THESE essays, written for the Fortnightly Review
in the summer and autumn of 1881, were intended
as first sketches only of a maturer work which the
author hoped, before giving finally to the public, to
complete at leisure, and develop in a form worthy
of critical acceptance, and of the great subject he
had chosen. Events, however, have marched faster
than he at all anticipated, and it has become a
matter of importance with him that the idea they
were designed to illustrate should be given imme-
diate and full publicity. The French, by their
invasion of Tunis, have precipitated the Moham-
medan movement in North Africa; Egypt has
roused herself for a great effort of national and
religious reform; and on all sides Islam is seen to
be convulsed by political portents of ever-growing