294 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

great men, Florence is perhaps unrivalled by any city of the
ancient or modern world save Athens."1

Incomplete as this survey of medieval life in Europe must
remain (for obvious limitations of space) we cannot con-
clude the chapter without a few lines on the education and
literature of the Middle Ages.2 We have already observed
how the monasteries kept the torch of learning bright
through the Dark Ages, by preserving such of the ancient
knowledge as was accessible to them. Much of the Greek
wisdom, except that of Aristotle, had been temporarily lost
to Western Europe. Even the writings of Aristotle were fa-
miliarised through Arabic translations rendered into Latin
in the Spanish universities. Thanks to the teachings of
Muhammad, the early Muslims had cultivated learning with
the same zeal as they felt for their religion. The Prophet
had declared, " Acquire knowledge, it will enable you to dis-
tinguish right and wrong, it will light the way to heaven,
it will be your friend in the desert, your society in solitude,
your companion in loneliness, your guide to happiness, the
sustainer of your misery, the ornament among your friends,
and the armour against your enemies." Arab scholarship
in the universities of Cordoba and Toledo in Spain demon-
strated that the Moors had fully imbibed the spirit of this
exhortation.

Among the Christian princes we have noted too the ser-
vices rendered to education by Charlemagne. One writer
has justly observed, " Herein he (Charles the Great) takes

1. Myers, General History, p. 436.

2. For a fuller treatment of various aspects of medieval
life read The Legacy of the Middle Ages (Oxford U. Press),
Medieval Contributions to Modern Civilisation (Harraps), and
Medieval People by Eileen Power (Pelican Books).