"They were the first to publish pharmacopoeias and dispensatories.
"In mechanics they determined the laws of falling bodies. They understood the mechanical powers, and the attraction of gravitation.
"They taught hydrostatics and determined the specific gravities of bodies.
"In optics they discovered that a ray of light did not proceed from the eye to an object—but from the object to the eye."
"They were manufacturers of cotton, leather, paper and steel.
"They gave us the game of chess.
"They produced romances and novels and essays on many subjects.
"In their schools they taught the modern doctrines of evolution and development." They anticipated Darwin and Spencer.
These people were not Christians. They were the followers, for the most part, of an impostor—of a pretended prophet of a false God. And yet while the true Christians, the men selected by the true God and filled with the Holy Ghost were tearing out the tongues of heretics, these wretches were irreverently tracing the orbits of the stars. While the true believers were flaying philosophers and extinguishing the eyes of thinkers, these godless followers of Mohammed were founding colleges, collecting manuscripts, investigating the facts of nature and giving their attention to science. Afterward the followers of Mohammed became the enemies of science and hated facts as intensely and honestly as Christians. Whoever has a revelation from God will defend it with all his strength—will abhor reason and deny facts.
But it is well to know that we are indebted to the Moors—to the followers of Mohammed—for having laid the foundations of modern science. It is well to know that we are not indebted to the church, to Christianity, for any useful fact.