The great mound of Kouyunjik, near Mosul, has been commonly taken for the site of Nineveh; but, on examination, Mr. Layard came to the conclusion that the remains there are more recent than the north-west palace of Nimroud.

Our author's episodes are deeply interesting.-The story of the Chaldæan Christians is most affecting. Kurdish cruelty, directed against them, knew no bounds. The sad case of these mountaineers might draw tears of pity from other eyes than those of the most fanatical among the disciples of the scimitar. Christian chiefs were cut in pieces, and their quivering limbs committed to the current of the river. Priests and dignitaries were exiled; many of them dying of grief. Of nearly a thousand souls, who had congregated in one of the rocky fastnesses, it is said that only one escaped. In violation of an oath taken on the Koran, the Kurds commenced a general slaughter;

till, weary of using their weapons, they hurled the few survivers from the heights into the Zab below. But, not to pursue this tragedy, let us glance at the surviving churches and their clergy.

We walked to the church, [sc., of the lately desolated Asheetha,] which had been newly constructed by the united exertions and labour of the people. The door was so low that a person, on entering, had to perform the feat of bringing his back to the level of his knees. The entrances to Christian churches in the East are generally so constructed, that horses and beasts of burden may not be lodged there by the Mohammedans. A few rituals, a book of prayer, and the Scriptures, all in manuscript, were lying upon the rude altar; but the greater part of the leaves were wanting, and those which remained were either torn into shreds, or disfigured by damp and water. The manuscripts of the churches were hid in the mountains, or buried in some secure place, at the time of the massacre; and as the priests, who had concealed them, were mostly killed, the books have not been recovered. A few English prints and handkerchiefs from Manchester were hung about the walls; a bottle and a glass, with a tin plate for the sacrament, stood upon a table; a curtain of coarse cloth hung before the inner recess, the Holy of Holies; and these were all the ornaments and furniture of the place. (P. 180.)

I was much affected by the unaffected hospitality and simple manners of the two priests, who entertained me [at Birijai; a third was absent. Their dress, torn and soiled, showed that they were poorer than their congregation. They had just returned from the vineyards, where they had been toiling during the day;

yet they were treated with reverence and respect; the upper places were given to them, they were consulted on all occasions, and no one drew nigh without kissing the hand, scarred by the plough and the implements of the field.

(P. 200.)

The following day being Sunday, we were roused at dawn to attend the service of the church. The two priests officiated in white surplices. The ceremonies were short and simple; a portion of Scripture was read, and then interpreted by Kasha Hormuzd in the dialect in use in the mountains, few understanding the Chaldæan of the books. His companion chanted the prayers, the congregation kneeling or standing, and joining in the responses. There were no idle forms or salutations......... The Sacrament was administered to all present,-men, women, and children partaking of the bread and wine, and my companion receiving it among the rest. They were disposed to feel hurt at my declining to join them, until I explained that I did not refuse from any religious prejudice. the service was ended, the congregation embraced one another, as a symbol of brotherly love and concord, and left the church. I could not but contrast these simple and primitive rites with the senseless mummery, and degrading forms, adopted by the converted Chaldæans of the plains, the unadorned and imageless walls, with the hideous pictures and monstrous deformities which encumber the churches of Mosul. (P. 201.)

When

Most delightful it is to find these ancient churches, secluded among the hills of Kurdistan. Many have been their vicissitudes; and heaven has doubtless received not a few Chaldæan martyrs and confessors. The community was never Romanised. It never willingly accepted the name of Nestorian, by the application of which missionaries from the Seven Hills intended to affix the brand of heresy. It was never exterminated. The vast plains irrigated by the Tigris and Euphrates, and by their numerous affluents, were not wholly swept of their ancient tenantry, either by Persian or Western aggressors. Early did the Chaldæans form an influential Church. Nestorius, of Constantinople, was mainly supported in the fifth century by the Eastern Bishops; and hence the East came to be regarded as the home of Nestorianism. But that term does not comprise the history of the Christians of Chaldæa. Mohammed himself is said to have respected them; and their skill and knowledge will quite account for the favour

