IO8 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



of Apulia. That the compass did probably come to 

 Apulia at an early date in its history, and that there is 

 consequently a certain support to this opinion, we shall 

 see further on; but there is a total lack of record evidence 

 that the Saracens, who dwelt chiefly in L,ucera or Nocera, 

 a city of refuge in the Italian province, had any part in its 

 introduction. 



Our present inquiry, however, is to determine what, if 

 anything, the Spanish Moors contributed to the science, 

 the development of which we are studying; and to this I 

 now address myself. 



By the middle of the eighth century, the Arabs through- 

 out their whole empire, from Syria to the Atlantic, had 

 begun to turn from the study of the Koran to that of 

 science and profane literature. They went to the Greeks 

 for their philosophy, and translated into Arabic the works 

 of Aristotle and Plato, Euclid, Apollonius, Ptolemy, 

 Hippocrates and Galen, undefiled by the distortions of 

 the Christian revisers, and untrammeled by the theological 

 dicta of any religious system. The syllogism of the 

 Stagirite commended itself to the subtle Saracen intellect, 

 and the disputations of the shady walks of Athens, long 

 since silenced, became again heard in the schools which 

 flanked the mosques from one end of the Mediterranean to 

 the other. 



In Spain the awakening was even more thorough, and 

 the progress more swift; for the men of action outstripped 

 the men of thought. Cordova produced her unrivaled 

 leather, and pointed to a paved street ten miles long and 

 brilliantly lighted at night. Toledo brought forth her 

 sword-blades, which still laugh the modern armorers' art 

 to scorn. The Arabic numeral, arithmetic, algebra and 

 chemistry came into the world. Rice and sugar and 

 cotton and spinach and saffron and nearly every fine 

 garden and orchard fruit followed the conquerors from the 

 east. The vineyards of Xeres and Malaga then first 

 yielded their famous wines. Art took on new and fas- 



