the ties of kindred would be rudely sundered, individuals would be involved in peril, and their numbers be prematurely thinned, at a time when population was weak and insufficient. The idea of preventing this dispersion by building a lofty tower, is applicable, in the most remarkable manner, to the wide and level plains of Babylonia, where scarcely one object exists different from another, to guide the traveller in his journeying; and which, in those early days, as at present, were a sea of land, the compass being then unknown.

It was not, however, a part of God's plan that society should yet be aggregated together in large masses, still less fix itself and spread out its branches on one sole spot of earth. The world had to be peopled; and, therefore, these first congregations of inen must go forth to the east, to the west, to the north, and to the south, in order that the earth might be occupied and tilled. Nor ean there be a doubt that such a dispersion was fitted to make the most for man, of the yet virgin soil, and the golden opportunities which offered themselves untouched on every side. As yet, however, there was but one language, - a fact which agrees not only with history, but also with the tendency of the most recent and best ascertained results of philological scholarship. But so long as men were united by language, the aggregative would be stronger than the dispersive power. Nothing so unites men as identity of speech: nothing so separates them as its diversity. Divine Providence, therefore, brought into operation causes, which occasioned such a difference in tongues, that these primitive men could no longer understand, and, in consequence, could no longer communicate with each other. And as it is easy to see how diverse external influences would, in a few generations, give rise to such different dialectical varieties as would be sufficient to produce the alleged effect in the then uncultivated state of the human mind, so these varieties, when they had once come into existence, would go on constantly increasing; and as they increased, so would they tend to scatter men abroad, dividing a race into tribes, and tribes into clans, and elans into households; and by a reverse operation, under the aid of the prolific powers of nature, augmenting households into clans, and clans into tribes, and tribes into races, and races into nations,-nations distantly seated on the face of the earth, and soon marked by many signs to the superficial observer of essential and original individuality.

On the right bank of the river Euphrates stand the ruins of an edifice, bearing the name of Birs Nimrod, which the best antiquarian authority identifies with the tower of Babel. Opinions, however, are divided as to the question, whether this Birs Nimrod is the same as the temple of Belus described by Herodotus; and though we incline to think

that the latter may have been a sumptuous re-construction of the earlier and more simple edifice, the tower of Babel, we shall give a separate description of the temple of Belus in the ensuing article. The Birs Nimrod is all that is left of an ancient palace, in which the Babylonian monarchs were accustomed to reside. These relics present at the present day a monument, of an irregular oblong in form, 2082 feet in circumference, unequal in height, being on the west from fifty to sixty feet, and as much as two hundred on the eastern side. This immense terrace is surmounted by remnants of a wall built of burnt brick, thirtyfive feet high, and divided into three stages. Its construction and its materials indicate interior apartments. Entire pieces of wall and heaps of brick, broken from the tower, lie seattered over the ground. Travellers have remarked, with lively astonishment and deep emotion, traces, on masses of brick, of vitrifaction, as if made by the violent action of fire or lightning,-evidences of some terrible overthrow, and, to the believer in the Bible, indelible tokens of the divine displeasure. An examination of these remains gives the idea that the tower was of a pyramidal form, which ran upwards to a great height, and so by its form indicates that it was intended for the idolatrous worship of the god of fire, (pyramid comes from a Greek word meaning fire), and strongly suggests that its destruction, on the part of the Almighty, was a declaration of his displeasure against idolatry, and a terrible lesson in favour of his own pure and ennobling worship. Thus early after the deluge did men begin to corrupt themselves with idol vanities, and thus early did the Creator strive with them in behalf of religious truth and duty.

