Agriculture shows it in better methods of irrigation, the skillful employment of manures, the raising of improved breeds of cattle, the enactment of wise codes of rural laws, the introduction of the culture of rice, and that of sugar and coffee.

The manufactures show it in the great extension of the industries of silk, cotton, wool; in the fabrication of cordova and morocco leather, and paper; in mining, casting, and various metallurgic operations; in the making of Toledo blades.
Passionate lovers of poetry and music, they dedicated much of their leisure time to those elegant pursuits.

They taught Europe the game of chess; they gave it its taste for works of fiction--romances and novels.
In the graver domains of literature they took delight: they had many admirable compositions on such subjects as the instability of human greatness; the consequences of irreligion; the reverses of fortune; the origin, duration, and end of the world.

Sometimes, not without surprise, we meet with ideas which we flatter ourselves have originated in our own times.

Thus our modern doctrines of evolution and development were taught in their schools.