Their career of
conquest, from the rock of Gibraltar to the cliffs of the Pyrenees,
was as rapid and brilliant as the Moslem victories of Syria and Egypt.
Nay, had they not been checked on the plains of Tours, all France, all
Europe, might have been overrun with the same facility as the
empires of the East, and the crescent at this day have glittered on
the fanes of Paris and London.
Repelled within the limits of the Pyrenees, the mixed hordes of Asia
and Africa, that formed this great irruption, gave up the Moslem
principle of conquest, and sought to establish in Spain a peaceful and
permanent dominion. As conquerors, their heroism was only equalled
by their moderation; and in both, for a time, they excelled the
nations with whom they contended. Severed from their native homes,
they loved the land given them as they supposed by Allah, and strove
to embellish it with every thing that could administer to the
happiness of man. Laying the foundations of their power in a system of
wise and equitable laws, diligently cultivating the arts and sciences,
and promoting agriculture, manufactures, and commerce; they
gradually formed an empire unrivalled for its prosperity by any of the
empires of Christendom; and diligently drawing round them the graces
and refinements which marked the Arabian empire in the East, at the
time of its greatest civilization, they diffused the light of Oriental
knowledge, through the Western regions of benighted Europe.
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