6.  In warm regions, the appetite of the sexes is ardent, the passion for inebriating liquors moderate.  In compliance with this distinction, although Mahomet laid a restraint upon the drinking of wine, in the use of women he allowed an almost unbounded indulgence.  Four wives, with the liberty of changing them at pleasure, (Sale’s Koran, c. iv. p. 63.) together with the persons of all his captives, (Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 225.) was an irresistible bribe to an Arabian warrior.  “God is minded,” says he, speaking of this very subject, “to make his religion light unto you; for man was created weak.”  How different this from the unaccommodating purity of the Gospel!  How would Mahomet have succeeded with the Christian lesson in his mouth.—­“Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart”?  It must be added, that Mahomet did not venture upon the prohibition of wine till the fourth year of the Hegira, or the seventeenth of his mission, when his military successes had completely established his authority.  The same observation holds of the fast of the Ramadan, (Mod.  Univ.  Hist.  Vol. i. pp. 126 & 112.) and of the most laborious part of his institution, the pilgrimage to Mecca. (This latter, however, already prevailed amongst the Arabs, and had grown out of their excessive veneration for the Caaba.  Mahomot’s law, in this respect, was rather a compliance than an innovation.  Sale’s Prelim.  Disc. p. 122.)

What has hitherto been collected from the records of the Musselman history relates to the twelve or thirteen years of Mahomet’s peaceable preaching, which part alone of his life and enterprise admits of the smallest comparison with the origin of Christianity.  A new scene is now unfolded.  The city of Medina, distant about ten days’ journey from Mecca, was at that time distracted by the hereditary contentions of two hostile tribes.  These feuds were exasperated by the mutual persecutions of the Jews and Christians, and of the different Christian sects by which the city was inhabited. (Mod.  Univ.  Hist.  Vol. i. p. 100.) The religion of Mahomet presented, in some measure, a point of union or compromise to these divided opinions.  It embraced the principles which were common to them all.  Each party saw in it an honourable acknowledgment of the fundamental truth of their own system.  To the Pagan Arab, somewhat imbued with the sentiments and knowledge of his Jewish or Christian fellow-citizen, it offered no defensive or very improbable theology.  This recommendation procured to Mahometanism a more favourable reception at Medina than its author had been able, by twelve years’ painful endeavours, to obtain for it at Mecca.  Yet, after all, the progress of the religion was inconsiderable.  His missionary could only collect a congregation of forty persons.  It was not a religious, but a political association, which ultimately introduced Mahomet into Medina.  Harassed, as it should seem, and disgusted by the long