ent of the Greek, and attaining to greater
richness. They are known to have possessed poets of eminence before the
appearance of Mahomet, consequently before they had any communication
with the Greeks; shortly after the commencement of their intercourse
with them, they shewed a marked superiority over them in geometry, in
astronomy, architecture, and medicine, and it would probably be found,
but for the destruction of so many Arab libraries, that they did not
yield to them in eloquence and poetic genius.

Established in Spain, they carried the arts of civilization--the useful
no less than the elegant, to the highest perfection. They introduced
principles of agriculture adapted to the peculiarities of the country.
The chief requisite for a country, parched by a cloudless sun, being
water--they put in practice a complete system of irrigation, to which
the Spaniards are still indebted for the extraordinary fertility of
their soil. Many other arts that have since been permitted to dwindle
into insignificance, and some altogether to disappear, were bequeathed
by them. The Morocco preparation of leather is an instance of these
last.

Their high chivalry, added to their moderation after victory, would have
divested even war of much of its barbarism, had they had to do with a
race less impenetrable, and more susceptible of polish than were the
iron legions of their Gothic antagonists. The persevering and repeated
acts of treachery practised by these, at last drew their civilized
adversaries, forcibly into the commission of acts of a similar
nature--it being frequently necessary in self-defence to adopt the same
weapons as one's enemy. When firmly settled in Spain, the Arabs no
longer appear to have taken the field with a view to conquest.
Abderahman the First, Almansor, and other conquerors, returned from
their victories to repose in their capital; contenting themselves with
founding schools and hospitals to commemorate their successes, without
making them instrumental to the increase of their domination. After this
time campaigns seem frequently to have been undertaken from motives of
emulation, and for the purpose of affording them opportunities for a
display of their prowess, and giving vent to their military ardour. They
considered an irruption on the hostile territory, or an attack on a
town, in the light of a tournament. The Christians, on the contrary,
fought with a view to exterminate, and without ever losing sight of