A DEGENERATE RACE,

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 77

A DEGENERATE RACE,

Bt k Banker.

Thai ancient and once powerful semHic N race, the Moors, when in their prime were in many respects far in advance of any Western nation tben existing, excelling them not only in architecture and in literature, but also in science. The florid and xichly ornate style of their architecture hat perhaps never been surpassed, the enrichments and raany-hued embellishments- oi the wonderful Albambr* at Granada, as an example, being probably more brilliant and gorgeous than those of any other building ever erected upon this earth, while many other of the sumptuous palaces erected bj them — the splendid regal castle, for instance, at Cintra, near Lisbon, now a suminei palace of royalty — compare with almost any even modern structure. But the Moors are now a degenerate, a retrograde, and a declining race. The popu!aticn of the City of Morocco has de- . dined from 700,000 to about 60,000; while Tangiers, one of their most important towns, is, with the exception of the E-uto-pean. quarter, fihhy, undrained, and insanitary' to the last .degree. "The streets after rain are ankle deep in n. quagmire of offensive., pestiferous mud, and the place* reeks with foul and noiscme maJodours. The little shops are like packing-cases, tha lid -in front being raised during the dayv and lowered at night, the contents of many of them being but offensive garbage; while a'most the whole place has an aspect oi equa;or, neglect, nnd noxious impurity. And yet these same people were once v powerful nation, their Empire extending from Bagdad to the Atlantic, and their army equal, and perhaps superior in bravery, and equipment, to the troops of any of th:i "Western nation?, who dn vain for centuries strained every nerve to oust them from tta territories in Europe which they had usurped. But eventually they were, happily fo» civilisation and religion, driven out, and the decadence which had already cori* menoed becaona intensified and accelerated. But theu fall has been an untold boo.V to mankind. For what a terrible con-i templation 'if their career of conquest had advanced unchecked, and Europe had been laid under Moslem rule. But happily for the human race the Christian nations ar« now paramount almost everywhere through tho world, md the Saviour of the -world — H«« who, though Son of God, deigned for »i time to dwell on earth to suffer obloquy and scorn, and to give his life eterna' — i<* worshipped and adored. But, alas! w'\ sotre. Christianity is but a- form, devoic" aCtocet'cer of life-giving reality!