IN THE latter part of my sojourn in the Alhambra, I made frequent
descents into the Jesuits' Library of the University; and relished
more and more the old Spanish chronicles, which I found there bound in
parchment. I delight in those quaint histories which treat of the
times when the Moslems maintained a foothold in the Peninsula. With
all their bigotry and occasional intolerance, they are full of noble
acts and generous sentiments, and have a high, spicy, oriental flavor,
not to be found in other records of the times, which were merely
European. In fact, Spain, even at the present day, is a country apart,
severed in history, habits, manners, and modes of thinking, from all
the rest of Europe. It is a romantic country, but its romance has none
of the sentimentality of modern European romance; it is chiefly
derived from the brilliant regions of the East, and from the
high-minded school of Saracenic chivalry.
The Arab invasion and conquest brought a higher civilization and a
nobler style of thinking, into Gothic Spain. The Arabs were a
quick-witted, sagacious, proud-spirited, and poetical people and
were imbued with oriental science and literature. Wherever they
established a seat of power, it became a rallying place for the
learned and ingenious; and they softened and refined the people whom
they conquered. By degrees, occupancy seemed to give them an
hereditary right to their foothold in the land; they ceased to be
looked upon as invaders, and were regarded as rival neighbors.
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