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16

THE MOHAMMEDAN CONTROVERSY

amusing, though we do not precisely comprehend its full meaning: —

"Women are in a very dependent state; to have more than four wives would superinduce oppression, and to observe justice with regard to nine would be next to impossible.

"Therefore, in conformity with the general mercies vouchsafed to the faithful, none but the Prophet were permitted to have more than four. But as he was the paragon of all justice, he was allowed to have nine. This might be supposed to forbid a plurality of wives, but every sensible man must see that the reduction of the number of wives to one would also reduce men to difficulties. For, it is the desire of most men to take women without any sort of restraint ; and it is well known that the object of Mohammed's law was to diminish difficulties. It has been our object, therefore, to show that Mohammed's taking more wives than he allowed to others was not founded on lust, but with the view of diminishing the difficulties above mentioned; namely, to point out the difficulty of other individuals preserving justice among four; and that this was not the case (with respect to Mohammed) in a number exceeding five, six, or more."

(A rich specimen of reasoning certainly; but let us see what he thinks of our law of marriage):—"The law, however, now in the hands of Christians, is, as every man of sense knows, of a very different description; and, therefore, can never have come from God . . . . Their women, too, being allowed to take any man they may please, and whenever they please, cannot but superinduce great confusion in their tables of pedigrees, and must put an entire end to that chastity which, everyone knows, is both necessary and proper. In such a case no one can possibly know whose son he is" (p. 380).

And then he reads a lecture to Roman Catholics on the evils of monasticism and celibacy, which is recommended to their attention.

We shall quote but one passage more. The Mirza denies that Mohammed ever intended to say that he could . not work miracles;— "To say, therefore, that he pretended to nothing more than merely to be the messenger of a revelation from above: and then to argue that a contrary supposition would involve a manifest contradiction to his own declarations, is evidently unfair; and particularly so when applied to a period of time not less than three-and-twenty years" (p. 255). This objection should be allowed due weight; and in order to answer, it satisfactorily,

           

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