to the catastrophe, when the "iniquity" of the Ninevites was "full;" and generations, in solemn train, have seen the proud city at length sacked and destroyed by its united foes. All this has been, to the wise and the good, the rudiment of the last great account. Of all the chapters in the long-lost history of Assyria, it may be safely asserted, none could be more amazing, none fraught with deeper lessons of instruction, none more adapted to stain the pride of human glory, than those which Inspiration has graven, as with a pen of iron and lead, on monuments more lasting than Corinthian brass, and firmer than the "rocks" which "resist the billows and the sky." Eager to reach the scene of such events, we yet pause to say a word in regard to a former theological Dispensation. We talk of Judaism as if it had been merely LOCAL. Do we not, in this way, multiply the difficulties of a very grave question?-The temple on Moriah was called A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE. It had its spacious Court of the Gentiles, and (in its later times especially) its hosts of proselytes. Its central position fitted it to be, in a most important sense, the lighthouse of the world. Sion's prophets carried the "burden" of all surrounding tribes. Communities, remote as well as near, were brought into remarkable contact with the elect nation,-though, by reason of its simply rural pursuits and its religious isolation, it seemed not likely to attract their regard. On the whole, ought we not to qualify some of our statements, bearing on the past dealings of Providence and Grace with the children of men? Is not the mission of JONAH-which is introduced without any special note of the marvellous—a strong suggestion that the light of Judah was intended to spread far beyond the Promised Land,-to play at once, with more than solar bounty, on the Westward shores of the Mediterranean, and to the farthest East? But we leave this alluring subject. Dr. Layard's modesty wins the reader's esteem; but, though he pleads literary inexperience, the manner in which his task is executed needs no apology. Earnest, lively, graphic, he charms us in no ordinary degree. His introductory passages relate to prior labours in the same field. Modern criticism is altogether sceptical as to any Assyrian history by Herodotus; and of Ctesias, whatever little regard may be due to him, a few fragments only are preserved. In later writers we have a few gleams of information; but the authorities are various, and often quite doubtful. The attempt to obtain a list of Assyrian monarchs has been vain: yet, from Ninus to Sardanapalus, thirty generations passed away. In the dim distance, Ninus and Semiramis have expanded into heroic, and even divine, proportions; but who has preserved the names of their successors? So thick are the mists of this antiquity, that modern scholars have varied, by a thousand years, in assigning the principal dates. Why do they call their fragmentary materials HISTORY? The men of Nineveh are seen, indeed, by other and reflected lights. In their Westward campaigns the Jews were implicated. We accordingly read, in the sacred pages, the names of some of the later Assyrian monarchs. Still the general history of their Empire receives little illustration. Its glories have faded away. The site of its towers and palaces has been for many ages unknown. Thousands of years has the bright sun risen on shapeless mounds and heaps of ruin, where once glowed the pride of beauty and all the splendours of oriental royalty. And, while a hundred generations have chased each other to the grave, "the voice of harpers" has been "heard no more at all," and "the sound of a millstone" has been "heard no more at all," and "the light of a candle" has shone "no more at all," and "the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride" has been "heard no more at all," in the place that formerly gave laws to the earth, but dared to sin against THE GOD OF HEAVEN. Years ago Mr. Rich, of Baghdad, was led to examine the ruins of Babylon. The result was given to the European public from Vienna, in the Mines de l'Orient," and in a subsequent publication. He was next attracted (in 1820) to the great mounds opposite Mosul. A sculpture, exhumed some time before, had been utterly destroyed by Mohammedan zeal, inasmuch as the figures had been pronounced by the Ulema "idols of the infidels." This by no means quenched Mr. Rich's curiosity; but fragments of pottery, a small stone chair, and a few bricks inscribed with cuneiform characters, seemed a poor reward for his toil. He noted the circumference of the largest mound of the group,-7,690 feet; but little thought that there were buried the palaces of the Assyrian Kings. Small as was the result of his examinations, it must be remembered that these fragments were subsequently placed in the British Museum, and formed the principal, and indeed almost only, collection of Assyrian antiquities in Europe. A case scarcely three feet square enclosed all that remained, not only of the great city, Nineveh, but of Babylon itself." Referring to the autumn of 1839 and the following winter, Dr. Layard says, Chaldæa. With these names are linked After a I had traversed Asia Minor and Syria, visiting the ancient seats of civilisation, and the spots which religion has made holy. I now felt an irresistible desire to penetrate to the regions beyond the Euphrates, to which history and tradition point as the birthplace of the wisdom of the West. Most travellers, after a journey through the usually frequented parts of the East, have the same longing to cross the great river, and to explore those lands which are separated on the map from the confines of Syria by a vast blank stretching from Aleppo to the banks of the Tigris. A deep mystery hangs over Assyria, Babylonia, and On the 10th of April, 1840, Mr. Layard and his companion entered Mosul; and they hastened to visit the now far-famed mounds near it, but beyond the Tigris. In that deep solitude, they could not fail to reflect that they stood in the midst of ruins on which Xenophon and his unfortunate Ten Thousand gazed twenty-two centuries ago, and which were even then the remains of an ancient city. Were the traveller to cross the Euphrates to seek for such ruins in Mesopotamia and Chaldæa as he had left behind him in Asia Minor or Syria, his search would be vain. The graceful column rising above the thick foliage of the myrtle, ilex, and oleander; the gradines of the amphitheatre covering a gentle slope, and overlooking the dark blue waters of a lake-like bay; the richly carved cornice or capital half hidden by the luxuriant herbage, are replaced by the stern shapeless mound rising like a VOL. VI.