Here, in Egypt, where the need is felt to change so many things, it is proposed, too, to reform the old university of El-Azhar, one of the chief centres of Islam.

One thinks of it with a kind of fear, knowing what danger there is in laying hands upon institutions which have lasted for a thousand years.

Reform, however, has, in principle, been decided upon.

New knowledge, brought from the West, is penetrating into the tabernacle of the Fatimites.

Has not the Prophet said: "Go; seek knowledge far and wide, if needs be even into China"?
What will come of it?
Who can tell?
But this, at least, is certain: that in the dazzling hours of noon, or in the golden hours of evening, when the crowd of these modernised students spreads itself over the vast courtyard, overlooked by its countless minarets, there will no longer be seen in their eyes the mystic light of to-day; and it will no longer be the old unshakable faith, nor the lofty and serene indifference, nor the profound peace, that these messengers will carry to the ends of the Mussulman earth.