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from the medical schools of the Saracens. Algebra, astronomy, and the higher mathematics were taught in their schools, and thence diffused over Europe. The numerals which we call Arabic, but which ought rather, perhaps, to be called Indian, or Egyptian, were at east communicated to us by them.

S. Europe is also indebted to them for many inventions and discoveries in the arts. To them we owe the manufacture of paper from cotton and linen, and the application of gunpowder to the military art. The compass, also, was known to the Arabians in the eleventh century. Sismondi remarks that the Geographer of Nubia (Cent. 12), speaks of it as an instrument universally employed. The Italian and French claim is as late as Cent. 13. He also states that the number of Arabic inventions of which we enjoy the benefit without suspecting it, is prodigious. Those who introduced them into Europe, did not claim to be inventors, as they would have done had truth allowed; but knowing that others had seen them practised by the Saracens, they introduced them, as from some common source of art, without noise or pretence. Such are a few of the facts by which we justify our opinion as to the influence of the Saracens on the civilization and intellectual development of Christian Europe. And do not these facts go far to sustain the judgment of Mosheim that "the Saracens may be considered as in some measure, the restorers of learning in Europe;" and "that truth requires us to say that their schools and books in Spain and Italy, were the chief source of the knowledge of medicine, philosophy, mathematics, and art in Europe, from the tenth century and onwards."

No doubt it is possible, as Gieseler suggests, to over-estimate the influence of the Saracens, and we would by no means overlook, or deprecate, the influence of the renewed intercourse with the Greek Church under Otho I and his successors; nor the revival of the scientific study of the Roman law in the cities of Lombardy, and the renewed disputes with the Greek theologians in the middle of the same century. Let due weight be assigned to these, and to all other causes which may be mentioned, of the revival of learning in Europe; but let not either the pride or the prejudice of the Christians lead them to overlook or deny, as do Schlegel and Guizot, the mighty influence exerted by God through the Saracens, in securing this great result.

Nor would we call in question the substantial correctness of the judgment of Whewell in his History of the Inductive Sciences, on the Arabian commentators of Aristotle, and on the science and experimental philosophy of the Arabians. Neither they nor their scholars, the scholastic writers of Europe, have power to rise above a state of mental bondage to Aristotle; nor did they understand or act on the true principles of the inductive sciences, as since developed in the school of Bacon.

Still the mental activity of the Arabs and the scholastic writers, even in these particulars, was not in vain. The manhood of the nations of Europe had not come; and during the period of childhood and youth, the logic of Aristotle gave them a severe dialectic discipline, which prepared the way for the robust intellectual development which has since been witressed.

Nor are the writings of the scholastic divines devoid of merit, aside from their subserviency to mental discipline. No one who has ever read Anselm can speak contemptuously of him as a theologian; and much of the theology of Thomas Aquinas is now in circulation through minds ignorant of the sources whence it came. So far as the scholastics advocated the sacramental and hierarchical systems, they were undoubtedly in an error pernicious to themselves and to the world. There were also, no doubt, many intellectual abuses, and much waste of mental power in their schools. But after separating all the dross much gold remains. Semler, as quoted by Hagenbach, says, "The poor scholastics have been too much despised, and that frequently by people who would not have been good enough to be their transcribers." Luther also said, "When I judge the scholastics, I do not read with closed eyes; I neither reject nor approve all of their opinions." Ullinan, however, is much more eulogistic. He call the scholastic theology" in its commencement, a truly scientific advance upon the past, in its entire course a great dialectic preparatory school of Christianity in the West-in its completion a grand and highly finished production of the human mind.”

It has been argued by some, that the literature and science of the Arabs were worthless because of the degradation of the regions where Islamism reigned, still reigns. Fez and Morocco, Mauritania and Egypt, Syria and Palestine, Bagdad, Cufa, Bassora, Samarcand and Balkh, once illustrious for literature and science, libraries and universities, are now the abodes of ignorance, degradation, and slavery.

Yet we do not consider the intellectual development of Greece and Rome worthless, because Greece and Rome not only fell, but sank into deep degradation. These Mahometan nations have sunk, because the permanent channels of God's power and purposes did not run through Mahometanism, but through Christianity, and because Mahometanism, as a religion, and the civil system in union with it, cannot permanently elevate or perfect human society. The beneficial influence of the Arabs on Europe, came not from these sources, but from their attainments in literature, sciences, and the arts. When God raised them up He had a purpose to accomplish by them, and when He had fulfilled His designs he laid them aside.

In this then, as in all other cases, if we will study the history of this world from God's point of vision, we shall see His glory

illustriously displayed, whilst human power and splendor pass away, and as the result of the whole we shall unite with the inspired apostle in reverently exclaiming, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out."

ARTICLE VII.

A PLEA FOR LIBRARIES, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE WANTS OF WESTERN INSTITUTIONS.1

By REV. N. PORTER, JR., Prof. Moral Philosophy, Yale College.