-FOURTH SERIES. (Vol. i., pp. 2, 3.) hill from the scorched plain, the frag- F the Roman and the Greek, have left no visible traces of their civilisation, or of their arts their influence has long since passed away. The more he conjectures, the more vague the results appear. The scene around is worthy of the ruin he is contemplating: desolation meets desolation; a feeling of awe succeeds to wonder; for there is nothing to relieve the mind, to lead to hope, or to tell of what has gone by. These huge mounds of Assyria made a deeper impression upon me, gave rise to more serious thoughts and more earnest reflection, than the temples of Balbec and the theatres of Ionia. In the middle of April I left Mosul for Baghdad. As I descended the Tigris on a raft, I again saw the ruins of Nimroud, and had a better opportunity of examining them. It was evening as we approached the spot. The spring rains had clothed the mound with the richest verdure, and the fertile meadows, which stretched around it, were covered with flowers of every hue. Amidst this luxuriant vegetation were partly concealed a few fragments of bricks, pottery, and alabaster, upon which might be traced the well-defined wedges of the cuneiform character. Did not these remains mark the nature of the ruin, it might have been confounded with a natural eminence. A long line of consecutive narrow mounds, still retaining the appearance of walls or ramparts, stretched from its base, and formed a vast quadrangle. The river flowed at some distance from them: its waters, swollen by the melting of the snows on the Armenian hills, were broken into a thousand foaming whirlpools by an artificial barrier, built across the stream. On the eastern bank the soil had been washed away by the current; but a solid mass of masonry still withstood its impetuosity. The Arab, who guided my small raft, gave himself up to religious ejaculations as we approached this formidable cataract, over which we were carried with some violence. Once safely through the danger, he explained to me that this unusual change in the quiet face of the river was caused by a great dam which had been built by Nimrod, and that in the autumn, before the winter rains, the huge stones of which it was constructed, squared, and united by cramps of iron, were frequently visible above the surface of the stream. It was, in fact, one of those monuments of a great people, to be found in all the rivers of Mesopotamia, which were undertaken to ensure a constant supply of water to the innumerable canals, spreading like net-work over the surrounding country, and which, even in the days of Alexander, were looked upon as the works of an ancient nation. No wonder that the traditions of the present inhabitants of the land should assign them to one of the Founders of the human race! The Arab explained the connexion between the dam and the city built by Athur, the lieutenant of Nimrod, the vast ruins of which were then before us, and of its purpose as a causeway for the mighty hunter to cross to the opposite palace, now represented by the mound of Hammum Ali. He was telling me of the histories and fate of the kings of a primitive race, still the favourite theme of the inhabitants of the plains of Shinar, when the last glow of twilight faded away, and I fell asleep as we glided onward to Baghdad. (Pp. 6—9.) In the summer of 1842 Mr. Layard again saw Mosul. M. Botta had now been named French Consul there, and had begun certain excavations in the large mound, Kouyunjik. Corresponding from the Turkish capital with this Frenchman, Mr. Layard urged him to proceed, and to extend his researches as far as the mound of Nimroud. This, however, M. Botta was not prepared to undertake; but to him is due, as Mr. Layard with generous frankness insists, the honour of having found the first Assyrian monument. It was at Khorsabad, near the Kurdish mountains. The event is too interesting, especially in its bearing on subsequent investigations, to be passed over. This remarkable discovery owed its origin to the following circumstances. The small party employed by M. Botta were at work on Kouyunjik, when a peasant from a distant village chanced to visit the spot. Seeing that every fragment of brick and alabaster uncovered by the workmen was carefully preserved, he asked the reason of this strange proceeding. On being informed that they were in search of sculptured stones, he advised them to try the mound on which his village was built, and in which, he declared, many such things had been exposed. M. Botta, having been frequently deceived by similar stories, was not at first inclined to follow the peasant's advice, but subsequently sent an agent and one or two workmen to the place. After a little opposition from the inhabitants, they were permitted to sink a well in the mound; and at a small distance from the surface they came to the top of a wall which, on digging deeper, they found to be built of sculptured slabs of gypsum. M. Botta, on receiving information of this discovery, went at once to the village, which was called Khorsabad. He directed a wider trench to be formed, and to be carried in the direction of the wall. He soon found that he had entered a chamber, connected with others, and surrounded by slabs of gypsum covered with sculptured representations of battles, sieges, and similar events. His wonder may easily be imagined. A new history had been suddenly opened to him the records of an unknown people were