al, might be manufactured and applied to the best advantage.
Money, weights, and measures, with whatever else political economy may
be understood to include, were also subjects which employed their
ingenious speculations, and, in some cases, their laborious research.

The speculative sciences, scarcely less than polite literature,
flourished among the Arabs. {256} Indeed, what superstitious,
enthusiastic people has ever neglected these? Their ardour in the more
dignified of these pursuits was badly regulated; subtleties were
preferred to important practical truths; and, frequently, the more
ingenious the sophism, constructed after the rules of Aristotle, the
more welcome was it to men who rendered to that philosopher a homage
almost idolatrous. The later Arabs, and the Turks of the present day,
pay no little attention to astrology, though it is strongly prohibited
by their Prophet. This science was universally employed by the
idolaters, against whom his denunciations are scarcely less inveterate
than are those of the inspired volume; and doubtless he apprehended
that its prevalence would hazard the integrity, if not the very
existence, of his own system of religion. For many ages, therefore, it
was discountenanced; but, at length, the habit of consulting the stars
on important public occasions became frequent, and was attended with as
much anxiety and as many absurd ceremonies as disgraced the nations of
antiquity. Among the modern Mohammedans, no dignity of state is
conferred; no public edifice is founded, except at a time recommended
by astrologers. These pretenders to knowledge are supported by persons
of rank; and in vain do the more enlightened part of the community
exclaim that astrology is a false {257} science. "Do not think," said
a prime minister, who had been consulting a soothsayer as to the time
of putting on a new dress, "that I am such a fool as to put faith in
all this nonsense; but I must not make my family unhappy by refusing to
comply with forms which some of them deem of consequence."

After these references to the polite literature of the Arabs, it will
be expected that they should have paid attention to the natural
sciences. They were not, indeed, discoverers and inventors, but they
considerably improved upon what they acquired in their extensive
intercourse with other nations; and, as forming the link which unites
ancient and modern letters, they are entitled to our respect and
gratitude