OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

179

Lours he presumed (it is said) to brand the pro-phet of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yetthe sultan persevered in a decent reverence forthe doctrine and discipline of the koran; b hisprivate indiscretion must have been sacred fromthe vulgar ear; and we should suspect the cre-dulity of strangers and sectaries, so prone to be-lieve that a mind which is hardened against truthmust be armed with superior contempt for ab-surdity and error. Under the tuition of the mostskilful masters, Mahomet advanced with anearly and rapid progress in the paths of know-ledge; and besides his native tongue, it is affirm-ed that he spoke or understood live languages,'the Arabic, the Persian, the Chaldaean or He-brew, the Latin, and the Greek. The Persian might indeed contribute to his amusement, andthe Arabic to his edification; and such studiesare familiar to the Oriental youth. In the inter-course of the Greeks and Turks, a conquerormight wish to converse with the people overwhom he was ambitious to reign; his own praisesin Latin poetry d or prose,' might find a passage

” Cantemir (p. 115), and the mosclis which he founded, attest hispublic regard for religion. Mahomet freely disputed with the patri-arch Gennadius on the two religions (Spond. A. d. 1463, No. 22).

e Quinque linguas pragter suam noverat; Graecam, Latinam, Chal-daicain, Persicam. The Latin translator of Phranza has dropt the Ara-bic , which the koran must recommend to every mussulman.

‘ Philelphus, by a Latin ode, requested and obtained the liberty ofhis wife’s mother and sisters from the conqueror of Constantinople . Itwas delivered into the sultan’s hands by the envoys of the Duke ofMilan. Philelphus himself was suspected of a design of retiring toConstantinople ; yet the orator often sounded the trumpet of holy war(see his life by M. Lancelot, in the Memoires de l’Academie des In-scriptions, tom. x, p. 718, 724, &c.)

• Robert Valtnrio published at Verona, in 1483, his tv*lve books

de

CHAP.LX VII