BABYLON is a Greek form of Babel, and denotes the famous city known by the name, which stood on the banks of the Euphrates, sometimes, in consequence of its greatness, denominated a sea (Jer. li. 36, 42). The Bible, with a tradition preserved by Eusebius, relates (Gen. xi.) that the foundations of the place may be traced back to a period anterior to the dispersion of the human race, after the flood. Those foundations were laid by Nimrod, who is described as 'the mighty hunter before the Lord' (Gen. x. 9), whose fame in pursuing the hunter's mode of life, which, in the natural order of things, precedes the agricultural, as that prepares the way for cities, had, in very early times, passed into a proverb; and who, having probably obtained all the renown which his original semi-barbarous pursuits could bring, determined, in his ambition, to gather men into masses, in order to exercise the power, which is said to be sweeter than any other, namely, that of governing one's fellowcreatures on a large scale. The spot for the city was well chosen. It lay near the regions where the human race had received its second

birth. Two noble rivers offered facilities of intercourse, and the only supply which a fine rich soil needed, in order to pour forth the utmost vegetable affluence. The sky was serene and cloudless, the air pure, the position of the city lay mid-way between the east and the west, and so united both. Here might the dreams of the wildest ambition hope to be fulfilled. Even Alexander contemplated making Babylon the centre of his universal monarchy. And the duration of the city, through so many vicissitudes, and so long a period of time, is of itself sufficient proof that Nimrod made a wise choice for his great and yet untried experiment, and serves to justify the Biblical narratives, in placing the commencement of our present civilisation in the land of Shinar, and on the banks of the noble and wellsituated streams, the Euphrates and the Tigris. In all probability, the peculiar facilities afforded by the spot had already attracted to it the earliest fathers of our race, who thus offered to Nimrod a temptation for his ambition, and a prepared sphere for his enterprise. He seized the opportunity, and became the founder of a city and a kingdom, whose fame will never pass away.

We are not, however, to imagine that Nimrod left the city in that grandeur of which we find it possessed in the pages of the historian. For the attainment of this, many ages and many minds would be requisite. Nor was the progress of the city towards the splendour of its later history, unbroken or unchecked. The times in these early days were too full of violence and trouble, to allow in any human work a continuous and steady development. Darkness, storm, and even ruin, came now a restorative, now an embellishing hand was needed; and as the course of events was imperfectly known even by professed historians in ancient times, so was it easy for an honest and well-informed chronicler to set down as a new creation, that which was in reality only a renovation or an improvement. Accordingly, the zeal which Ninus, Semiramis, Nebuchadnezzar, and Netocris employed, one after the other, in enlarging and embellishing this city, has caused them each to be sometimes set forth as its founders.

Babylon was divided into two nearly equal parts by the Euphrates, on whose banks it lay; a fact which will enable the reader to understand how easy it was for Cyrus, when he had drained off the waters into a reservoir excavated for the purpose, to enter the beleaguered city of a sudden, in the dead of the night, down the empty bed of the stream. Of the height, the breadth, and the strength of its walls, and of other points of detail connected with the city and its palaces, we have not room to speak. It must suffice to say, that they were all of the grandest dimensions. The area covered by the city was

such, that it had in the midst of it, not only large parks and gardens, but also arable land of such extent as to furnish supplies of food in case of a siege. Such was the magnitude of the city, that hours elapsed before its capture by Cyrus was known to its inhabitants who dwelt at the extremity opposite to that where the conqueror entered.

The myriads of human beings who were gathered together within the walls of this immense place were supplied with the necessaries, and no few of the luxuries, of life, partly by vessels and rafts that navigated the Euphrates, but still more by the canals. which were led from the river like a net-work all over the soft and yielding soil, carrying, by a wide-spread system of irrigation, fertility far and wide, and bringing back the rich products of eastern climes to the great living

centre

In order to aid the scriptural student in forming a conception of Babylon the Great' (Rev. xvii. 5), we shall say a few words of its hanging gardens, and of the temple of Belus, which some make the same as the tower of Babel and the Birs Nimrod.

