CHAPTER   THE   TWENTIETH
THE  FATE OF THE EMPIRE
 

FOR this concluding chapter there remains a task more
difficult than the description either of the rise or fall
of  that  decrepit   Power  which  now,  by courtesy alone,
retains the name of ''the Moorish Empire."    Some may
expect a fore-cast of the future, an attempt to
Historians           award the  coveted  prize, but such is not the

no Prophets.                                                                       ^

present writer's intention, which has been to—

" Write the deeds, and with unfeverish hand
W^eigh in nice scales the motives of the great."

The historian records experiences of the past to guide
in present action, and provides foundations on which others,
more ambitious, may build prophecy. His study is that of
natural forces, racial tendencies, and outside influences, as
exhibited in scenes gone by. His contribution to the
fore-cast of the future is a close acquaintance with the
hidden structure of the fabrics we call nations, for the
principles of history are, after all, those of histology. The
sciences are one, with varied application.

To trace the threads of the existing Moorish fabric back

into  the  staple  of the  past;   to  notice  the converging

The National       gossamcrs which, in due time united, formed the

Fabric.               ^eft and warp* of the nation; to observe the

* '' The warp consists of the threads of yarn which extend generally, but
not always, in parallel lines, from end to end, the whole length of the web.
The weft yarn crosses and intersects the warp at right angles, and fills up the
breadth of the web."

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