the manner in which uncultivated nations still express their thoughts, there is some reason for supposing that the oldest records may have been a kind of pictures, or hieroglyphics, such as are found on Egyptian monuments. Out of these

may have originated those signs which express whole words at once, a mode of writing which continues common to the Chinese: next we have the characters which express merely syllables, as in Ethiopic: and lastly, alphabetical writing, which however was familiar to the Hebrews and the Greeks at a very early period; for Moses himself was well acquainted with it, see Exod. xvii. 14; and the ten commandments were. written with the finger of God on tables of stone. Writing on vellum might not have been quite so ancient, though, in the passage last cited, writing in a book is referred to. The science of astronomy likewise commenced in very early times; so early, that we know not whether the first observations of the starry heavens were put together by contemplative shepherds on the mountain pastures of Armenia, or by Phenician navigators. The Chaldean magi were familiar observers of the stars, though chiefly for astrological purposes; and hereby they became distinguished as a peculiar and privileged caste. The periodical inundations of the Euphrates and Tigris in Babylonia, and of the Nile in Egypt, made it requisite to form large canal banks, and other arrangements. This served to stir up the invention of many for engineering and great mechanical contrivances.

Social settlement in great cities, like those of Nineveh and Babylon, was soon attended with its natural consequence, a variety of luxuries; and the means for these were furnished by the traffic of Phenicia, which had become a general mart for the productions of all countries. While that nation was also distinguishing itself by the invention of glass, and the celebrated purple dye, Babylonia was no less celebrated for its improvements in the manufacture of leather, wool, and linen, and especially for its varieties of carpeting and tapestry, and its highly finished works in wood and ivory, metal, and precious stones. With this rising condition of arts and manufactures, was connected an increasing spread of commerce, which extended southward as far as India, westward to Phenicia, northward to Assyria and Armenia, and eastward into the mountainous districts of Asia. Thus every thing conspired to render Babylon the mistress of kingdoms.

Architecture likewise had attained great perfection at this period of the world, and its productions bore the characters of magnificence on a gigantic scale, even as did empire, warfare, and wickedness itself at the same period: whereas the more predominant characteristics of the succeeding age were those of taste and elegance; for then governments had become more concerned about domestic improvements, and the advancement of knowledge. Nineveh was a city of three days' journey in circumference, with walls of extraordinary height and breadth. Babylon, though

built only of brick, was above sixty or seventy miles in circuit; its walls were two hundred cubits high, and fifty cubits broad, with two hundred and fifty towers, and one hundred gates; and in the centre of the city stood the temple of Belus with its lofty tower. The wonderful buildings of ancient Egypt are well known; its pyramids, obelisks, temples, columns, and sepulchral monuments command still, even in their ruins, the admiration and the astonishment of travellers; although the lapse of four thousand years has half buried these vast relics in the sand. They, however, for the most part, consist of granite and marble; and where to look for the buildings upon which the Israelites in their long servitude were employed, as makers of bricks, is not sufficiently known. Similar to those of Egypt, and perhaps equally ancient, are the great Indian temples in Salsette and Ellore, which are hewn out of the native rock. All these works of architecture bespeak the character of those earlier times, when colossal bulk and extent were considered the expression of greatness; but when men had begun likewise to aim at combining utility, convenience,, and beauty with such great undertakings.

The Israelites were attentive to arts and manufactures; and many a recorded instance of their skill and ability would be found difficult of imitation, even at the present day. The works which Bezaleel and Aholiab, Exod. xxxv. 30-35, finished off in the wilderness, attest their great skill and knowledge. And the temple of Solomon

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could, in taste and sumptuousness, vie with every building of its time. Thus, if we closely examine, we shall find that, even in such things, Israel was the first of the nations; for although, at a period when measure or bulk was every thing, this nation was of insignificant size, yet it contained the glory of what is intellectual and spiritual; it had the promise of rising to something far greater and without end, and thus lived as it were above its time.

THE jealousy which had prevailed between the New-Assyrian and the Babylonian empires at length broke out into open war. Media was confederate with Babylon; and the Assyrians had leagued with themselves the maritime states of Phenicia, Philistia, and Egypt, which feared to be swallowed up if the power of Assyria were overthrown. A great battle between the Babylonians and the Egyptians, on the banks of the Euphrates, in the year 606 before Christ, in which the Egyptians sustained a total defeat, decided the fate of Assyria, and left Babylon the first power in the world. A year afterwards Nineveh was taken, the prophecy of Nahum fulfilled, and Assyria divided between the kingdoms of Media and Babylon. About this time Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne, a mighty king, of energetic character, with all the pride of an Asiatic conqueror and despot. The kingdom of Judah had long been enabled to maintain a peaceful contemporary existence, having either stood in alliance with the Babylonian monarch, or chosen neutral ground. But zealously as did