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51
LECTURE II.

THE WEAKNESS OF ISLAM.

ยง I. "One strong thing I find here below," says

Power of Truth.

Carlyle,1 "the just thing, the true thing." "The cause2 thou fightest for, so far as it is true, no further, yet precisely so far, is very sure of victory. The falsehood alone of it will be conquered, will be abolished, as it ought to be; but the truth of it is part of Nature's own laws, cooperates with the World's eternal tendencies, and cannot be conquered."

This testimony is true. But although it has come to be generally recognised at the

Often mixed
with and used
to support
falsehood.

present time that the sage in the Apocrypha was right in affirming "Magna3 est veritas, et praevalebit," yet it often happens that the power of Truth is used to support Falsehood and gain credit for it for a time. The first lie ever uttered in this world was more


1 "Past and Present," ch. ii.
2 Ibid., p. II.
3 I Esdras iv. 35:
Η αληθεια μεγαλη και ισχυροτερα παοα παντα.
3 Is he not great who does these things? But truth is great, and stronger than all things. 1 Esdras 4:35