Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/180

 If the Learning of these Ancient Chaldeans came as near that of the Arabs as their Countries did, one may give a very good Judgment of its Extent. Sir William Temple observes, that Countries little exposed to Invasions, preserve Knowledge better than others that are perpetually harrassed by a Foreign Enemy; and by Consequence, whatsoever Learning the Arabs had, they kept; unless we should suppose that they lost it through Carelesness. We never read of any Conquests that pierced into the Heart of Arabia the Happy, Mahomet's Country, before the Beginning of the Saracen Empire. It is very strange therefore, if, in its Passage through this noble Country, inhabited by a sprightly, ingenious People, Learning, like Quick-Silver, should run through, and leave so few of its Influences behind it. It is certain that the Arabs were not a learned People when they over-spread Asia: So that when afterwards they translated the Grecian Learning into their own Language, they had very little of their own, which was not taken from those Fountains. Their Astronomy and Astrology was taken from Ptolemee, their Philosophy from Aristotle, their Medicks from Galen; and so on. Aristotle and Euclid were first translated