r elegant amenities found their way into Spain from all adjoining
countries; a practice in subsequent years still more indulged in, when
it became illustrated by the brilliant success of Gerbert, who, as we
have seen, passed from the Infidel University of Cordova to the papacy
of Rome.

[Sidenote: The Arabian school system.] The khalifs of the West carried
out the precepts of Ali, the fourth successor of Mohammed, in the
patronage of literature. They established libraries in all their chief
towns; it is said that not fewer than seventy were in existence. To
every mosque was attached a public school, in which the children of the
poor were taught to read and write, and instructed in the precepts of
the Koran. For those in easier circumstances there were academies,
usually arranged in twenty-five or thirty apartments, each calculated
for accommodating four students; the academy being presided over by a
rector. In Cordova, Granada, and other great cities, there were
universities frequently under the superintendence of Jews; the
Mohammedan maxim being that the real learning of a man is of more public
importance than any particular religious opinions he may entertain. In
this they followed the example of the Asiatic khalif, Haroun al Raschid,
who actually conferred the superintendence of his schools on John Masue,
a Nestorian Christian. The Mohammedan liberality was in striking
contrast with the intolerance of Europe. Indeed, it may be doubted
whether at this time any European nation is sufficiently advanced to
follow such an example. In the universities some of the professors of
polite literature gave lectures on Arabic classical works; others taught
rhetoric or composition, or mathematics, or astronomy. From these
institutions many of the practices observed in our colleges were
derived. They held Commencements, at which poems were read and orations
delivered in presence of the public. They had also, in addition to these
schools of general learning, professional ones, particularly for
medicine.

[Sidenote: Cultivation of grammar, rhetoric, composition.] With a pride
perhaps not altogether inexcusable, the Arabians boasted of their
language as being the most perfect spoken by man. Mohammed himself, when
challenged to produce a miracle in proof of the authenticity of his
mission, uniformly pointed to the composition of the Koran, its
unapproachable excellence vindicating its inspiration. The orthodox
Moslems--the Moslems are