316 Mr. Mallet on the Physical Conditions 



live weapon ; and, as with the Roman legions, the sword and " pilum" bore the brunt of 

 battle, — missile arms being resigned disdainfully to the " velites," — so might the words in 

 which the great Roman historian always describes the crisis of the fight, be applied to 

 every Moslem victory — " Gladiis res geritur." It was not nntil the tide of victory brought 

 their successors in front of the walled cities of the West, that the need of gunpowder was 

 found. 



Reverting again to Europe, between the fifth and the twelfth century, " old things had 

 passed away ;" Christianity had established herself upon the ruin of the ancient creeds. 

 " The sword," which, its Author had predicted it, should bring with it invasion and blood- 

 shed, had given place to something like the stability of governments ; and the distinctions of 

 now-born languages and kingdoms, the germs of our modern civilization, were developed. 

 "Society already possessed kings, a lay aristocracy, clergy, burghers, labourers, and civil 

 powers." (Guizot, " Hist, de la Civil." t. i. lect. viii.) Trades had been developed, and 

 their mysteries were in the hands of the craftsmen and free burghers of the trading cities. 

 Travelling on distant expeditions was rare, except for the purposes of merchandize or 

 pilgrimage to the holy shrines. Churchmen and monks became thus those best acquainted 

 with foreign lands, and often were intrusted with diplomatic missions, as distant as even 

 to the Great Khan. (Abel Remusat, "Mem. sur les Relations Politique," &c. 2me Mem. 

 pp. 154-157.) Thus, Ascelin and J. de Piano Carpini, travelling friars, were sent as 

 ambassadors by Pope Innocent IV. into the heart of Asia, just at the end of the twelfth 

 century. (Murray, "Hist. Discov. in Asia. "_) Whatever learning, whatever science remained 

 unburied, were also possessed by them. Would it not have been wonderful, then, if they 

 were not the best informed men of their times as to all that was of foreign occurrence —if 

 they had not been the introducers of much that was new, strange, and valuable, from the 

 distant and ancient lands that they visited? They were so, as the introduction of many 

 exotic plants attests, which, spreading from the monastery gardens of Europe, as from 

 centres, have long become naturalized over wide habitats, as our possession of the treasures 

 of ancient learning, rescued from the wreck of the East, and preserved in their libraries, 

 proves. 



They returned with imaginations heated, and intellects fired and energized, by their 

 transit from the- learned leisure, or perhaps the sloth and sensuality of their cells, to the 

 glorious scenes and monuments of ancient story, and the richness of southern climes. The 

 preaching of one such man set Europe again in a blaze : at the voice of Peter the Hermit, 

 all Christendom prepared to throw itself upon the East, as Islamism had before rushed 

 upon the West. From the eleventh to the end of the thirteenth century. Crusade after 

 Crusade made these ancient but now decaying lands more and more familiar to the 

 churchmen and to the chivalry of the Cross. 



The former, however, were alone fitted cither to collect and treasure, or to transmit by 



