ity and whiteness of the paper, in the skillful
intermixture of variously-colored inks, and in the illumination of
titles by gilding and other adornments.

The Saracen Empire was dotted all over with colleges. They were
established in Mongolia, Tartary, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt,
North Africa, Morocco, Fez, Spain. At one extremity of this vast region,
which far exceeded the Roman Empire in geographical extent, were the
college and astronomical observatory of Samarcand, at the other the
Giralda in Spain. Gibbon, referring to this patronage of learning, says:
"The same royal prerogative was claimed by the independent emirs of the
provinces, and their emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of
science from Samarcand and Bokhara to Fez and Cordova. The vizier of a
sultan consecrated a sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold to
the foundation of a college at Bagdad, which he endowed with an annual
revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits of instruction were
communicated, perhaps, at different times, to six thousand disciples
of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of the mechanic; a
sufficient allowance was provided for the indigent scholars, and the
merit or industry of the professors was repaid with adequate stipends.
In every city the productions of Arabic literature were copied and
collected, by the curiosity of the studious and the vanity of the rich."
The superintendence of these schools was committed with noble liberality
sometimes to Nestorians, sometimes to Jews. It mattered not in what
country a man was born, nor what were his religious opinions; his
attainment in learning was the only thing to be considered. The great
Khalif Al-Mamun had declared that "they are the elect of God, his best
and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement
of their rational faculties; that the teachers of wisdom are the true
luminaries and legislators of this world, which, without their aid,
would again sink into ignorance and barbarism."

After the example of the medical college of Cairo, other medical
colleges required their students to pass a rigid examination. The
candidate then received authority to enter on the practice of his
profession. The first medical college established in Europe was that
founded by the Saracens at Salerno, in Italy. The first astronomical
observatory was that erected by them at Seville, in Spain.

THE ARABIAN SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT. It would far transcen