108 LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



is probable they may have derived their knowledge 

 of this composition from the Indians, they certainly 

 improved its preparation, and found out diiferent 

 ways of employing it in war. The mariner's com- 

 pass has been alternately given to the Italians and 

 the French; but Tiraboschi, notwithstanding his 

 partiality for his country, is decidedly of opinion 

 that the honour of its invention is due to the Arabs. 

 Its adoption in Europe is not older than the thir- 

 teenth century, while among the Arabs it was 

 known in the eleventh. The polarity of the magnet 

 is alleged to have been known to Aristotle ; and 

 something like the compass was in use among the 

 Chinese ; but as the Saracens paid considerable 

 attention to navigation, and often undertook long 

 and laborious voyages, history has, with much 

 probability, assigned to them the discovery of the 

 magnetic needle. 



Some Avriters have offered a conjecture that this, 

 singular people paved the w^ay for our immortal 

 Ne^vton tow^ards discovering the doctrine of attrac- 

 tion ; but as the astronomical treatises of the famous 

 mathematician Mohammed ibn Musa, upon which 

 this supposition is founded, are not extant, the hon- 

 our of the English philosopher remains unimpaired. 

 Jt is worthy of remark, that when the historians of 

 the middle ages mention most of these inventions 

 for the first time, they treat them, not as novelties, 

 but as things in general use ; hence the presumption 

 is," that they were all gradually imported by obscure 

 individuals, and not by men of genius ; and that 

 however much they may have altered our system of 

 war. commerce, science, and education, they were 

 brought by a people familiar with their practice, and 

 from a country where they Avere already universally 

 known. But whatever may be the claims of the 

 Saracens to the praise of original genius, they formed 

 the link which unites ancient and modern letters. 

 Their schools and academies were the shrines at 



