owth and progress of Christianity were
aided by that diffusion of the Greek language and civilization
throughout Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt which had been caused by the
Macedonian conquest of the East.

In Upper Asia, beyond the Euphrates, the direct and material influence
of Greek ascendency was more short-lived. Yet, during the existence of
the Hellenic kingdoms in these regions, especially of the Greek kingdom
of Bactria, the modern Bokhara, very important effects were produced on
the intellectual tendencies and tastes of the inhabitants of those
countries, and of the adjacent ones, by the animating contact of the
Grecian spirit. Much of Hindu science and philosophy, much of the
literature of the later Persian kingdom of the Arsacidae, either
originated from or was largely modified by Grecian influences. So, also,
the learning and science of the Arabians were in a far less degree the
result of original invention and genius than the reproduction, in an
altered form, of the Greek philosophy and the Greek lore acquired by the
Saracenic conquerors, together with their acquisition of the provinces
which Alexander had subjugated, nearly a thousand years before the armed
disciples of Mahomet commenced their career in the East.

It is well known that Western Europe in the Middle Ages drew its
philosophy, its arts, and its science principally from Arabian teachers.
And thus we see how the intellectual influence of ancient Greece, poured
on the Eastern world by Alexander's victories, and then brought back to
bear on mediaeval Europe by the spread of the Saracenic powers, has
exerted its action on the elements of modern civilization by this
powerful though indirect channel, as well as by the more obvious effects
of the remnants of classic civilization which survived in Italy, Gaul,
Britain, and Spain, after the irruption of the Germanic nations.

These considerations invest the Macedonian triumphs in the East with
never-dying interest, such as the most showy and sanguinary successes of
mere "low ambition and the pride of kings," however they may dazzle for
a moment, can never retain with posterity. Whether the old Persian
empire which Cyrus founded could have survived much longer than it did,
even if Darius had been victorious at Arbela, may safely be disputed.
That ancient dominion, like the Turkish at the present time, labored
under every cause of decay and dissolution. The satraps, like the modern
pachas, continually reb