EFFECT OF MOHAMMEDANISM OX EUROPE. 635 



Contemporaneous with the commencement of this physiological and 

 psychical change was the introduction of a method of record Eesult of the 

 by writing, which at once aided, in the most marked manner, introduction of 

 the dissemination of this improving condition, especially by * 

 leading to the consolidation of society through the introduction of durable 

 systems of law. By this, the influence of men and of generations was 

 indefinitely extended. The opinions and thoughts of those times have 

 actually, in many instances, descended to us. Elsewhere we have dwelt 

 on the fact that these effects in the progress of humanity are foreshadow- 

 ed and illustrated in the course of individual development. A high psy- 

 chical condition demands as its essential, both in the individual and in 

 the race, a mechanism of registry. 



From the preceding imperfect narration we may moreover gather that 

 the progress of civilization in Europe has not been in the way Centre of intel- 

 of a diffusion from a central point, but that there has been a lect of Eur P e - 

 shifting of the centre of intellect. For a length of time it was in Greece ; 

 then it passed to Italy ; in our times it is still more to the west. In a 

 philosophical respect, the result of Mohammedanism on Europe has been, 

 through the introduction 'of physical science by the Arabians, to coalesce 

 the centre of intellect and the centre of force. Henceforth upon that 

 continent physical power must be subordinate to intellectual. 



In this we see what is the true interpretation of the influence which 

 Mohammedanism has exerted on Europe an influence which, Effect of Mo _ 

 though popularly, is very unworthily represented as an oc- hammedanism 



? o r / /^ *rt on the centre 



cupation of Spam for a few centuries and the capture of Con- O f intellect of 

 stantinople. In truth, it was of a far higher and very dif- Eur P e - 

 ferent order. The Koran of the Arabians failed to make its way through 

 Europe, but it was very different with the physical science of the Arabi- 

 ans. Its spread was the true foundation of modern national power, for 

 it at once occupied itself with the development of material resources and 

 the introduction of useful inventions. The manner of thought it engen- 

 dered lies really at the basis of the great intellectual controversy of our 

 times. The translation of the centre of intellect from Italy to the West 

 is the legitimate issue of the Moorish invasion of Spain. 



As regards that propensity to the decomposition of every thing into 

 its constituent elements which is the tendency of the Euro- Eesult of the 

 pean, though doubtless it has its disadvantages, we are not enc^n^Eu" 

 to suppose that it leads of necessity to an intellectual chaos, ropean mind. 

 Those authors who view with dismay our present state, who represent 

 us as though, both in polity and religion, we were crumbling to pieces, 

 and that the multiplicity of opinions and sects, which are ever on the 

 increase, is the precursor of a universal anarchy, have never duly con- 

 sidered that out of such a state it is possible in. an instant for fixed 



