estruction
with the other books at Alexandria, for the desire of health did not
have less strength among the Arabs than among other nations. Since these
books taught them how to preserve health, and were not otherwise
contrary to the laws of the Prophet, that served to bring about their
preservation. Freind also calls attention to the fact that grammars and
books which treated of the science of language were likewise saved from
destruction. Besides the library, the Arabs, after their conquest of
Alexandria in the eighth century, came under the influence of the
university still in existence there.

In the West, in Spain, the Arabs enjoyed the same advantages as regards
contact with culture and education as their conquest of the Eastern
cities and Alexandria brought them in the East. While it is not
generally realized, Spain was, as we have pointed out, the province of
the Roman Empire in the West that advanced most in culture before the
breaking up of the Empire. The Silver Age of Latin literature owes all
of its geniuses to Spain. Lucan, the Senecas, Martial, Quintilian, are
all Spaniards. Spain itself was a most flourishing province, and under
the Spanish Caesars, from the end of the first to about the end of the
second century, increased rapidly in population. Spain was the leader in
these prosperous times, and the tradition of culture maintained itself.
When Spain became Christian the first great Christian poet, Prudentius,
born about the middle of the fourth century, came from there. He has
been called the Horace and Virgil of the Christians.

The coming down of the barbarians from the North disturbed Spain's
prosperity and the peace and culture of her inhabitants, but it should
not be forgotten that the first medieval popularization of science, a
sort of encyclopedia of knowledge, the first of its kind after that of
Pliny in the classical period, came from St. Isidore of Seville, a
Spanish bishop.

There has been considerable tendency to insist that Spanish culture and
intellectuality owe nearly all to the presence of the Moors in Spain.
This can only be urged, however, by those who know nothing at all of the
Spanish Caesars, the place of Spain in the history of the Roman Empire,
and the continuance of the culture that then reached a climax of
expression during succeeding centuries. On the contrary, the Moors who
came to Spain owe most of their tendency to devote themselves to culture
and education to the state