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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

This suddenly raised power was, as before observed, entirely founded onmilitary exertions, and the same system which had given it birth was pursuedfor its nourishment, till a change of circumstances of necessity caused the em-ployment of a maritime force. Some centuries, however, passed away ere thisnecessity arose. But the minds of this extraordinary people appeared mostpeculiarly adapted to such uncommon exertions of the mind, as might be nearlytermed prodigies. So early as the reign of Salaha’ddin, who was in the height ofhis career more than ten years before the conclusion of the twelfth century,they possessed ships of enormous size, and appear to have been not meanlyskilled in naval tactics. Richard Coeur de Lion, king of England, sunk oneof their vessels having fifteen hundred men on board, a success which fullyestablishes the first fact, and the total defeat of an armada belonging to theFranks on the Red Sea by a Saracen fleet, fitted out through the exertions ofSalaha’ddin’s brother, stands as a sufficient proof of the latter. Still, however,these instances of energy appear not as the natural production of a well esta-blished system, but as exotic plants, which tended more to the pleasure than theadvantage of the industrious rearer, and seemed as though exhibited rather asproofs of the height to which his art could extend in aid of nature, than as thegenuine or unforced productions of herself. Still prejudiced in favour of military-prowess, the means which had raised them into consequence, the Saracens, theOttomans, (or by whatever other name the chieftains under whose rule andguidance the Mahometan armies acted are to be most properly distinguished)entered not with natural avidity into nautical pursuits till the fury of the crusadershad in great measure abated; and the followers of the pretended prophet, satisfiedas to that extent of country where they had, by various means, established hisKoran as containing the tenets of the true religion, sat down sufficiently satedwith success, and acquired sufficient leisure to enjoy the blessings of peace.

In the northern and less genial latitudes, the science appears cither to havelain dormant, or at least to have been destitute of those aids which are neces-sary to preserve to posterity the remembrance of transactions which have takenplace beyond the reach of human recollection, or at most of oral tradition.The Russians seem to have been content with directing all their naval efforts,in the ages past, against the treasures and luxuries of the Grecian empire, andin other respects rested quiet in their own country, leaving the navigation ofthe stormy Baltic to be the renewed undertaking of subsequent ages. Swedenfollowed the example of its neighbouring country, or was in the same predica-ment