How To Judge A Book

We knew that the Moslems, when they conqiiered Persia, found in that country an innumerable quautity of books and .scientific treatises, and that their general, Saad Ibn Abi Oueccas, asked Caliph Omar by letter if he would allow him to distribute those books among the true believers with the rest of the booty. Ornar answered him in these terras: "Throw thein into the water. If they contain anything which can guide men to the truth, we have received f rom God what will guide ns much better. If they contain errors, we shall be well rid of them, thank God." In conseqtTe'nce of this order the books were thrown into the water and the fire, and the literature and science of the sians