Such are the frightful results to which the fairest mind may be led, when it introduces the refinements of logic into the discussions of duty; when, proposing to achieve some great good, whether in politics or religion, it conceives that the importance of the object authorizes a departure from the plain principles of morality, which regulate the ordinary affairs of life; and when, blending these higher interests with those of a personal nature, it becomes incapable of discriminating between them, and is led insensibly to act from selfish motives, while it fondly imagines itself obeying only the conscientious dictates of duty. [41]
With these events may be said to terminate the history of the Moors, or the Moriscoes, as henceforth called, under the present reign. Eight centuries had elapsed since their first occupation of the country; during which period they had exhibited all the various phases of civilization, from its dawn to its decline. Ten years had sufficed to overturn the splendid remains of this powerful empire; and ten more, for its nominal conversion to Christianity. A long century of persecution, of unmitigated and unmerited suffering, was to follow, before the whole was to be consummated by the expulsion of this unhappy race from the Peninsula. Their story, in this latter period, furnishes one of the most memorable examples in history, of the impotence of persecution, even in support of a good cause against a bad one. It is a lesson that cannot be too deeply pondered through every succeeding age. The fires of the Inquisition are, indeed, extinguished, probably to be lighted no more. But where is the land which can boast that the spirit of intolerance, which forms the very breath of persecution, is altogether extinct in its bosom?
FOOTNOTES
[1] Alpuxarras,—an Arabic word, signifying "land of warriors," according to Salazar de Mendoza. (Monarquía, tom. ii. p. 138.)
According to the more accurate and learned Conde, it is derived from an
Arabic term for "pasturage." (El Nubiense, Descripcion de España, p. 187.)
"La Alpuxarra, aquessa sierra que al Sol la cervis lavanta y que poblada de Villas, es Mar de peñas, y plantas, adonde sus poblaciones ondas navegan de plata."
Calderon, (Comedias, (Madrid, 1760,) tom. i. p. 353,) whose gorgeous muse sheds a blaze of glory over the rudest scenes.
[2] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 28.—Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. p. 239.—Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.— Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 159.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 338.—Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 12.
[3] If we are to believe Martyr, the royal force amounted to 80,000 foot and 15,000 horse; so large an army, so promptly brought into the field, would suggest high ideas of the resources of the nation; too high indeed to gain credit, even from Martyr, without confirmation.
[4] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 215.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 338.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 45.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1500.