IN Europe, the essentials of a College or University, are a Library, first of all; then able instructors, and last of all, suitable edifices. In the United States, the prime essentials are thought to be, instructors and college buildings. In Europe the buildgs may be many or few, convenient or inconvenient. They may consist of only humble accommodations for the lecture-rooms of the professors. They often are in fact numerous, convenient and imposing; but that they should be so, is not thought to be at all essential to the existence, nor even to the attractions, of a caperior literary institution. But there must be a well-furnished library. Without this essential, well-qualified professors cannot be procured; or if they could be procured, they would not be able to discharge their duties; or if they could do this in some sort, they could not with satisfaction or honor. The University of Gottingen was founded in 1734. By means of a lavish liberality, wisely directed to its library and its professors, it soon became one of the most distinguished universities of Europe. In a single generation it shot up to a splendid growth, and left far behind its older rivals. Its library and its professors made it all that it was, and enabled it to compete successfully with the universities which had antiquity, past renown, and political influence on their side. Got

An Essay, embodying the substance of this article, has been prepared by the writer, at the request and for the use of the Society for Promoting Collegiate and Theological ducation at the West, and will soon published by the Society. The subject is one of such general interest, and to our apprehension is so well handled, that we are glad to enrich our pages with it, while we hope that we shall thereby incidentally promote a noble and praiseworthy scheme of benevolence.-ED. REPOS.

tingen did not cease to be at the head of the German universities, till the resources and zeal of the King of Prussia enabled him to do more for the means of instruction at the University of Berlin. With us the case is reversed; for though it was with the same idea that the venerable fathers who founded Yale College, brought forward each his stock of books with the words, "I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony," yet it is not n this way, pre-eminently, that their sons have sought to build up the institution which the fathers founded; nor has it been in this way that recent colleges have been constituted. Brick and⚫ mortar have taken the place of books. Buildings we feel that we must have; but libraries we will have if we can; and if we cannot have them, we will try to do without them. In the pleas that urge upon the benevolent, so often, the necessities of our older and younger institutions, the poverty of their libraries is rarely made prominent, or if it be named, we never receive the impression that the want is very serious or very pressing. Perhaps we may discover that the solicitor feels deeply the nature of this want. He may beg as a starving man for intellectual foodearnestly and imploringly; but it is easily to be seen that he does not expect that the want which he suffers will be felt or understood by others. If funds are needed for the erection of a chapel or a college edifice, to provide for the salaries of professors, or even to purchase expensive and showy apparatus, the appeal is made with great zeal and urged with the utmost boldness, as if it were certain to be felt and responded to. But the povertystricken library is complimented with a passing notice, and those who urge its claims do it as if they expected little or no success-to which expectation those whose aid they solicit are certain to do the amplest justice; and both parties quietly acquiesce in the anticipated result. Of this low estimate of the importance of the most essential element of a well-furnished institution, on the part of the friends of learning and of religious education in this country, the scanty library is itself a perpetual symbol and monument. The friends of Yale College, though the number of its students and its general reputation would seem to imply no serious deficiency in its materiel of instruction, have for years past been ashamed to introduce visitors to the meagre collection of books, called its library, which was appropriately hid away in a garret. Even now, though a more honorable place has been provided for a library, and though the books, by recent additions begin to look worthy of the place, yet the contrast is still most distressing between the room which is, and that which is to be filled. The expenditure of $20,000 is immediately called for, to put Yale College Library in a condition at all commensurate with the position of the institution, and the wants of those who gather about it as the centre of their literary labors. Some of our younger colleges,

which occupy most important positions, as the leading institutions in States which are even now in fact empires-States which, even now, count their population almost by millions, are furnished with some two or three thousand refuse books from private collections; and this is the best library to be had within hundreds of miles in any direction.

This being the state of the case, we feel it to be due to the cause of truth and sound learning-nay, more, to the cause of Christ and of his Church, to offer some considerations in respect to the importance of well-furnished libraries to colleges, and particularly to colleges at the West.

The first consideration which we would name is the fact, unquestioned and indisputable, that the instructors in all these institutions testify with one voice, that libraries are absolutely essential to the successful prosecution of their official duties.

We hardly need say, that this testimony deserves to be received, and if no other argument could be presented, this ought to be decisive. No maxim is more generally received by practical men than this: "that every man understands his own business best." It is allowed to every class of men in business, to the manufacturer, the merchant and the mechanic, to take the liberty of judging what facilities he needs, to accomplish his own plans; and we confide in his judgment, when it is given, as being the judg'ment of one whose opinion on such a point is all for which we ask. In the case of the merchant, we do not wait till we are instructed as to the necessity of employing this or that particular clerk, or of establishing this or that agency; but we code in the knowledge which the merchant does possess, and which we do not, of the details of his business.

The mechanic is left by every man of sense and discretion, to decide for himself, in respect to every facility which he considers requisite to the production or the finishing of articles of superior workmanship. We allow and expect him to expend large sums of money in the purchase of costly and nicely-finished tools-the use and importance of which we do not understand. The capitalist places hundreds of thousands of dollars at the command of the agent of a manufacturing corporation, or the engineer upon a Railroad, and does not hesitate to trust to each the details of the expenditures, even though a large portion is spent upon a waterwheel, a steam-engine, or upon complicated machinery, the relation of which to the final result, the capitalist cannot be expected fully to appreciate. Surely, then, it is not a great or uncommon confidence which we expect from the patrons of our colleges, when we ask them to trust the instructors of these institutions, in respect to the very great importance of a Library to themselves, in the discharge of those duties with which they are alone conversant, and of which they alone are the most competent judges.

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