too often been enlisted in the service of superstition. But the human
faculties are fortified by the art and practice of dialectics; the ten
predicaments of Aristotle collect and methodize our ideas, [59] and his
syllogism is the keenest weapon of dispute. It was dexterously wielded
in the schools of the Saracens, but as it is more effectual for the
detection of error than for the investigation of truth, it is not
surprising that new generations of masters and disciples should still
revolve in the same circle of logical argument. The mathematics are
distinguished by a peculiar privilege, that, in the course of ages, they
may always advance, and can never recede. But the ancient geometry, if I
am not misinformed, was resumed in the same state by the Italians of
the fifteenth century; and whatever may be the origin of the name, the
science of algebra is ascribed to the Grecian Diophantus by the modest
testimony of the Arabs themselves. [60] They cultivated with more
success the sublime science of astronomy, which elevates the mind of
man to disdain his diminutive planet and momentary existence. The costly
instruments of observation were supplied by the caliph Almamon, and the
land of the Chaldaeans still afforded the same spacious level, the same
unclouded horizon. In the plains of Sinaar, and a second time in those
of Cufa, his mathematicians accurately measured a degree of the great
circle of the earth, and determined at twenty-four thousand miles the
entire circumference of our globe. [61] From the reign of the Abbassides
to that of the grandchildren of Tamerlane, the stars, without the aid
of glasses, were diligently observed; and the astronomical tables of
Bagdad, Spain, and Samarcand, [62] correct some minute errors, without
daring to renounce the hypothesis of Ptolemy, without advancing a step
towards the discovery of the solar system. In the Eastern courts, the
truths of science could be recommended only by ignorance and folly,
and the astronomer would have been disregarded, had he not debased his
wisdom or honesty by the vain predictions of astrology. [63] But in the
science of medicine, the Arabians have been deservedly applauded. The
names of Mesua and Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are ranked with
the Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight hundred and sixty
physicians were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession: [64]
in Spain, the life of the Catholic princes was intrusted to the skill
of the Sar