7. To accomplish his purpose, he employed an heretical Jacobite a true Nestonian Monk, and a Jew, to assist him in writing his 'Koran,' a most extraordinary composition, full of sublime ideas, mixed together without order or method. By this disorder and irregularity, he flattered himself the divinity of his mission would be established.

8. The prophetic enthusiasm-the obscurity of his writings their want of connexion-the miracles with which this extraordinary compilation abounds, produced astonishment in the vulgar, and contributed to excite belief in the imposition, and presently to a firm reliance that the impos ter himself was a prophet sent from the Most High to declare to man the true worship he owed the Deity.

9. The co-operators in this imposture might have exposed it, and ruined all the hopes of this aspiring man, and destroyed the foundations of this monstrous building, had not he soon sacrificed them to his ambition; in order to have no witness to his infernal rot, he had all those who were confidants in his projects, cruelly massacred. Thus free from any inquietudes on that head, he gave full play to every kind of excess.

10. His power daily increased; he employed arms, eloquence, and artifice, for the purpose of extending his em pire; and he carried his imposition so far as to pretend that an angel dictated to him the oracles of the all powerful under the semblance of a dove, he having a bird of this kind generally upon his shoulder. The epilepsy to which he was subject contributed to increase the belief in his pretended mission.

11. He easily persuaded a credulous and ignorant people -struck, as it were, with astonishment and admiration at the prodigies which he wrought before their eyes--that, at the sight of the angel Gabriel, he fell into ecstasies which occasioned those convulsions; while in truth, they proceeded from the disease.

last.

12. This ingenious deception was itself productive of the most of his disciples; and he carried it on to the very Perceiving his end approaching, he dictated the last chapter of the Alcoran as though he were inspired by God, and when about dying, he said, " he was going to repose in the arms of the Eternal."

13. The dogmas of religion which Mahomet established gave him an absolute power over the people, and had they

not rendered a blind obedience they would have considered themselves guilty of a heavy crime. The profound ignorance in which he kept them contributed much to make them subservient to his wishes.

14. Hence arose that arbitrary and despotic power which has produced to Mahomet and his successors the riches, the lives, and the honour of their subjects, or rather their slaves, springing merely from the will or caprice of the sovereign. The people, entirely given up to the pleasure of the senses, and plunged in voluptuousness, have no other delight than these enervating gratifications.

15. Even death itself is not painful to contemplate, since they anticipate the possession of celestial beauties hereaf ter, if they are obedient to the laws of their legislator.This flattering expectation, united with a firm belief in predestination, gives to them a degree of boldness which no other nation possesses. They are almost unconquerable. Every thing tended to favour the imposition, and Mahomet neglected no means to secure a belief in his doctrines, and to render his power unlimited.

DEATH OF LORD LYTTLETON.

1. A VERY instructive and afflicting account of the last hours of this great man has been given by Dr. Johnstone. "On Sunday evening," says the doctor, "the symptoms of his Lordship's disorder, which for a week past had alarmed us, put on a fatal appearance, and his Lordship believed himself a dying man. From this time he suffered by restlessness rather than pain, and though his nerves were much fluttered, his mental faculties never seemed stronger when he was thoroughly awake.

2. His Lordship's complaints seemed alone not equal to the mournful event-his long want of sleep accounts for his loss of strength, and very sufficiently for his death. Though he wished his approaching dissolution not to be lingered, yet he waited for it with resignation. He said "it is a folly to keep me in misery now to attempt to prolong my life;" yet he was easily persuaded for the satisfaction of others to do or to take any thing thought proper for him.

3. On Saturday he had been remarkably better, and we were not without some hopes of his recovery. On Sunday, about eleven in the forenoon, his Lordship sent for me, and said he felt a great hurry, and wished for some conversation with me in order to divert it. He then proceeded to open the fountain of that heart from whence goodness had so long flowed as from a copious stream.

4. 'Doctor,' said he, 'you shall be my confessor. When I first set out in the world, I had friends who endeavoured to shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw difficulties which staggered me, but I kept my mind open to conviction. The evidences and doctrines of christianity, studied with attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer in the christian religion.

5. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is the ground of my future conduct. I have erred and sinned, but I have repented, and never indulged any vicious habits. In politics and in public life, I have made the good of the public the rule of my conduct. I have never given counsels which I did not at the time think the best. I have seen that I sometimes in the wrong, but I did not err design

was

edly.

6. I have endeavoured in private life to do all the good in my power, and never for the moment could indulge malicious or unjust designs upon any person whatsoever.' At another time he said, 'I must leave my soul in the same state it was before this illness. I find this a very inconvenient time for solicitude about any thing.' On the evening when the symptoms of death came on him, he said, ‘I shall die, but it will not be your fault.'

7. When Lord and Lady Valencia came to see his Lordship, he gave them his solemn benediction, 'be good, be virtuous, my Lord-you must come to this.' Thus he continued giving his dying benediction to all around him. On Monday morning a lucid interval gave some small hopes, but these vanished in the evening, and he continued dying, but with very little uneasiness, until Tuesday morning, when he breathed his last.

DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA.

1. IN 1788, ninety-five Englishmen, generally men of rank, wealth, and learning, considering the little knowledge possessed respecting African geography a reproach to an enlightened age, formed themselves into an "Association for promoting the discovery of the interior parts of Africa." Their efforts, although they have accomplished much less than was aimed at, have, nevertheless, greatly increased our knowledge of that continent; at the expense, however, of many valuable lives.

2. The first traveller, employed by the Association, was Ledyard, an American, a native of Groton, Connecticut, and a man of great enterprise and energy of character. He had sailed with Captain Cook round the world, and had travelled over the north of Europe and Asia.

3. Arriving in England, he waited on Sir Joseph Banks, who proposed to him a tour of discovery in Africa, which he entered into with enthusiasm. Sir Joseph gave him a letter of introduction to one of the members of the committee of the Association. The description which that gentleman has given of the interview strongly marks the character of this hardy traveller.

4. "Before I learned," says he, "from the note, the name of my visiter, I was struck with the manliness of his person, the breadth of his chest, the openness of his countenance, and the inquietude of his eye. I spread the map of Africa before him, and tracing a line from Cairo to Sennaar, and from thence westward in the latitude and suppos ed direction of the Niger, I told him that was the route by which I was anxious that Africa might, if possible, be explored.

5. He said he should think himself singularly fortunate to be entrusted with the adventure. I asked him when he would set out, To-morrow morning,' was his answer. From such zeal, decision, and intrepidity, the Association naturally formed the most sanguine expectations. Mr. Ledyard sailed from England for Egypt, and arrived at Cairo in August, 1788.

6. He was taken sick, and died in January following, after his arrangements had been made for proceeding into the interior. "I am accustomed to hardships," said

Ledyard, on the morning of his departure from London, "I have known both hunger and nakedness to the utmost extremity of human suffering.

7. "I have known what it is to have food given me as charity to a madman; and I have at times been obliged to shelter myself under the miseries of that character, to avoid a heavier calamity: my distresses have been greater than I have ever owned, or will ever own, to any man. Such evils are terrible to bear, but they never yet had power to turn me from my purpose.

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8. "If I live, I will faithfully perform, in its utmost extent, my engagement to the Society and if I perish in the attempt, my honour will be safe, for death cancels all bonds." The following is the beautiful eulogium of this careful observer of human nature, on the benevolence of the female character.

9. "I have always remarked," says he, "that women, in all countries, are civil and obliging, tender and humane; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest; and that they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. Not haughty, not arrogant, not supercilious, they are fond of courtesy, and fond of society; more liable, in general, to err, than man, but in general, also, more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he.

10. "To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decency or friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has been otherwise. In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, and frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide spread regions of the wandering Tartar

11. If hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, the women have been friendly to me, and uniformly so and to add to this virtue, (so worthy the appellation of benevolence,) these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that, if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a double relish."

12. Mr. Lucas, another gentleman, was engaged by the Association about the same time with Ledyard. After having proceeded as far as Mesurata, in Tripoli, finding it impossible to proceed that season, he returned to England. The third person employed by the Society was Major