m. THE MIDDLE OK DARK AGEts. 



Such a religion, launched forth at such a period, and aided by s!icfe 

 auxiliaries, it was impossible to oppose by human means. It ran like 

 lightning aver the whole of Arabia, and equally subdued before it political 

 friends and political foes. The states of Barbary were compelled to 

 embrace it ; the leaders of the Turks, the Mongol Tartars, and the Persians 

 found it admirably adapted to their purpose, and embraced it voluntarily ; 

 all the Asiatic provinces of the eastern empire were overrun by the armies 

 of the prophet himself, or his descendants, Abubeker and Omar : who, on; 

 succeeding to Mahomet, assumed, from respect and in reference to him, 

 the subordinate title of Caliph, or Vicar. All Syria was invaded by the 

 former for the express purpose, as he openly asserted, " of taking it out 

 of the hands of the infidels ;" and Jerusalem itself was captured by the 

 latter, and rendered, shortly afterwards, one of the principal bulwarks of 

 the Saracens, as they were soon denominated among the Christian powers. 



The doctrine fundamentally inculcated by the Saracen chiefs was, that 

 *^to fight for the faith is an act of obedience to God ;" and on this ac- 

 count they characterized their ferocious and bloody ravages by the name 

 of holy wars. And having been the first to adopt this absurd and con- 

 tradictory term, they laid down a model, and offered at least an apology 

 for the crusades. And such was the success of their enterprise, that in 

 less than a century from the commencement of the Hegira^ they spread 

 the religion of Mahomet from the Atlantic Ocean to India and Tartary^ 

 and obtained the whole, or the greater part of the temporal, as well as 

 the spiritual power in Syria, Persia, Egypt, Africa, and Spain. Spain, 

 indeed, has since been rescued from their bondage ; but the same general 

 success continuing, the whole of the eastern empire was overturned, and 

 Constantinople itself taken possession of in 1453; while, in different 

 directions, they have also pursued the same triumphant career over the 

 kingdoms of Visapour and Golconda, in India ; the islands of Cyprus, of 

 Rhode*, and tlie Cyclades ; and have made large territorial acq^uisitions 

 in Tartary, Hungary, and Greece. 



Such is a brief, but afflictive sketch of the history of the world, during 

 v/hat has been appropriately denominated its dark ages, throughout which 

 it may correctly be said, that 



No light, but rather darkness visible, 

 Serr'd only to discover scenes of wo, 

 Regions of horror, doleful shades. 



In effect, every thmg concurred to introduce and establish a universal 

 reign of ignorance and gloom : and I shall next proceed to notice more 

 particularjy a few of those causes which chiefly co-operated in producing 

 so calamitous a result. 



And the first that occurs in the course of the survey, is the sinister and 

 contracted views, and the general repugnance to all science and polite 

 learning that so strikingly distinguished that particular set of the barbarous 

 tribes of the north, already noticed, by whom Europe was earliest over- 

 run ; all of whom, by a generic term, may be denominated Scandinavians. ^ 

 Judging of these from the only Scandinavian records which have descended 

 to our own times, the fabulous fragments collected by Saemond and 

 Snorro and which are respectively called Eddas, all their arts and inven- 

 tions were rude, and all their passions and pursuits violent. They had 

 poetry, but it was altogether of the terrible kind ; the whole muster-roll 

 of their mythology consisted of not more than from forty to fifty gods ana 



