the tenets of the Nestorians; from them the young Arab learned
the story of their persecutions. It was these interviews which
engendered in him a hatred of the idolatrous practices of the
Eastern Church, and indeed of all idolatry; that taught him, in
his wonderful career, never to speak of Jesus as the Son of God,
but always as "Jesus, the son of Mary." His untutored but active
mind could not fail to be profoundly impressed not only with the
religious but also with the philosophical ideas of his
instructors, who gloried in being the living representatives of
Aristotelian science. His subsequent career shows how completely
their religious thoughts had taken possession of him, and
repeated acts manifest his affectionate regard for them. His own
life was devoted to the expansion and extension of their
theological doctrine, and, that once effectually established, his
successors energetically adopted and diffused their scientific,
their Aristotelian opinions.

As Mohammed grew to manhood, he made other expeditions to Syria.
Perhaps, we may suppose, that on these occasions the convent and
its hospitable in mates were not forgotten. He had a mysterious
reverence for that country. A wealthy Meccan widow Chadizah, had
intrusted him with the care of her Syrian trade. She was charmed
with his capacity and fidelity, and (since he is said to have
been characterized by the possession of singular manly beauty and
a most courteous demeanor) charmed with his person. The female
heart in all ages and countries is the same. She caused a slave
to intimate to him what was passing in her mind, and, for the
remaining twenty-four years of her life, Mohammed was her
faithful husband. In a land of polygamy, he never insulted her by
the presence of a rival. Many years subsequently, in the height