ence.

This great discovery is the more striking, inasmuch as Columbus, nearly seven centuries later, based his scheme of reaching India across the Atlantic on a false estimate of the magnitude of the globe. During several centuries the various celestial phenomena, such as eclipses, equinoxes, solstices, conjunc tions of planets, and occultations of stars were carefully observed, and various minor errors of ancient writers on this subject corrected. A celebrated instance of the skill of the Persian astronomers in the eleventh century is afforded by their reformation of the calendar five hundred years before a similar improvement was executed in Europe. By the Arabs, the pendulum was first employed for the measurement of time, and the numerous observatories which studded their vast empire were the earliest buildings of the kind with which we are acquainted. But their real discoveries were blended with the mysterious nonsense of astrology, a science little honored by modern Europe, though dear to the Oriental nations of

every age.

they gained frequent admission to the proud and bigoted courts of southern Europe.

Although keenly pursuing the intricate and stony paths of philosophy and science, the Arabs did not neglect the lighter and more graceful branches of literature. In the days of ignorance, as they were called, the nation had cultivated eloquence and poetry with considerable success, and the latter remained the favorite amusement of their period of civilization. This remark applies especially to the Spanish Arabs, amongst whom the poetical talent seems to have been universally diffused, from the magnificent sovereigns of Cordova and Granada to the humblest peasant. Their muse was not indeed grand or sublime, for the epic and the drama were unknown, but it was exquisitely tender, melancholy, and voluptuous. As the Arabs studied Greek literature chiefly through the medium of translations, and were but slightly acquainted with the Greek poets, the progress of learning and civilization effected little change in this art, and the strains which resounded through the marble palaces of Cairo and Damascus were but little removed from those which during a hundred generations have cheered the monotonous life of the desert. With poetry we may class those innumerable tales and novels of which the "Arabian Nights is the best-known specimen, and which, in spite of frequentlyrecurring extravagance and absurdities, display no mean degree of wit and imag

The Arabian historians are, on the whole, more remarkable for their number than their merit. Spain alone is said to have given birth to thirteen hundred. But the absence of criticism or philosophy, the adulation so freely bestowed upon very indifferent princes, and the narrow-minded orthodoxy of these writers degrade them to the level of mere annalists, and render their perusal tedious and disagreeable to the modern reader.

Mechanics and hydrostatics were much developed by the industry of the Saracens, who wrote treatises on the flotation and sinking of bodies in water, constructed tables of specific gravities, and had some general notions of the immortal discovery of Newton. The science of optics was placed on a sure foundation by the correction of the Greek error that rays proceed from the eye to the object, instead of from the object to the eye. Alhazen fur-ination. ther proved that the path of a ray of light through the air is curvilinear, and that we see the sun and moon before they have risen and after they have set. Chemistry is, however, the only science which owes its origin to the Arabs. The invention of the alembic, the preparation of mineral medicines, the discovery of the relation between acids and alkalies, and of the reagents sulphuric acid, nitric acid, and alcohol, are all due to them. The revival of the medical art was a natural corollary The consequence of this mental activity, of this extraordinary progress in physical especially in science, was a great advance science, especially in chemistry. An ex- in those humble but necessary arts which cellent regulation, then and long after directly contribute to the happiness of unknown in Christian Europe, compelled mankind. Irrigation, so essential to the the student to prove his knowledge by fertility of southern lands, was practised passing an examination, and rewarded with remarkable care, and afforded the with authority to practise the successful means of subsistence to a dense populacandidates, who must have been numerous, tion in tracts now returned to almost prisince Baghdad alone contained eight hundred and sixty licensed physicians. Nor can we have a more decisive testimony to the skill of the Arabians than the fact that

meval solitude. Many valuable plants, such as the palm-tree, the cotton-plant, and the sugar-cane, were introduced by the Arabians into Spain, and their match

