sently prevailing view is that Muhammad had somehow become impressed with the nearness of the end of the world; that by strange psychological experiences, consequent upon the excitement which that idea produced in his own mind, he was imbued with the notion that he was called to warn his own people of the approaching calamity; that he began with the purest motives to proclaim the approach of the Judgement Day; that the delay of its appearance forced him gradually to modify his visionary presentation of the doctrine; that after some ten years of unselfish and unrewarded labour in Mecca he migrated to Medina to escape the persecution of his fellowtownsmen and find a more hopeful field for his message; that coming to Medina at an opportune time he soon found himself at the head of a community, and succumbing to the temptations of power became more and more a worldly prince and an unscrupulous ruler. In such an account of Muhammad I am convinced that the emphasis is wrong. It is not to be denied that he was impressed by the idea of the Judgement Day, or that he proclaimed the truth of it with fire and conviction. But study of the early portions of the Qur'an has led me to the conclusion that he had much more practical purposes in his mind at the start than the proclamation of the approaching end of the world, and that the preacher of Mecca was much more like the prophet of Medina than the view of him which I have sketched represents.

We have always to be on our guard against attaching too much weight to the traditions of

the Prophet's early life. If we apply to the legends which surround his Call to the prophetic office the rule that they can only be accepted seriously so far as they are confirmed by the Qur'an itself, we shall find very little in them that ought to be allowed to influence our ideas of the beginnings of Muhammad's work. Even if we accept the stories of his fasts and lonely vigils in the cave on Mt. Hira, we are probably reading our own ideas into them if we assume that it was the idea of the approaching end of the world that was working in his mind. At the comparatively mature age which he had reached it was at least as likely to be doubts and hesitations regarding the adoption of a hazardous and difficult enterprise which were troubling him. It was to the adoption of this practical enterprise that the Angel finally compelled him, and the passage of the Qur'an, which tradition says was first delivered at the direct command of Gabriel (the beginning of Surah xcvi.), is not an announcement of the end of the world being at hand, but a command to "read" in the name of God the Creator and generous bestower of good upon man.

Muhammad was a visionary, no doubt, but he was not a crack-brained enthusiast. He was a very practical character. In Medina that side of his character is almost painfully evident. But those who migrate change their dwelling not their nature. Even in Mecca the practical direction of his thought is very marked. He had the mystic quality of a seeker after truth, but that did not destroy his practical bent; it only gave it a