50

PLEASANT SCENERY.

liar to him; no other nation shares it with us, unless it be the Americans, who derive it from us. We possess in a high degree the abstract love of what is useful, acquired doubtless by our own regular habits of exertion."

"Look, papa!" said Ellen, "at those large Spanish chesnuts, scattered about the meadows that border the stream, and the cattle standing, or lying, and chewing the cud under them. Is not that an English scene? Does not that put you in mind of home ?"

"Look well at it, Ellen: you will see none like it again. We are going into a province where every thing is decidedly foreign, and all the remnants of the past that remain belong wholly to the Saracens."

"I am so glad you have mentioned them, sir,” said Edward. Now that we are so happily situated, and our eyes amused by this pretty scenery, will you tell us of the occupation of Spain by the Arabs? It will give a much greater interest to all the remnants of their former power that we shall meet hereafter."

"Do, papa, oblige us," said Ellen. "We shall enjoy it so much! Shall we not, Frank ?"

Frank was a twin brother with Ellen, and she was never quite pleased herself till she knew he was so. Her mother seconded the proposal; and Mr. Delville, having stipulated to be allowed to

ORIGIN OF THE ARABS.

51

stop, if any objects of interest arose, began his

narrative.

Ishmael, the son of Hagar," he said, "is generally supposed to be the father of the Arab race; and the description of his character and his habits is as applicable to his descendants at this day as it then was to himself.

"And he will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren.' They still dwell alone, a solitary and unsubdued nation.

"The people of Arabia possessed strong passions and wild imaginations; their manners and their habits were distinct from other nations, and in their intercourse with them they had few feelings in common. Mahomed, who was the founder of the Mahometan religion, lived at a period when the world in general was exceedingly corrupt, and the religious knowledge of every nation obscured by ignorance, and their practice depraved by idolatrous worship. The belief in the one true God was almost lost, and Mahomed re-established it. His creed was composed partly from the Scriptures, to which it is clear he had access; for to them he is indebted for all the good that the Koran contains. Nor is this extraordinary, since we know that St. Paul visited Arabia, and that many Jews, after the taking of Jerusalem, fled to that

52

PROGRESS OF THEIR ARMS.

country for safety. Other precepts, especially his notions of a hereafter, and its rewards and punishments, are derived from the doctrines of more barbarous nations. His religion was essentially a military system; and while yet in its infancy, and revealed only to a few of his family and intimate friends, the energy with which it was adopted was an earnest of its future success, and showed how congenial it was to the spirits to whom it was about to be unfolded. The essence of the Moslem creed consisted in unshaken faith, unhesitating obedience, and ferocious energy. The only alternatives offered to unbelievers were death, slavery, or tribute. But to mere idolaters no choice was permitted but the Koran or the sword. Nothing could resist the fury of the first Arabian conquerors. Armenia, Messopotamia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Spain, all submitted to their But they soon became enfeebled by their victories. In Damascus the wild tribes of the desert tasted the cup of luxury, and forgot the abstemious habits and the determined energy which had hitherto ensured success. Under Moawyah an important change was effected in their government. Hereditary descent was substituted for an elective crown. However necessary the establishment of an absolute monarch might be for the maintenance of order, it prevented that freedom of choice, by which talent and bravery

arms.

ARABIAN LEARNING.

53

might, in a military government, have been substituted for weakness and incapacity.

"The khalifs, of the race of the Abassides, * who fixed the seat of their power at Bagdad, have challenged the admiration of the world. Their splendid palaces, the arts and sciences they cultivated so successfully, their golden treasures and gorgeous cities are in strong contrast with the ignorance and poverty which reigned over the European world. At their court, learning, which their prophet had condemned as useless and profane, was cherished and respected. Astronomy and philosophy were publicly taught; and they repaid the learning acquired from the Egyptians by the communication of the sciences of Arabia. Yet, with all their merit, the Abassides were stained with atrocious crimes. They had no law to restrain their passions, and their deeds were cruel. It has been justly observed, that those dark actions are ill redeemed by the praise of justice, scrupulous in punishing others, while their own vices were unchecked.

"But in Spain, beyond any other country, the sciences were most devotedly cultivated by the Arabians. Cordova, Grenada, and Seville rivalled each other in the magnificence of their academies and their colleges."

*So called from Abbas, uncle of the Prophet.

54

66

THEIR TALENT FOR NARRATION.

Papa," said Frank, "was not Aaroun-al-Raschid, so frequently mentioned in the Arabian Nights,' a Spanish Arabian ?”

"No, he was of the race of the Abassides, and sovereign of Irac Arabia, the ancient Chaldea.* The seat of his government was Bagdad. The translators of the Arabian Nights inform us, that they are only a small part of the great collection of similar stories which the Arabs possess. The profession of a story-teller was, in that country, a lucrative and dignified employment.

"Unaccustomed to active pursuits, and having neither share nor interest in the government, the reveries of the imagination are eagerly sought after in the east, when the sense of their actual position is painful to them. At this day, in the coffee-houses of the Levant, a man assembles a mute crowd round him, and excites pity or terror at his pleasure."

"Oh! papa," said Ellen; "how I should like to hear him! Do the stories of the east resemble ours ?"

"To a certain extent they are like the chivalrous romances of the middle ages, yet they have striking points of difference. In those of the east we find a timid and mercantile people, in our own a nation of warriors. In theirs, the warlike deeds

* A province now in Turkey in Asia.