Thou vile assemblage of hypocrisy
And insolence, abhorred tyrant! Thus
Do the chosen ministers of heaven dispense
Its sacred blessings, and announce their God?
MAHOMET.
Wert thou not Zopir, I would answer thee
As thou deservest, in thunder, by the voice
Of that offended Being thou deridest:
Armed with the hallowed Koran I would teach thee
To tremble and obey in humble silence:
And with the subject world to kneel before me;
But I will talk to thee without disguise,
As man to man should speak, and friend to friend:
I have ambition, Zopir; where's the man
Who has it not? But never citizen,
Or chief, or priest, or king projected aught
So noble as the plan of Mahomet;
In acts or arms hath every nation shone
Superior in its turn; Arabia now
Steps forth; that generous people, long unknown
And unrespected, saw her glories sunk,
Her honors lost; but lo! The hour is come
When she shall rise to victory and renown;
The world lies desolate from pole to pole;
India's slaves and bleeding Persia mourns
Her slaughtered sons; whilst Egypt hangs the head
Dejected; from the walls of Constantine
Splendor is fled; the Roman Empire torn
By discord, sees its scattered members spread
On every side inglorious;--let us raise
Arabia on the ruins of mankind:
The blind and tottering universe demands
Another worship, and another God.
Crete had her Minos, Egypt her Osiris,
To Asia Zoroaster gave his laws,
And Numa was in Italy adored:
O'er savage nations where nor monarchs ruled
Nor manners softened, nor religion taught,
Hath many a sage his fruitless maxims spread;
Beneath a nobler yoke I mean to bend
The prostrate world, and change their feeble laws,
Abolish their false worship, pull down
Their powerless gods, and on my purer faith
Found universal empire: say not Zopir,
That Mahomet betrays his country, no:
I mean but to destroy its weak supports,
And banishing idolatry, unite it
Beneath one king, one prophet, and one God;
I shall subdue it but to make it glorious.
ZOPIR.
Is this thy purpose then, and darest thou thus
Avow it? Canst thou change the hearts of men,
And make them think like thee? Are war and slaughter
The harbingers of wisdom and of peace;
Can he who ravages instruct mankind?
If in the night of ignorance and error
We long have wandrered, must thy dreadful torch
Enlighten us? What right hast thou to empire?
MAHOMET.
That right which firm, exalted spirits claim
O'er vulgar minds.
ZOPIR.
Thus every bold impostor
May forge new fetters, and enslave mankind:
He has a right, it seems, to cheat the world
If he can dot it with an air of grandeur.
MAHOMET.
I know your people well; I know they want
A leader; my religion, true or false,
Is needful to them: what have all your gods
And all your idols done? What laurels grow
Beneath their altars? Your low, groveling sect
Debases man, unnerves his active soul,
And makes it heavy, phlegmatic, and mean;
Whilst mine exalts it, gives it strength and courage:
My law forms heroes.
ZOPIR.
Rather call them robbers:
Away; not bring thy hateful lessons here;
Go to the school of tyrants, boast thy frauds
To lost Medina, where thou reignest supreme
Where blinded bigots bend beneath thy power,
And thou beholdest thy equals at thy feet.
MAHOMET.
My equals! Mahomet has none; long since
I passed them all; Medina is my own,
And Mecca trembles at me; if thou holdest
Thy safety dear, receive the peace I offer.
ZOPIR.
Thou talkest of peace, but 'tis not thy heart;
I'm not to be deceived.
MAHOMET.
I would not have thee;
The weak deceive, the powerful command:
To-morrow I shall force thee to submit;
To-day, observe, I would have been they friend.
ZOPIR.
Can we be friends? Can Mahomet and Zopir
E'er be united? Say, what god shall work
A miracle like that?
MAHOMET.
I'll tell thee one,
A powerful God, one that is always heard,
By me he speaks to thee.
ZOPIR.
Who is it? Name him.
MAHOMET.
Interest, thy own dear interest.
ZOPIR.
Sooner heaven
And hell shall be united; interest
May be the god of Mahomet, but mine
Is—justice: what shall join them to each other?
Where is the cement that must bind our friendship?
Is that the son I slew, or the warm blood
Of Zopir's house which thou has shed?
MAHOMET.
It is
Thy blood, thy son's—for now I will unveil
A secret to thee, known to none but me:
Thou weepest thy children dead; they both are—living.
ZOPIR.
What sayest thou? Living? Unexpected bliss!
My children living?
MAHOMET.
Yes; and both—my prisoners.
ZOPIR.