THE HORSE AND HIS RIDEK. 103 



race, and yet he and the other Mongol conquerors 

 were not barbarians, if the art of creating wealth and 

 power constitutes civilization. The Mongols were 

 sedulous to advance trade and manufactures. When 

 they sacked a city, they generally exempted the arti- 

 sans from the general butchery, and transported them 

 to their own dominions. The system of posting was 

 known to them ; Genghis Khan's courier-stations 

 extended from China to Poland. It was his wish to 

 establish everywhere one uniform system of weights 

 and measures, and it is said that he even hit upon the 

 invention of bank-notes. 



Were we now to ask, what was the purpose of all 

 the Mongol expeditions to the remotest regions, it 

 would not be easy to answer the question. Their 

 leaders did not set the least value on the wealth they 

 seemed to hunt after. Destruction was their only 

 apparent object. It was once coolly discussed by them 

 in a council of war, whether it would not be better to 

 extirpate the whole population of Persia, and turn the 

 entire face of the country into pasture ground ; and 

 the plan was very near being realized. The Mongol 

 rulers always declared that it was their vocation to 

 chastise and exterminate mankind, a belief which is 

 not yet extinct in the race of Genghis Khan. The 

 Mongols possess not one poet, not one artist, never- 



