Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/143

Rh contemporary, and who had more right to say that he had exhausted the universe, never speaks of weariness. The wisdom of Shemitic nations never rises above parables and proverbs. Arabian science and Arabian philosophy are often alluded to, and, in fact, during one or two centuries in the middle ages, the Arabs were our teachers; but it was only until we were acquainted with the Greek originals. This Arabian science and philosophy was only a puerile rendering of Greek science and philosophy. From the time when Greece herself reappeared, these pitiful versions became valueless; and it was not without cause that all scholars at the revival of letters commenced a real crusade against them. When closely examined, moreover, this Arabian science has nothing Arabian in it. Its foundation is purely Greek; among its originators there is not a single true Shemite; they were all Spaniards and Persians who wrote in Arabic. The philosophical part filled by the Jews in the middle ages was