This was doubtless only one of many such incidents. Every Crusader must have recognized the difference between what they had anticipated and what they had found. They had seen undaunted courage, chivalrous bearing, intellectual culture and {64} religious toleration far greater than their own. When the Crusaders returned to their native lands, they carried with them the memory of their experiences, and a relish for more polished manners and a higher civilization than that to which they had been accustomed at home. Hence, immediately after the Crusades the arts and sciences began to be sedulously cultivated in Europe. They had departed with the intent of conquering, aye even exterminating their enemies; but by contact with those enemies they had learned in some things "a more excellent way." The words of the Koran inscribed on the banner of Saladin are true: "There is no conqueror but God!" Equally true the words written by the Prophet Esdras, as he sat by the side of the willow-fringed river of Babylon more than twenty-three hundred years ago: "As for truth, it endureth and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore," (see Apocrypha, I. Esdras, iv., 38). CHAPTER VII. THE DAWN OF MODERN INTELLIGENCE. THE MORNING DAWNS--RISE OF KNIGHTHOOD--PRINCIPLES OF KNIGHTS--APOSTATE PRIESTS HELD IN CONTEMPT--WALDENSES--PERSECUTIONS IN SOUTHERN FRANCE--RISE OF THE INQUISITION--LIBERAL POLICY OF FREDERICK--"EVERLASTING GOSPEL"--ITS REMARKABLE TEACHINGS--BACON'S DISCOVERIES--GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE--AZORES AND CANARY ISLANDS--TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO--CONDITION OF EUROPEAN STATES--MODERN STATES. Those who have waited for the dawning of the morning in the latter part of a clear summer night, can understand the delight experienced at the first tokens of approaching day. At first the rays of light are very faint and only perceptible to a keen and experienced eye. As time wears on the timid approach of twilight becomes more perceptible. The intense blue of the sky begins to soften. The rays that first darted up {65} in the far north-east, though occasionally intercepted by mountains or banks of clouds, gradually swing around to the east. The darkness of the night dissolves into the glories of the dawn. The great watch-stars fade away, one by one. The whole firmament is filled with the inflowing tides of morning light. At length a stream of golden sunlight flashes out from above the hills and turns the dewy tear-drops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. Thus the king of day begins his course arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man.