HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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as much real pleasure in resigning his life, provided it were in defence ofhis creed, as he could have received by any supposed supernatural intimationof his being permitted to pursue his thirst of pleasure, and his lust of conquest,unchecked, and with vigour unimpaired, to the latest moments of his mortalexistence.

Such a creed, however fortunately contributive it might prove to support thestrength, and rouse the activity of armies, must become totally devoid of in-fluence, when its application was attempted to be introduced in aid of a mari-time war. The latter is not an undertaking commenced, and carried intoexecution on the moment of its birth. The life of a seaman teems not, ingeneral human conception, with that variety of fancied pleasures, and enjoy-ments, or rather dissipation, which is invariably attributed to his fellow la-bourer in the field of war. His art, even in those early times when the prac-tice was necessarily in the most simple and unmixed state, demanded thatspecies of consideration and cool reflection, ill suited to the temper of thevolatile or the dissipated man. Such were the obstacles which appeared to thediscerning eye of Mahomet an insuperable objection to raising such a body ofmen as his necessities might appear to require, if he attempted to man a fleetwhich could waft his ardent and enthusiastic followers to the most distantquarters of the world, when his armies might at any time advance and extendtheir force, or prudentially contract themselves into narrower limits, just astheir own temper, their partial successes, or the circumstances in which theirneighbours stood, seemed to allow, or invite. In the equipment of a fleet,,there was a certain previous disbursement of treasure, a proclamation of ap-proaching tempest, and a waste of time, circumstances constantly injurious tosuccess, and which were rendered unnecessary by the simple advancement ofthe standard of the prophet. His clarion sounded, and with such shrillness,that few nations ventured, with any kind of hope, or prospect of good fortune,to oppose his progress, save the Emperor of the East.

The causes just assigned having proved sufficient, far as the influence ofthe Koran extended, to throw the occupation of ship-building if not into con-tempt, at least into neglect; they combined, according to the same principleswhich had prevailed for so many centuries, in producing the same effectthroughout the eastern empire. The Ottoman power did not, however, longpersevere in the same principles of action. As its strength increased, thegradual accession of nations as allies, or subjects, put the followers of Mahomet

into