The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1873-01-25

The speaker believes it viii bedone in
this generation (Applause.) Their adj
vancements in astronomy is proof that
they were at high position in science.
When Europe was no better than CAT
fraria they gave us their g mathematical
construction of the heavens. Laplace
found use of some of their observations;
yet at the time these were made the
Europeans thought that the world was
square Terrestrial globes were IN use
among them. They discovered the
pendulum clock and the true length Of
the year. measured the height of the
atmosphere and understood the twink
ling of the stars. They built the first
observatory mt Seville. They saw far
into physics, made tables of specific
GRANTEES. Ia optics, they corrected the
Greek theories. They explained how
we see singly looking from two eyes.
They introduced nee, cotton, morocco,
sugar, coffee, STEEL blades into Europe,
and lastly the Arabian horse. They
made the gran the standard of
weight, and used the word 'carat. In
their scientific books there is a current
of true devotion 10 Deity. They min
gled all their discoveries with implora-
tons for blessings from heaven. Thsir
philosophical opinions, as a curiosity at
least, are interesting In spite of their
fatalism their best philosophers rest on
kla co. f k1.ak flarn1r
on something that existed previous to
it. This world being a thing of life,
they say it must have been produced
and maintained by living being They
believe that God viii finally absorb all
things. These ideas pervaded all
Europe after awhile; even Wickliffe
was tinctured with them. The Francis
cans adopted them; the Dominicans
hated them In the thirteenth century
Paris was their headquarters, and they
were all the fashion in Venice Colum-
bus was first led by an Arabian book to
believe that there existed western
hemisphere. If from Rome as a center
a line be drawn to the Bosphorus and
another to the Pyrenees, we may say
that throughout the middle ages the
darkness of Ignorance lay above these
lines; the light of intelligence and the
comforts of civilization below. The
two regions were in deadly enmity.
The Southern nations were repositories
of old-time knowledge. This passed
into France through the gates of the
Pyrenees. It began in the light itera-
ture of Lassos Petrarch and Ariosto.
Then came the weightier sciences. Lit
erary and scientific tidal waves swept
up from the South, though bitterly OPP
posed by the churchmen as political
necessity How feeble their resistance
TO the current of events Those who in
this day have been its handmade of
science can afford TO give due credit to
their predecessors Of the Noslem faith.
The cry of the Crusaders has too long
outlived the Crusades. Let us do JUS
tice to the noble Moslem for all those
scientific achievements which history
credits hin with. Science was feeble "a
century ago Now she IS strong. Judge
her by her acts. Her manufactures,
steam, telegraphs, telescopes. micro
scopes, spectroscopes are creating a rev
olution il all modern thought She is
all the questions of the mod
ern mind. In another century she viii
have unified the human race. In her
present day of power let her be just to
those who protected her in her infancy.