Islam ; its Origin, Genius, and Mission. By J. J.
Lake. (Tinsley and 0o.)—This little book is a popular exposition of the general character of Mahom-medanism, -which deserves, in the author's opinion, to be better understood and appreciated, seeing that it has been and still is a powerful force in the world, and has contributed, at any rate in the past, to the progress and civilisation of mankind. The author, we venture to think, though we do not doubt that he has, as he tells us, profoundly studied the subject, is too enthusiastic in his admiration, and seems to be almost blind to the many serious defects of the Mahommedan social and religious system. He dwells, we think, at unnecessary length on the contrast between the merits of Islam and the superstition of what he calls Seventh-Council Christianity, or that form of Christianity which became established after the second Council of Nice, where image-worship was formally recog- nised. Bad as all superstition is, we believe it to be quite an open question whether even a degraded Christianity has not in it more seeds of progress than the religion of Mahommed, which, however pure itnd noble some of its teachings, seems practically to condemn its votaries to torpor and stagnation. It is easy, no doubt, to pick passages from the Koran which teach a high morality, but it would be the greatest error to suppose that that book is at all comparable for suggestiveness with the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The Mahommedan ideal is miserably low and defective compared with the Christian ; and this is sufficiently, attested by the current Mahommedan conception of the rewards of the faithful in a future state, a point which our author has omitted to notice. His book gives us in a brief space some useful hints as to the spirit and genius of Islam, but it seems to us to be written with a decided bias, and it fails to show that Mahommedanism is capable of developing that lasting vigour and energy which are more or less characteristic of all Christian nations.
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