* "Converted," be it understood, to all-grasping Romanism.-REVIEWER,

received from the Caliphs throughout the days of Arabian ascendency. In famous schools, and under the shadow of these churches, flourished the studies of Chaldee, and Syriac, and Greek,—with dialectics, poetry, music, geometry, and medicine. Edessa, Seleucia, and other Colleges, were the. lights of the East. There the Saracen kindled his torch. He learned to be ashamed of the illiteracy which his "Prophet" had made matter of boasting; though he still wished to make a little philosophy servile to his faith. He could not forego his claim to the profession of Islamism; that is, as the term significantly imports, of resignation. But he received the learning of Athens from Christian scholars. Aristotle and Galen, already translated into Chaldee, were now rendered from the Chaldee into Arabic. And more than this. "Nestorian Christianity (to accept the epithet, pro hac vice, from HUMBOLDT)" was enabled to penetrate far into Eastern Arabia under the protection of armed Islam."* On the other hand, the Truth was diffused, by the same instrumentality, among those who were destined to overturn the dynasty of "the Prophet," and to seize the treasures of Baghdad. The design of evangelizing the world is no novelty. There were churches in Chaldæa, that formed a great Missionary Society. Their agencies spread from the shores of the Caspian to the Chinese Seas, and from the ices of Scythia to Cape Comorin. Twenty-five metropolitan bishops looked up to the Chaldæan Patriarch; and it is deeply interesting to add, that all these sent to their Primate, every sixth year, a renewed confession of their faith, and a report of the state of their churches. Under the sovereigns who succeeded the Caliphs, and by the opposition of missionaries called 66 Catholic," ," this Patriarchate declined. Tamerlane wasted the Chaldæans with unsparing fury. But a remnant of this early Christian people fled to the heights of Kurdistan; and there its simple sanctuaries have long stood. In the judgment of MOSHEIM, this section of the Church Militant is comparatively pure and primitive. It is not for us to plead for everything in its ritual; far less to disparage any portion of scriptural theology. Rather do we "tremble at " the infallible "WORD," and confess that THE TRUTH it conveys is ever most reverend. But, as Mr. Layard holds, these sufferers "have merited," in no inconsiderable degree, “the title of the Protestants of Asia."" To compass their destruction, Rome in her way hallowed contention, fraud, and murder; but it is certain that her rancour was mainly provoked by the Eastern abhorrence of Mariolatry, of Images, of Purgatory, and of Communion in one kind. It was too vexatious for endurance that a few Chaldæans could affirm the comparatively recent date of these Italian superstitions. Moreover, while Rome had nothing of catholicity but the name, these strange Easterns admitted Christians of all denominations to receive the holy Supper! Several of the Chaldæans having been subsequently employed on the mound at Nimroud, we just add Mr. Layard's account of them.

Two of the men walked to the village of Tel Yakoub, or to Mosul, on Saturday evening, to fetch flour for the whole party, and returned before the work of the day began on Monday morning; for they would not journey on the Sabbath. They kept their holidays and festivals

* COSMOS, ii. 5.

with as much rigour as they kept the Sunday. On these days they assembled on the mound or in the trenches; and one of the priests or deacons (for there were several amongst the workmen) repeated prayers, or led a hymn or chant. I often watched these poor creatures, as they rever

+ Nestorianism attributes two Persons, and not two Natures only, to CHRIST. Yet the Creed, repeated in the East twice a day, differs little from the Nicene.

entially knelt their heads uncovered_ under the great bulls, celebrating the praises of Him whose temples the worshippers of those frowning idols had destroyed,whose power they had mocked.

It was

the triumph of truth over Paganisın. Never had the triumph been more forcibly illustrated than by those who now bowed down in the crumbling halls of the Assyrian kings. (P. 364.)

It was gratifying to Mr. Layard to hear, on his return from the mountains, that the British Museum had received a grant toward the continuation of his researches. But, at that time, he had no draughtsman; and, while doing the best he could, he still longed for adequate help, that he might secure the more for the enriching of our national Collection. Thither, henceforth, the Assyrian remains will draw untold myriads, who will wonder that his single energy achieved so much. Arabs and Chaldæans,-. a marble-cutter, who was a Syrian Christian,—a carpenter, and a few others, from Mosul,-formed his company; for whom, the winter season approaching, he had to provide a place of shelter.

Unfortunately, [says he,] the only shower of rain that I saw during the remainder of my residence in Assyria, fell before my walls were covered in, and so saturated the bricks that they did not become again dry before the following spring. The consequence was, that the

only verdure on which my eyes were permitted to feast before my return to Europe, was furnished by my own property, the walls in the interior of the rooms being continually clothed with a crop of grass. (P. 331.)

