subjugated by the Arabs, the ancient religion of the Iranian prophet was overthrown, the majority of

the conquered accepting the faith of Islâm. But when the religious forms of thought of one race are forced upon another, it is not likely that they will remain unchanged. Hence arose the Muslim schism known as 'Sia, which is an Aryan colouring of a system Semitic.

Now, although the writings of the Sûfîs are very numerous, the real difficulty of ascertaining the precise nature of Sûfî ideas lies in the fact that they are invariably wrapped in a veil of symbolism. On account of the fanaticism of the orthodox, great poets like G'alâl-ud-Dîn, G'âmî, and Anwari found

it necessary so to dilute their poems with quotations

from the Kurân and Hadith and so to veil their teachings in symbols and allegories that they might appear at least outwardly correct.

According to Mr. Granville Browne, of Cambridge, the highest European authority, Sûfîism is no mere modification and sublimation of the current theology of Islâm, but "essentially a transcendental philosophy having no real connection with Muhammadanism beyond this, that its professors lived in a Muhammadan country, and, not wishing to make public their innermost beliefs, made use of the current theological terminology to present them to those whose mental vision was clear enough to pierce through the word-husk to the essential idea which lay enfolded within it."

The fundamental tenet is: "God was, and there is nothing but Him!" Thus the system is theistic in its assertion of the existence of a Supreme Mind beyond all that the senses perceive; pantheistic in its thought that this Over-Soul is not only the

Highest Being, but the sole real Being, to which all else is but as a shadow.

BABÎISM.

Our sources of information concerning this curious religion, which, like Sûfîism, took its rise in Persia, are the histories known as Nâsik'ut-Tavârîk' and Ravşatus-Safâ, and the admirable articles of Mr. E. G. Browne in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.'

On May 23rd, 1844 (A.H. 1260), there arose in Bushire a young man about twenty, full of religious fervour, named Mîrșa Ali Muhammad, declaring that he had a divine mission and calling himself the Bab, or Gate. For six years he preached a mystical pantheism, and his suhûr, or "manifestation," was by a great many considered to be that of the Kâ'im or Imam Mahdî. He had a large following; amongst his disciples was the beautiful poetess Kurratu'l-Ajn, who, in 1848, embraced the Bâbî doctrine and, discarding the veil, began to openly preach at Kaṣvîn, to the great scandal of the Muslims. After a while the Bâbîs, for political reasons, were considered dangerous; many were persecuted, some were even put to death. On July 8th, 1850 (A.H. 1266), the Bâb himself was executed at Tabris, together with his disciple Mîrșa Muhammad Ali, and in 1852 the gifted Kurratu'l-Ajn fell a victim to Musulmân fanaticism.

The sayings of the Bâb are found in what is known as Bejân, "the Utterance," written at first in Persian and afterwards translated into Arabic. In the

11th chapter of the 6th vâhid we read: "As in the manifestation of the Furkân none recognised that Sun of Truth until forty years had passed, so, in the case of the Nukta-i-Beján [ Point of Utterance,' i. e. the Bâb], until twenty-five years."

Bâbîism has much in common with Sûfîism. Both are forms of mysticism, the fundamental teaching in each case being the divine spark latent in man, by the cultivation of which he can attain to the degree of Fená fi'lláh, "annihilation in God."

HIERATICISM.

Our best source of information regarding the ancient Egyptian religion is what is known as the 'Book of the Dead,' a collection of sacred texts dealing with the same subject but without literary unity. Jamblichus tells us that there were no less than 20,000 Hermetical rolls or scrolls, and this book doubtless belonged to the sacred hieroglyphical literature which was throughout ascribed to ThotHermes, the god of wisdom and learning. This collection of texts, relating to the resurrection, the judgment, and the life beyond, was essentially a book of practical instruction. It was intended to inform the individual who was anxious about the salvation of his soul as to what he ought to know on earth, and as to how he should prepare for death. The most usual formula at the end of a chapter is: "Whoso knoweth this chapter," or "whoever in lifetime knows this book," will rise and enter the land of divine life. In the chapter of justification (cxxv) the dead man is asked a great deal. From the first