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THE KORAN.
81

thrown out, which, from the nature of the case could not be accepted, in a style of the most confident and arrogant boasting, and spectres of superstition are conjured up, to bear specific testimony to its merits. Nothing is left to the natural operation of the mind, but a fixed solicitude is every where apparent, unduly to influence the passions and seduce the judgment.

The following specimens may be adduced in corroboration of this statement. In the 10th chapter entitled Hud, "Will they say, he has forged the Koran? Answer, bring therefore ten chapters like unto it;" this challenge is repeated in the 52d chapter, entitled the Mountain, and afterwards the matter is rendered still easier by a challenge to produce a single chapter comparable in doctrine and eloquence[1]. In the 17th chapter, entitled the Night Journey, "Verily if men and genii

  1. Koran, chapters 2, 9, 10.