less breed of horses was naturalized in the embowered in delightful gardens, rose the provinces of Africa and Andalusia. Gun- magnificent palace of Zahra, now vanished powder was used by them upwards of two like a mist, but once the noblest monucenturies before it was known to the ment of Arabian grandeur, famed for its Christians, and specimens of their cotton fountain of purest quicksilver, its endless and linen paper so early as 1009 and 1106 arcades of the richest marble, and its hall have been discovered by Casiri. The of audience encrusted with gold and gems. sword-blades of Toledo, Fery, and Damas- Eighty cities of the first, three hundred of cus, the silks and cotton of Granada, and the second order obeyed the caliph of the the leather of Cordova and Morocco, were West; twelve thousand villages and hamall unsurpassed during the Middle Ages. lets studded the valley of the GuadalMining was prosecuted with such energy quiver; the annual revenue amounted to that five thousand excavations of the Sar- six million sterling, and the royal bodyacenic period have been discovered in the guard consisted of twelve thousand horse small district of Jaen alone, and the reve- gorgeously armed and equipped. nue of the Spanish caliphs was swelled by an abundant yield of the precious metals. This laborious development of every natural advantage produced a wealth and splendor which would justly be deemed fabulous, were they not attested by numerous contemporary historians.

After his wars and buildings, Almansor left behind him in gold and silver about thirty million sterling; and this treasure was exhausted in a few years by the vices or virtues of his children. His son Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns and caravanserais, which he distributed along a measured road of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels, laden with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet. The courtiers would surely praise the liberality of his grandson Almamon, who gave away four-fifths of the revenue of a province, a sum of two million four hundred thousand gold dinars, before he drew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the same prince, a thousand pearls of the largest size were showered on the head of the bride, and a lottery of lands and houses displayed the capricious bounty of fortune.

From a few particulars relating to the condition of Spain, we may conceive the grandeur of that empire of which Spain was but a fragment. A census taken in the tenth century by Hakem II. of Cordova, represents that city as containing two hundred thousand houses, six hundred temples, and nine hundred baths. The grand mosque was supported by one thousand marble columns; the roof was of odoriferous wood, curiously carved, and the edifice was lighted for evening prayer by above two thousand lamps. Whatever could contribute to the beauty or convenience of the Spanish capital-quays, aqueducts, fountains, and hospitals - was liberally provided by the care of the Omeyades. Three miles from the city, and

Even so late as the fifteenth century, the kingdom of Granada, in a space not larger than Belgium, displayed the strength and magnificence of a powerful empire. The capital was described by the Genoese as the largest fortified city they had visited. The massy walls were defended by one thousand and thirty towers; the larger of

the two citadels could accommodate an army of forty thousand men, and the town could pour fifty thousand warriors through her seven gates. Tessellated pavements, fretted ceilings, fountains, and turrets of wood or marble adorned the lofty dwellings of the nobility. The streets, it is said, were paved and lighted-improvements rarely found in northern Europe even at a much later period. Strangers from every clime thronged the bazaars of Granada, and "such," says a Spaniard quoted by Prescott, "was the reputation of the citizens for trustworthiness, that their bare word was more relied on than a written contract is now among us." In a lesser degree, the great ports of Malaga and Almeria, which maintained an active trade with Italy, Africa, and the Levant, might boast an opulence similar to that of the metropolis. Schools, colleges, hospitals, asylums, aqueducts, and even public slaughter-houses and ovens, were erected in great numbers by the wealthy princes of Granada, whose revenue amounted to one million gold ducats, or about eighteen hundred thousand pounds sterling. The preparations for war were equally extensive. Seven thousand horsemen were kept in pay on the peace establishment, and the fortresses of the kingdom were ten times as numerous as all that can now be found in the entire peninsula.

