Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 197 



seminaries of learning. Whilst the rest of Europe was compara- 

 tively consigned to the most debasing darkness, the Arabians in 

 Spain had thrown open no less than seventy libraries to the pub- 

 lic, enriched with all the knowledge they had so successfully cul- 

 tivated. This concentration of light beamed in vain for the 

 greater part of Christendom, whose slumbering intellect, was 

 wrapt up in the contemplation of theological subtleties. Yet did 

 the light at length penetrate that dark period ; many are the 

 useful inventions we owe to the Arabians, such as cotton and 

 linen paper, as substitutes for the Egyptian papyrus ; arithmeti- 

 cal figures, the construction of observatories, of which Europe still 

 retains a model in the famous tower of Seville, in Spain. To 

 them we owe also the process of distillation, and of many ana- 

 lytical branches of chemistry. The use of gunpowder was known 

 to the Moors in the 13th century, masses of stone and iron balls 

 being projected with it, in their wars with the Spaniards. It 

 was near the middle of the fourteenth century before this inven- 

 tion was practised in France. To the Arabians also, have been 

 attributed the knowledge of the mariner's compass, and the pen- 

 dulum as a measure of time, before they were used by the Eu- 

 ropeans. They were likewise the conservators of the works of 

 Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Euclid, Ptolemy, and other luminaries of 

 ancient times ; to them, revived Europe was first indebted for 

 the knowledge of the writings of these eminent men. All these 

 writings have truly a constituent place in Arabic literature ; for 

 the versions of the Arabians, having been principally made 

 through the Syriac, and in a paraphrastic form, were not literal, 

 as the Latin translations made ^rom the Greek. 



They were also exceedingly devoted to music, and amatory 

 poetry. It was thus the exaggerated metaphor of Arabian poet- 

 ry passed into the Spanish, and which long infected the poetry 

 of that nation. This style is still observed in the east ; and al- 

 though the Orientals have no conception of eloquence not based 

 upon exaggeration, still they have too much good sense to under- 

 stand it otherwise than figuratively. The French physician Ber- 

 nier, in his description of the states of the great Mogul, relates 

 the following characteristic anecdote. An Indian poet laureat, 

 addressing a celebrated prince, used the following inflated lan- 

 guage. " No sooner dost thou press the sides of thy rapid cour- 

 ser, than the earth trembles ; it is agitated, and the eight ele- 



