s theirs is the worse
method, and had they copied from us, they would have used the better
one" (Thomson's _British Annual_, 1837, p. 291). On the other hand, it
has been contended that a knowledge of the mariner's compass was
communicated by them directly or indirectly to the early Arabs, and
through the latter was introduced into Europe. Sismondi has remarked
(_Literature of Europe_, vol. i.) that it is peculiarly characteristic
of all the pretended discoveries of the middle ages that when the
historians mention them for the first time they treat them as things in
general use. Gunpowder, the compass, the Arabic numerals and paper, are
nowhere spoken of as discoveries, and yet they must have wrought a total
change in war, in navigation, in science, and in education. G.
Tiraboschi (_Storia della letteratura italiana_, tom. iv. lib. ii. p.
204, et seq., ed. 2., 1788), in support of the conjecture that the
compass was introduced into Europe by the Arabs, adduces their
superiority in scientific learning and their early skill in navigation.
He quotes a passage on the polarity of the lodestone from a treatise
translated by Albertus Magnus, attributed by the latter to Aristotle,
but apparently only an Arabic compilation from the works of various
philosophers. As the terms _Zoron_ and _Aphron_, used there to signify
the south and north poles, are neither Latin nor Greek, Tiraboschi
suggests that they may be of Arabian origin, and that the whole passage
concerning the lodestone may have been added to the original treatise by
the Arabian translators.

Dr W. Robertson asserts (_Historical Disquisition concerning Ancient
India_, p. 227) that the Arabs, Turks and Persians have no original name
for the compass, it being called by them _Bossola_, the Italian name,
which shows that the thing signified is foreign to them as well as the
word. The Rev. G. P. Badger has, however, pointed out (_Travels of
Ludovico di Varthema_, trans. J. W. Jones, ed. G. P. Badger, Hakluyt
Soc, 1863, note, pp. 31 and 32) that the name of Bushla or Busba, from
the Italian _Bussola_, though common among Arab sailors in the
Mediterranean, is very seldom used in the Eastern seas,--_Dairah_ and
_Beit el-Ibrah_ (the Circle, or House of the Needle) being the ordinary
appellatives in the Red Sea, whilst in the Persian Gulf
_Kiblah-n[=a]meh_ is in more general use. Robertson quotes Sir J.
Chardin as boldly asserting "that the Asiatics are beholden to us for
this w