However fragmentary and incomplete the facts above mentioned may be, they at least serve to show the immense superiority of the Arabians at that period over all the neighboring communities. The next point to be considered is, what amount of

This

intercourse had the Saracens with Euro-ical discoveries of Archimedes. The adpean nations? Sicily was possessed by venturous trader hastened to those crowded them for two centuries, and a gradually marts, where the hides, the wool, and the diminishing, but always considerable por- tallow of the north might be exchanged tion of Spain for seven hundred and eighty for the diamonds and spices of India, the years. Amalfi, the first great commercial blades of Damascus, and the silk of Grarepublic of Italy, was also the most south- nada. In times of peace, many gallant ern, and the nearest to the Moslem do- knights found a hospitable reception in minions, with which she maintained a the Moorish courts, and displayed their profitable trade. A writer of the twelfth skill and valor in the friendly contests of century, says Hallam, reproaches Pisa with the bull-fight and the tourney. Many the Jews, the Arabians, and other " mon- cases might be quoted to illustrate these sters of the sea" who thronged in her and other forms of the ancient intercourse streets. And Hallam elsewhere tells us between Christians and Moslems, but they with regard to Venice, "No Christian would exceed our space, and weary our state preserved so considerable an inter- readers. course with the Mohammedans. While Historians are generally agreed in conGenoa kept the keys of the Black Sea by sidering the tenth century as the last age her colonies of Pera and Caffa, Venice of utter darkness, and date from its close directed her vessels to Acre and Alexan- the first feeble efforts of reviving mind. dria. These connections, as is the natu- During the four succeeding centuries we ral effect of trade, deadened the sense of observe a slow but steady progress in religious antipathy; and the Venetians wealth, order, and intelligence, the growwere sometimes charged with obstructing ing importance of cities, the first estaball efforts towards a new crusade, or even lishment of universities, the development any partial attacks upon the Mohamme- of art, and the birth of literature. dan nations." It appears that the Geno- happy change first began and advanced ese had mercantile establishments in with the most rapid steps in Italy, ProGranada, and even entered into commer- vence, and Spain, countries which, we have cial treaties with her monarchs, whilst seen, enjoyed the most unrestrained comFlorence imported thence large quantities munication with the various Saracenic emof silk, and, like other Italian cities, de- pires. In many features of this great rived her skill in its manufacture from the revolution a candid observer will not fail Spanish Arabs. The long intercourse, to remark a powerful influence exerted by both in peace and war, of the Moors and the Arabs. Their philosophy spread from Spaniards, which has been so fertile a Sicily and Andalusia, created numerous theme of romance and poetry, need not heresies, and met with such favor that the be dwelt on here, but it may be noticed Church thought fit to suppress it by persethat in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- cution. But the metaphysics of Aristotle turies many Saracens continued to inhabit triumphed over the decrees of popes and Aragon under the Christian kings. The councils, obtained a firm hold on the eduintimacy of the Arabs and Provençals was cated mind of Europe, and were at length less close and durable; but it is well prudently adopted by the very order known to have been not unimportant. which had resisted their introduction. The Thus, an intercourse as extensive and use of the Arabic numerals gradually preunbroken as the feelings of national vailed among the nations of the West, and religious hatred, and the exigen- several mathematical works were transcies of frequent warfare would permit, lated from the Oriental languages, and the appears to have been maintained between first medical school of modern Europe was the Christians of Italy, Spain, and Pro-founded at Salerno by an Italian pupil of vence on the one hand, and the Saracens Avicenna who had studied thirty-nine of Asia, Africa, and Andalusia on the years in the East. Prescott informs us other. Whatever the fear and hatred that the literature of both Provence and with which the former viewed the popu- Castille received a deep and lasting imlous cities, the stately palaces, the well- press from that of the Saracens. Of the cultivated lands, and the industrial skill of various theories broached concerning the the infidels, they could not help learning origin of Gothic architecture, none seems from them. From England, France, and more rational than that which assigns it Germany the studious youth crowded to an Oriental source. The pointed arch, its those famed academies where learned pro- distinguishing feature, is found in a Caifessors expounded the logic of Aristotle, rene mosque of the ninth century; the the geometry of Euclid, and the mechan-use of window tracery, stained glass, and

