to those with which he exhorts the Koreysh. There is nothing new in his own doctrine, he says, it is but the teaching of Abraham, of Moses, of Christ, of all the prophets. But it is the last and best, the seal of prophecy, after which no other will be given before the Great Day. It supersedes or confirms all that goes before. Quite half of the second group of Mekka speeches consists of these Jewish legends. There are not so many in the third, and none in the first. But if the Third does not contain quite so many of these tedious fables, it is even tamer in style. Mohammad seems to be cataloguing the signs of nature mechanically, and he is constantly recurring to the charge of forgery which was often brought against him, or to the demand for miracles, which he always frankly admitted he could not gratify. I am only a warner, he said; I cannot show you a sign--a miracle--except what ye see every day and night. Signs are with God: He who could make the heavens could easily show you a sign if He pleased; beware, lest one day ye see a sign indeed, and taste in hell that which ye called a lie! That the old eloquence, in spite of repetition and wearing trouble, was not dead, may be seen from the speech called _Thunder_ (p. 104), where the nature painting is as fine as anywhere in the Korān. The first great division of Mohammad’s speeches, then, is oratorical rather than dogmatic. He has a great dogma, indeed, and uses every resource to recommend it. But there is little detail in these ninety Mekka speeches. Hardly any definite laws or precepts are to be found in them, and most of these in the speech entitled _The Children of Israel_ (p. 57). Certain general rules of prayer are given, hospitality and thrift are commended in a breath, “Let not thy hand be chained to thy neck, nor yet stretch it out right open;” infanticide, inchastity, homicide (save in blood-revenge), the robbing of orphans, a false balance, usury, a broken covenant, and a proud stomach, are denounced; certain foods are prohibited; and the whole duty of man is thus briefly summed up:--“Say: I am only a man like you: I am inspired that your God is but One God. Then let him who hopeth to meet his Lord do righteousness, and join no (idol) in his worship of God.” There is little here of a complicated ritual or a metaphysical theology. Thus far the social and religious laws which we associate with Islām are not found in the Mohammadan Bible. We hear only the voice crying in the wilderness, “Hear ye, people! The Lord your God is one Lord.”