The excavations were resumed on a bolder scale, and extended to parts yet unexamined. Many bas-reliefs were found, and these of the highest interest. Royalty and conquest; the devastations of war; vultures hovering on the blood-red field; triumphal processions, with various illustrative emblems; the castle and pavilion of the victors; festivities to signalise the occasion; sieges; forces crossing a river, in boats far superior to those which now, after a succession of 3,000 years, play on the Tigris ;—these, and other subjects, were afresh disclosed. The rubbish was found to contain a large quantity of iron, the very scaling of the armour described in the reliefs; as well as shattered vases of most beautiful alabaster, with some of earth, and one of glass.

A kind of exfoliation had taken place in the glass vase, and it was incrusted with thin, semi-transparent laminæ, which glowed with all the brilliant colours of the opal. This beautiful appearance is a well-known result of age, and is frequently found on glass in Egyptian, Greek, and other early tombs. (P. 343.)

It was in the centre of the mound, however, that one of the most remarkable discoveries awaited me. I have already mentioned the pair of gigantic winged

On

bulls, first found there. They appeared
to form an entrance, and to be only part
of a large building. The inscriptions
upon them contained a name, differing
from that of the king who had built the
palace in the north-west corner.
digging further I found a brick, on which
was a genealogy, the new name occurring
first, and as that of the son of the founder
of the earlier edifice. This was, to a
certain extent, a clue to the comparative
date of the newly discovered building.
(P. 345.)

The trench was carried on, while the occurrence of imperfect remains promised better things. At length "a corner of black marble was uncovered," and proved to be "part of an obelisk, about six feet six inches in height, lying on its side, ten feet below the surface." This was a truly remarkable monument, sculptured on the four sides, and having an inscription of 210 lines. "From the nature of the" twenty "bas-reliefs, it is natural to conjecture that" the obelisk "was erected to commemorate the conquest of India, or of some country far to the east of Assyria, and on the

confines of the Indian Peninsula. The name of the king, whose deeds it appears to record, is the same as that on the centre bulls; and it is introduced by a genealogical list containing many other royal names." About the same time appeared, at the south-west corner, a pair of winged lions, differing from those of the north-west palace; a pair of crumbling sphinxes; and other remains, the state of which told that fire had raged in the building with amazing fury. "The plan and nature of the edifice was still a mystery. All the slabs hitherto uncovered had evidently been brought from another building; chiefly from that in the N.W. part of the mound." But a fortunate discovery "served to connect the latest palace at Nimroud with two other cities or edifices in Assyria; subsequently, with important monuments existing in other parts of Asia." In the S.E. corner of the mound, meanwhile, human remains came to light; and, first of all, a sarcophagus, with its skeleton-tenant,—the latter mouldering at once by contact of the air. "By its side were two jars in baked clay of a red colour, and a small alabaster bottle, all precisely resembling, in shape, similar vessels discovered in Egyptian tombs."

Here we pause. The reflections, inquiries, and comparisons which the subject invites, but into which our space has not allowed us to deviate, may well engage a few of the reader's January evenings. For the present we bid adieu to Mr. Layard, just as he has the satisfaction of seeing a raft floating down the river for Baghdad, laden with his invaluable collections in twenty-three cases, to be forwarded to their western destination.

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Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. By his Son-in-law, the Rev. William Hanna, LL.D. Vol. I. Published for Thomas Constable, by Sutherland and Knox, Edinburgh. Hamilton, Adams, and Co., London.-This volume is, on every account, entitled to immediate and prominent Notice. Any eulogy of ours is not, indeed, needed for its illustrious subject, whose name will be honoured as long as genius, eloquence, theological learning, and unquenchable zeal for the hallowing of all various science, attract the homage of mankind. At no distant period we hope to return to this important Biography; and, for this reason, our remarks are now few. Dr. Chalmers is happily allowed, in many parts of the narrative, to speak for himself; while

the task of love which devolves on his excellent Son-in-law is ably and gracefully executed. The work will extend to three volumes,-the one before us including "what may be regarded as the period of growth and preparation." It cannot but be most instructive to study the Life of such a man; to trace, as we are already enabled, "the education and discipline of his first thirty years, his early prejudices against the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel,-his devotedness to scientific pursuits,-the manner of his conversion, and his opening ministry at Kilmany,"—all of which tended, in the arrangements of Grace and Providence, to qualify him for that most influential career which followed. outward aspect of the volume reflects much credit on the Proprietor's taste,

The