elaborate geometrical ornament is common | sand of the inhabitants perished in the alike to Gothic and to Saracenic art; and sack of Beziers; the peculiar literature it seems unlikely that, if the style had and civilization of southern France were originated in any of these countries, it extinguished, and the celebrated tribunal should appear almost simultaneously in of the Holy Office was erected to guard all the others. Whether our author be against the revival of heresy. Many volcorrect or not in deriving the spirit of umes might be filled with the disgusting chivalry from Moorish Spain, we are una- recital of similar events, with the various ble to say; but it certainly reached there insults and tortures inflicted upon Jews in a degree of perfection unsurpassed in any every Christian country, with the murder other country, and the virtues which it in- of Huss, who was burnt in violation of a spired are as suitable to the character of safe-conduct, with the extermination of the a Bedouin as of a Christian. To the same Lollards, with the forced conversion and source Sismondi attributes the jealousy of subsequent banishment of the Moors in the sex, the ideas of honor, and the spirit Spain. An elaborate work might be deof revenge which distinguished southern voted to a subject on which our author Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- touches but slightly, the ruthless warfare turies. carried on by the Church with all heretical science, the six thousand volumes of Oriental learning burnt at Salamanca, the eighty thousand manuscripts which flamed in the squares of conquered Granada, the spiritual thunders directed against the Copernican system, the tortures of Bruno and the recantation of Galileo. The reader of history stands aghast at the sight of such boundless influeuce, of such steady perseverance, of such unquenchable ardor employed for the purpose of cramping and paralyzing the action of the mind. Is it credible that the Church which could send millions of men to encounter a painful death in the remote re

Thus intellectual activity is awakened all over Europe; the descendants of the barbarians arise as giants refreshed by sleep; ecclesiastics display a devotion to learning never before surpassed; the Church rejoices in the fame, and blesses the glorious achievements of her children. But, alas! soon is the contest renewed between the free mind and infallible authority, between reason and faith. The renewal of that contest was inevitable; for the Church never was, and never could be the cordial ally of progress. A creed which rejects as profane the use of reason, and exacts an implicit belief in the most startling absurdities, can never main-gions of the East, which could vanquish tain a sincere and durable friendship with the feelings of humanity, of patriotism, that spirit of honest inquiry and fearless and of family affection, and which could reflection which alone can elevate the induce the wisest of monarchs to deprive condition of the human race. The in- themselves of a numerous and unoffendcreasing strength and boldness of the Eu- ing portion of their subjects, suddenly beropean mind were always observed by came feeble and helpless when she diRome with a jaundiced eye. But to the rected her power to noble and useful ends? pious and charitable end of exterminating And if the vast resources she possessed Mohammedans abroad and heretics at were faithfully employed for the improvehome she devoted all her energy, all her ment of her children, why was Europe of influence, all her resources. It was noth- the tenth century as ignorant and deing in her eyes that nearly nine hundred graded as Europe of the sixth? Why thousand souls had perished in the first cru- did the glorious efforts of Charlemagne to sade, and nearly four hundred thousand in rekindle the flame of ancient learning the second; it was nothing that all west-produce so small a permanent result, and ern Asia had been desolated with fire and why did the yet more honourable labors sword from the waves of the Thracian of Alfred produce none at all? Why Bosphorus to the rock-built towers of Jerusalem; it was nothing that the deluded fanatics were exposed to every species of temptation which could harden or corrupt the heart; she still continued to urge forward the nations of the West on their mad career, until reason and experience rendered futile alike her threats and her exhortations. A crusade was organized against the Albigenses; fifteen thousand, or as others say, sixty thou

were the nations of the West employed six hundred years in acquiring the rudiments of civilization, whilst the Arabs, two centuries after they had emerged from their deserts a barbarous horde, reached a degree of intellectual refinement and material prosperity scarcely inferior to that attained by the most flourishing states of the present age? Few will be disposed to admit that the natives of Asia have mentally or physically any