before him. He was equally at a loss to account for the age and the nature of the monument. The art shown in the sculptures, the dresses of the figures, the mythic forms on the walls, were all new to him, and afforded no clue to the epoch of the erection of the edifice, and to the people who were its founders. Numerous inscriptions, accompanying the bas-reliefs, evidently contained the explanation of the events thus recorded in sculpture. They were in the cuneiform, or arrowheaded, character. The nature of these inscriptions was at least evidence that the building belonged to a period preceding the conquests of Alexander; for it was generally admitted that, after the subjugation of the west of Asia by the Macedonians, the cuneiform writing ceased to be employed. But too little was then known of this character to enable M. Botta to draw any inference from the peculiar arrangement of the wedges, which distinguishes the varieties used in different countries. However, it was evident that the monument appertained to a very ancient and very civilised people; and it was natural from its position to refer it to the inhabitants of Nineveh, a city, which, although it could not have occupied a site so distant from the Tigris, must have been in the vicinity of the place. M. Botta had discovered an Assyrian edifice, the first, probably, which had been exposed to the view of man since the fall of the Assyrian empire. (Pp. 10–12.) This building had been destroyed by fire; and now the action of the air on the gypsum slabs seemed destined to complete its ruin, and for ever to efface its records of ancient glory. Nearly everything disinterred fell to pieces. A hasty pencil could scarcely copy the forms as they came to light, and at that time there seemed to be no other way of arresting the fugitive beauties. M. Botta communicated at once with Mr. Layard, and with the "Académie" of France. Funds were placed at his disposal; and a skilful artist was sent out to sketch the objects that could not be preserved. The result was a rich collection of Assyrian sculpture. Mr. Layard's opinion on the antiquity and origin of the edifice uncovered at Khorsabad, first appeared in the "Malta Times,”—an early glimpse of the theory, now pretty generally held, that this monument may be connected "with the second dynasty of Assyrian Kings, or with one of those monarchs, Essaraddon * or Sennacherib, who extended his conquests over the greater part of Asia." But Nineveh was yet undiscovered; and Mr. Layard was fired with intense desire to explore its site. Nimroud was uppermost in his thoughts; and, in the autumn of 1845, Sir Stratford Canning's munificence encouraged him to proceed. "Anxious to reach the end of my journey," says he, "I crossed the mountains of Pontus and the great steppes of the Usun Yilak as fast as post-horses could carry me, descended the high lands into the valley of the Tigris, galloped over the vast plains of Assyria, and reached Mosul in twelve days." Not less prudent than enthusiastic, he waited on Mohammed Pasha, the uncouth and cruel governor of the Province. (It is sufficiently amusing to hear that this rapacious fellow insisted on tooth-money,-a pecuniary compensation, "levied upon all vil * Mr. Layard's spelling is followed. lages in which a man of such rank is entertained, for the wear and tear of his teeth in masticating the food he condescends to receive from the inhabitants.") This important person was most curious to know what had brought the stranger from the far West; but it was expedient to use a little reserve. With the least possible stir, and with very few attendants, Mr. Layard made for Nimroud. He was so fortunate as to engage the services of Awad, a sheikh of the Jehesh, who was acquainted with the ruins. Awad was to superintend the workmen. But here let us take a sample of the tales current among the Arab villagers who roam about the ruins of a mighty city,-tales which are read or recited during the winter nights, and accounted too "religious" to be commonly told to strangers. "The palace," said Awad, "was built by Athur, the Kiayah, or lieutenant of Nimrod. Here the holy Abraham, peace be with him! cast down and brake in pieces the idols which were worshipped by the unbelievers. The impious Nimrod, enraged at the destruction of his gods, sought to slay Abraham, and waged war against him. But the prophet prayed to God, and said, 'Deliver me, O God, from this man, who worships stones, and boasts himself to be the lord of all beings;' and God said to him, 'How shall I punish him?' And the prophet answered, To Thee armies are as nothing, and the strength But and power of men likewise. Before the The all-believing sheikh soon found six Arabs to work. And now, to quote Mr. Layard, Nimroud broke like a distant mountain on the morning sky. But how changed was the scene since my former visit! The ruins were no longer covered with verdure and many-coloured flowers; no sign of habitation, not even the black tent of the Arab, was seen upon the plain. The eye wandered over a parched and barren waste, across which occasionally swept the whirlwind dragging with it a cloud of sand. About a mile from us was the small village of Nimroud, like Naifa, a heap of ruins. (Pp. 23-26.) The Arabs marvelled at our countryman; but soon, among "handfuls of rubbish," appeared the fragments of a bas-relief,—then, a large alabaster slab, and a second, and a third, and ten more; together forming a square, with one stone wanting at the north-west corner. The break was, obviously, the entrance to the chamber. At the south-west corner were pieces of calcined alabaster. Inscriptions in cuneiform were quickly exposed. Piercing the side of the mound, the excavators came to a wall, similarly inscribed. All things promising so well, five Turcomans of Selamiyah were added to the laborious band. "Before evening," says Mr. Layard, "I found myself in a room built of slabs about eight feet high, and varying from six to four feet in breadth, placed upright and closely fitted together." Several ivory ornaments were here picked up : |