80 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



It has been well described as " a system of Greek 

 thought expressed in a Semitic tongue; and modified 

 by Oriental influences called into existence by the 

 patronage of the more liberal princes, and kept alive 

 by the zeal of a small band of thinkers." In the 

 main, it began and ended with the study of Aristotle, 

 commentaries on whom became the chief work of 

 scholars, at whose head stands the great name of 

 Averroes. Through these a handful of Jews and 

 Moslems knowledge of Greek science, of astrono- 

 my, algebra, chemistry, and medicine, was carried 

 into Western Europe. By the latter half of the tenth 

 century, one hundred and fifty years after the trans- 

 lation of Aristotle into Arabic, Spain had become 

 no mean rival of Baghdad and Cairo. Schools were 

 founded; colleges to which the Girton girls of the 

 period could repair to learn mathematics and history 

 were set up by lady principals; manufactures and 

 agriculture were encouraged; and lovely and stately 

 palaces and mosques beautified Seville, Cordova, To- 

 ledo, and Granada, which last-named city the far- 

 famed Alhamra or Red Fortress still overlooks. 

 Seven hundred years before there was a public lamp 

 in London, and when Paris was a town of swampy 

 roadways bordered by windowless dwellings, Cor- 

 dova had miles of well-lighted, well-paved streets; 

 and the constant use of the bath by the " infidel " 

 contrasted with the saintly filth and rags which were 

 the pride of flesh-mortifying devotees and the out- 

 ward and odorous signs of their religion. The pages 



