OF EDUCATION 23 



The most enlightened artisans of Asia were induced 

 to settle in Spain and introduce the arts of civilized 

 life. The improved productive arts soon brought the 

 comforts, conveniences and necessities of life within 

 the reach of all. The decorative arts furnished orna- 

 ments and elegance in dress and furniture. Spain 

 became the garden and market place of Europe. 

 The neat, polite and well-dressed people made a strik- 

 ing contrast with merchants from France, Germany 

 and England, dressed in sheepskin or the untanned 

 hides of other animals. 



The wealth, learning, elegance and refinement of 

 Spain, nearly equaled that of the best parts of Europe 

 at the present time. Cordova, the capital of Anda- 

 lusia in the tenth century, had a population of a mil- 

 lion. They had a library of 600,000 volumes. Seville, 

 Toledo, Grenada and sixty other cities and towns each 

 had a large library, some of them rivaling that of 

 Cordova. 



Here, after a precarious existence for centuries, was 

 the beginning in Europe of that modernized Greek 

 civilization which was to spread over the entire con- 

 tinent. One man in ten thousand saw the promise of 

 better days for Europe from this source, and sent his 

 sons to the Cordovan schools. Every student on re- 

 turning home became the nucleus of a secret society 

 for the promotion of learning. Men of worthy motives 

 and independent judgment began to increase in all 



