is elsewhere susceptible, it begins to retrograde. The natural state of this great continent, determined largely by climatic and other physical conditions, is essentially and eternally barbarous. Unlike Europe, which has reaped something of value even from its misfortunes, and, by the example of its achievements in art and letters, subdued its very enemies, the institutions and influence of no polished people have ever impressed upon the natives of Africa any enduring traces. The astounding expansion of the Arab intellect--the crowning phenomenon of the Middle Ages--was as transitory in its effects upon them as the thrift and refinement of Carthage or the more solid and majestic influence of Rome. In some respects resembling Asia--whose voluptuous idleness tends inevitably to physical and mental degeneracy--Africa, with its vast mineral resources, its unsurpassed facilities for commercial intercourse, and its inexhaustible agricultural wealth, has--with the exception of Egypt, whose isolation rendered it practically a foreign country--been of little use to its inhabitants, alike incapable of appreciating these manifold advantages and of systematically employing them for their own benefit or for the general profit of mankind. CHAPTER IV THE VISIGOTHIC MONARCHY 507–712 Origin and Character of the Goths--Their Invasion of the Peninsula--Power of the Clergy--Ecclesiastical Councils--The Jews--The Visigothic Code--Profound Wisdom of Its Enactments--Provisions against Fraud and Injustice--Severe Penalties--Its Definition of the Law--Condition of the Mechanical Arts--Architecture--Byzantine Influence--Manufactures--Votive Crowns--Agriculture--Literature--Medicine--Slave Labor--Imitation of Roman Customs--Parallel between the Goths and the Arabs--Coincidence of Sentiments and Habits--Causes of National Decline--Permanent Influence of the Gothic Polity.