690 
«« this isan original production,admira- 
bly calculated to please all those whose 
. imaginationsare sufficiently lively, and 
whose hearts are generous enough to 
regret the famous times of chivalry. 
These happy days when love, courage, 
and piety were mingled in every action ! 
The manners and. characters, it is 
frankly allowed, may appear singular, 
but yet they were at the same time 
replete with noble and shining traits ; 
and if every thing was not strictly co- 
verned by the laws of reason, yet folly 
itself had something that both pleased 
and charmed.” 
It must be allowed, indeed, that the 
situation of the Arabs in Spain, pre- 
sents one of the most extraordinary 
spectacles to be met with in modern 
history. These adventurers were at 
first conquerors, but being at length 
vanquished in their turn by the mild- 
ness of the climate, they soon changed 
their characters. . From ignorant bar- 
barians, they became noi only one .of 
ihe most polished and learned nations, 
but they even renounced those customs 
which their pride, their prejudices, and | 
above all, their religious degmas seem- 
ed to render it,difficuli, if not impos- , 
sible to surmount. 
‘¢ Instead of remaining in an unso- 
ciable state, with their wives shut.up 
in harems, and reduced to a degrading 
captivity, they restored the latter to 
liberty, and rendered them the arbiters 
of their destiny, the sovereign objects of 
all their thoughts and of all their senti- 
inents. At once’ voluptuous, enthusi- 
astic and warlike, they submitied to 
the discretion of these objects of their 
tenderness, the morals, the laws, the 
fortunes of the state itself: in fine, 
they placed them on the throne, and 
the love of them: seemed to be a spe- 
cies of worship. From the moment 
that treason had delivered over this 
country to the Moors, to the period 
when they. were forced to abandon il, 
they unceasingly combated for its pos- 
session. Stiii more attached to the 
‘fair sex than to glory, .at the critical 
period when their defeats multiplied, 
and theirtotal overthrow appeared to 
be certain, the Moslems seemed to 
-Increase their homage towards this 
adored sex. Despoiled by degrees of 
all the provinees which they had inva- 
ded; driven towards the bordersof the 
sea, and penned up in that delicions 
corer of the earth, justly termed the 
Retrospect. of French Literature--- History. 
Paradise of Grenada, they converted it 
‘into-an elysium for their mistresses. 
* Never were public festivais more 
frequent, or more pompous; never 
were carousals, feasts, nocturnal sere- 
nades, and dances more brilliant, than 
during thase unhappy times, when the 
great Captain Gonzalva de Cordova ap- 
proached the gates of the last city; 
when their empire was about to be 
extinguished, and the Moorish name to 
. be effaced for ever from the European 
continent.” : 
The beautiful kingdom of Grenada, 
formed out of the wreck of five flou- 
rishing monarchies, was, as we have 
just seen, the last asylum of the 
Moslem chevaliers,. The different fa- 
milies which had reigned in the other 
states, hed now taken refuge in the 
capital of the empire, and its nobility 
and its splendour were continually 
augmented. But these illustrious hosts 
introduced with themselves a certain 
rivalship, in respect to rank andorigin, . 
which did not fail to prove highly 
detrimental. At the head of these 
factions, were the Zegris, descended 
from the sovereigns of Morocco and 
Fez,and the Abencerrages,sprung from 
ihe ancient kings of Yemen.’ - © 
it has already been intimated, that 
a singular revolution had taken place, 
in. respect to the manners of these 
Africans, who from being gross and 
barbarous in their native country, had 
become not only civilized, but the very 
models of elegance and urbanity under 
aforeignsky. Yet it ought also to 
be mentioned, that this same people 
so polished on one hand, were on the 
other more laborious, and exhibited 
a greater share of invention in all the 
useful arts, than those very Spaniards 
who treated them as barbarians. At 
the same ‘time, by a. contradiction 
truly inexplicable, the Christians were 
melancholy and severe in their man- 
ners. The married women were indeed 
termed the companions of their hus- 
bands, but they were actually sub- 
jected to arigorous dependence, and 
condemned to strict seclusion, Al- — 
though professing a religion, no por- 
tion of which is in opposition to the 
progress of human knowledge 3 which 
even commands labour and favours 
indusiry, the cultivation of the ground 
was neglected, literature remained in 
iis infancy, and the arts were condemn- 
ed to scor. an 
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