OF EDUCATION 27 



first only to make the surrounding darkness more 

 apparent. 



A foreign race had settled in Spain in the eighth 

 century, and had established great universities for the 

 promotion of science and civilization. They had made 

 Gibraltar the stronghold, not only of military power, 

 but of intellectual and moral force. Here they built 

 a line of colleges and universities, extending from 

 Gibraltar a hundred miles toward the Pyrenees, and 

 opened their doors to the young men of all nations. 

 Practically, the Alexandrian school of the Ptolemies 

 had been reconstructed by the learned men of Arabia, 

 Syria, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and carried into Spain. 

 They had restored the great Alexandrian library so 

 far as possible, and transferred it to Cordova, the 

 Spanish capital. 



The glimmering of light, radiating in the tenth 

 century from the Arabian schools in Spain where 

 the best families in Europe were educating their sons, 

 hardly seemed like the dawn of a new civilization for 

 all Europe, but such it is proving to be, not only for 

 Europe but for America, and eventually the whole 

 world ; for some parts of Asia and South America are 

 already under way in the new education. From the 

 tenth century to the fifteenth, the schools of Spain 

 attracted young men from all parts of Europe. On 

 completing their studies they carried to their homes 

 the spirit of the Spanish Arabian schools, which was 



