694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



laid out in pleasure-walks, mountain-meadows alternating with groups of cedar- 

 trees and rocky altamiras or lookout-places. Special buildings Lad been pro- 

 vided for the acclimatization, or rather localization, of whole colonies of singing- 

 birds, which were bred in-doors for a number of years till they were tame 

 enough to be trusted at large. From the summer-palace, at an elevation of 

 three thousand feet over the level of the Guadalquivir, an avenue led down to 

 the east gate of Cordova by such nice gradations that the road-bed seemed to be 

 a perfect level, and from various directions shady trails, apparently artless, but 

 equally well graded, wound up to the summit of the mountain-range, where the 

 Caliph had an astronomical observatory. 



Landgrave Wilhelni of Hesse-Cassel built his mountain-palace on the pro- 

 ceeds of six thousand of his faithful subjects, sold to England at sixty-five pounds 

 apiece, but Abderrahman III had no need of killing his fowls to get their eggs. 

 During the reign of the first three caliphs, Cordova was, next to Bagdad, the 

 richest city of the world ; the valley of the Guadalquivir contained thirty-six 

 towns and eighteen hundred prosperous villages, and the contemporary his- 

 torians of the West vie in extolling the beauty and luxuriance of the Boscdl, the 

 orchard-region that surrounded the Moorish capital with a wreath of evergreen 

 gardens. 



The Sierra de Penas is now a naked rock, Cordova a labyrinth of ruins, in- 

 fested with pigs and begging friars, and the observatory of the impious Uni- 

 tarians has been turned into a shrine of San Isidro. The Boscal has become a 

 sandy desert, but on the south side of the river there are still some good bottom- 

 lands, and the thrice-blessed cherry-trees of the orthodox peasants continue to 

 yield an excellent kind of brandy. 



Starting a New Religion. Professor Seeley remarks, in his new book on 



" Natural Religion " : " It is said that the theophilanthropist Larevellere-Lepeaux 

 once confided to Talleyrand his disappointment at the ill-success of his attempt 

 to bring into vogue a sort of improved Christianity, a benevolent rationalism 

 which he had invented to meet the wants of a skeptical age. ' His propaganda 

 made no way,' he said. 'What was he to do?' he asked. The ex-bishop 

 politely condoled with him, feared it was indeed a difficult task to found a new 

 religion, more difficult than could be imagined so difficult that he hardly knew 

 what to advise. ' Still ' so he went on after a moment's reflection ' there is 

 one plan which you might at least try: I should recommend you to he crucified 

 and rise again on the third day ! ' " 



Seeley on Theological Differences. -"Why should we be so willful as to 



forget that the error of monstrously overestimating doctrinal differences has 

 been all along the plague of theology ? There can be no greater mistake than to 

 measure the real importance of a dispute by the excitement of the disputants. 

 It has often been remarked of theological controversies that they are never con- 

 ducted more bitterly than when the difference between the rival doctrines is 

 very small. This is nearly correct, but not quite. If you want to see the true 

 white heat of controversial passion, if you want to see men fling away the very 

 thought of reconciliation and close in internecine conflict, you should look at 

 controversialists who do not differ at all, but who have adopted different words 

 to express the same opinion." 



Origin of the Aral Horse. Letter of the Emir Abd-el-Kader, from 



"The Horses of the Sahara," by General E. Dumas, 1857: 

 " Praise be to the one God ! 