advantage over those of Europe. Few fall of the Greek Empire, and the con will be of opinion that the soil and cli- sequent dispersion of scholars and manmate of our own and adjoining countries uscripts, produced upon western Europe. are less favourable to human perfection But we may remark that, unless the mind than those of Spain, Egypt, and Persia. had been thoroughly prepared to welcome If Gaul, Italy, and Britain had been des- these precious relics, a few books and a olated by foreign invasion, so had Africa few students could not have awakened a and Syria. If anarchy prevailed in the sleeping world. Every incident in their West, the East was afflicted by the most reception shows the love and appreciation absolute despotism. What credence, then, felt by the Italians at any rate for Hellenic can we give to those who would have us literature, and these feelings sufficiently believe that throughout the Middle Ages evince the cultivation and refinement they the Church labored untiringly for the had already acquired. The spread of diffusion of knowledge, that every monas- Greek learning through the countries of tery was a centre of intellectual activity, France and Germany, Spain and Britand that but for her the light of returning ain, although not absolutely rapid, went civilization would never have dawned upon on with a steadiness and success which Europe? contrast delightfully with the slow and tedious progress of educational improvement in former ages. The first mighty impulse, whose earliest traces are faintly discernible in the eleventh, and whose maturity is seen in succeeding centuries, must have been derived from some other source, a source which, we think, is found in the Arabian civilization. No other theory with which we are acquainted rests on such a foundation of historical testimony, or is so completely in accordance with the course of events in the Middle Ages. Doubtless many would feel reluctant to admit that aliens in race, in manners, and in religion, were capable of teaching the orthodox natives of Europe; but this reluctance will not alter facts or bias permanently the judgment of modern criticism.

These remarks we have always intended to apply, not to the action of individuals, but to that of the corporate body. Every candid student of history will admit that we are much indebted to several illustrious ecclesiastics for their efforts in the cause of enlightenment to Nicholas V. for his advancement of classical learning, and to Leo X. for his patronage of the fine arts. But such exceptions are a matter of course in any society which enlists in its ranks the most intellectual and refined spirits of the age.

Besides, it is well known that men like Leo and Wolsey were not remarkable for the ardor of their piety, and that we might with as much justice attribute their lax morals as their enlarged intellect to the influence of Catholicism. It is to those men who were thoroughly penetrated by the faith that we must look if we would see its workings; and such men were St. Gregory, St. Dominic, and Torquemada. Nor can we in justice to the Catholic Church deny that her spirit, although sometimes dissembled by prudence and sometimes modified by circumstances, has ever remained substantially the same; that such as it was when it led the fourth council of Carthage to forbid the reading of secular literature by bishops, and moved Theodosius to establish the office of inquisitor, such it still survives in the court of Alfonso, who persecutes Protestants; and in the pages of the Dublin Review, which expresses the mild opinion that Galileo was treated with excessive lenity, and that Rome may still assert her claim, in this respect at least, to the lofty boast of "Semper eadem" so rashly questioned by the malignant bigotry of Mr. Gladstone.

Great importance has been justly attached to the beneficial effect which the

A few decaying manuscripts, a few crumbling ruins, are all that now remain of the Arabian empire; the sceptre of the caliphs has long been broken, their very tombs have disappeared, and in cities where they ruled for centuries the race and name of the Saracens are forgotten. The beautiful valleys of Sicily and Andalusia are abandoned to the brigand and smuggler; the northern shores of Africa are divided between a number of petty and semi-barbarous states; the rich plains of the Tigris are uncultivated; and the power, the wealth, and the magnificence, of which they were once the abode, belong to the list of the things that were and are not. But the imperishable glory of mental worth still sheds its lustre over the mouldering palaces of Baghdad and Granada, and when the passions excited by religious conflict have finally cooled, the admiration now lavished on the savage monks and yet more savage warriors of a barbarous age, will be more wisely bestowed on the munificent princes and gift