252 A. D. 813-833. 



to us, of feveral branches of our fcience. It mufl: be acknowleged that 

 their fludies were often perverted to the abfurd purfuits of aftrology, 

 the philofopher's ftone, or tranfmutation of the bafer metals into gold, 

 and the elixir of health, which was fuppofed to confer a perpetual re- 

 novation of youth and vigour. But fcientific refearches, notwithftand- 

 ing the partial abufe or wrong direction of them, muft ultimately tend 

 to the increafe of human knowlege, and thereby add to the felicity of 

 mankind. During the five darkefl centuries of European barbarifm 

 the Saracens were the only enlightened people in the weftern world. 

 There are indeed a few individual inflances of heaven-born geniufes 

 among the Chriftians, who, furmounting the difficulty of an unknown 

 language, and defying the terrors of excommunication, ventured to 

 learfi fcience among the Saracens, and to dilTeminate fome fparks of it 

 among their rude and benighted countrymen, who in return treated 

 them as conjurers and articled fervants of the devil. To their intrepid 

 thirfl; of knowlege Europe is in a great meafure indebted for the revival 

 of fcience, which, as it increafed among the Chriftians, fell off and lan- 

 guifhed among the Saracens, who are not now diflinguiflied by any 

 ftrong attachment to fludy. 



825 — About this time there was prefented to the emperor Louis a 

 prefbyter called George, who undertook to conflruft organs, hitherto 

 fcarcely known in France *, as they were made in Greece. [^/>w«. de 

 gejlis Franc. L. iv, c. 114.] 



827 — Egbert, king of the Weft Saxons, who had pafled his youth in 

 exile, and learned the arts of war and government under Charles, the 

 greateft prince in Europe, was recalled to his paternal dominions in the 

 year 800. In twenty-feven years he fubdued, or reduced to a (late of 

 dependence, all the other Englifh and Saxon kings on the fouth fide of 

 the Humber ; and he is thenceforth ufually accounted (though not with 

 ftricl propriety) the firft monarch of England. 



This fame year, according to the annals of Ulfter, there was ' a dread- 

 ' ful invufion of Ireland by the Englifli,' which, if I miftake not, is omit- 

 ted by all the Englifh hiftorians. 



828 — Ten Venetian fliips went to Alexandria in violation of a law of 

 the ftate ; and they were, for ought that appears, the firfl that ever 

 went from Venice to that port. The moft noted part of their home- 

 ward cargo was the (fuppol'ed) body of St. Mark, which they furrepti- 

 tioufly carried off with them. [Cbron. Atid. DanduU diicis Fend. dp. Mii- 

 ratori, Script. V. xii, col. 170.] This notice, though in other refpeds 



* An organ had been fent from Conftantinople organ, tlicn a wondcifnl thing in England, was 



to Pepin king of France by the emperor Conftan- prilcnttd to the chnrch of Malmlbury by Dunf- 



tme Copronymus. {^Marian. Scot, nd an. 757.— tan. [H^ill. AJ^i/ni/i. up. Giilr, p. 366.] Organs, 



Hep'ulanni Chron. ad an. 754, ap. Goldajl. — Ahnon. if there is no millake in the name, were in Ireland 



L. iv, c. 64.] In the reign of King Edgar an bcfoie the year 814. \_^Ann. Uh. ad an. 814.] 