There were in Babylon two splendid palaces, one on the right, one on the left bank of the river. From the latter, which was surrounded by a triple enclosure of walls, standing far apart from each other, and sculptured with various kinds of animals, among which there was seen a leopard, against which Semiramis was hurling a lance, while her husband pierced a lion, there sprang the celebrated hanging gardens, the wonder of the world, whose formation is ascribed by Berosus to the gallantry of Nebuchadnezzar, who had them constructed in order to gratify his spouse Amytis; for she missed and regretted in the unwooded, flat, and less fertile Babylonia, the noble mountains, the stately trees, the productive and lovely vales, to which she had been used in her native Media. The splendid monarch, in consequence, caused a quadrangle, whose sides measured 1600 feet, to be enclosed, in which amphi theatrical terraces were thrown up, bearing on the surface a rich artificial soil, to such a height that in some parts the gardens reached to the top of the city walls. These terraces were connected with each other by flights of steps, on which pumps were placed in order to distribute the waters of the Euphrates over the verdant and flowery plots in whose deep beds large and lofty trees held firm root, and which presented to an eye that looked on the gardens from a distance the appearance of mountains covered with forests. Of this vast mass of galleries, terraces, gardens, flowers, shrubs, and trees, there now remains scarcely a distinct trace, amid ruins that, in their confused and gigantic masses, indicate the greatness and splen dour of the constructions whence they were derived. The place, however, where these

gardens probably stood still bears among the native Arabs the name of Al-Kasar, that is, the palace; and a solitary tree, not long since, seemed to speak of the purposes to which the spot was of old appropriated. 'In the midst of the desolation of Babylon,' says an antiquarian, in the entire region of which no wood is seen, there rises on the spot, once adorned and enlivened by the hanging gardens, a single tree bearing all the marks of high antiquity, half-torn by the force of time, and showing only at the extremity of its branches an appearance of vegetation.' This tree is an exotic. It comes from India, and is a stranger to the soil where it has so long found nutriment. A strange thing, scarcely alive, in a desolate land, this tree may typify the human soul, seeking rest and satisfaction in the things of earth, and finding only a prolonged feeble vegetation.

Still more considerable was the temple of Belus, which stood at some distance northward from these artificial gardens. It was placed on an immense quadrangle, which separated it from the rest of the city, and in the interior sides of which were the abodes of the seventy priests who served the idol Bel or Baal (the sun), to whom the edifice was dedicated (Dan. xiv. 4, i.e. in what is termed the apocryphal part). Constructed by different hands and at different epochs, this superb edifice was completed by Nebuchadnezzar. Eight stages or stories, which gradually narrowed as they rose, gave to this massive tower the appearance of a pyramid with a square base. Each side of that base was not less than three hundred feet long; which was also, at the least, the perpendicular height of the building. It was ascended by a gallery which ran on the exterior from the bottom to the top, and which, not without need, was furnished with resting places where the wearied limbs might be recruited. In the very centre of the edifice, a vast hall offered repose and luxury at the same time, to those who were on their way upward to pay their devotions at the shrine. This was placed at the top, as being thus nearest to the god whose honour it was designed to subserve. And that shrine, what splendour, what wealth did it contain! Herodotus, who had looked on it with dazzled eyes, has left us a computation from which we learn that the value of the offerings then dedicated could not have been less than £2,700,000, an enormous sum for that early age. In the midst of this chapel was a couch of gold and a table of gold. The statue of Belus, placed in an inner shrine, was also of gold, as well as all the furniture of the place. Two altars stood near for sacrifices: one, of solid gold, was destined for the immolation of young; the larger altar, for full-grown animals. In front of the statue which represented the god in a sitting

The

The

posture, stood a second golden table, on which were placed day by day provisions in such abundance, that the priests with their wives and children found it convenient and refreshing to pay stolen visits regularly to this feast of fat things,' which divine Bel was religiously believed to consume; an imposture that was adroitly exposed by Daniel. There was another golden statue, about eighteen feet in height, in the attitude of a man walking All the interior of the edifice was decorated with images of every form and of every species of metal, also rich oblations, which the credulous Babylonians placed there every day, much to the profit of the ministering priests. The temple was crowned by three statues, representing the divinities which in Greece bore the name of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea. first, whose height was forty feet, was standing, and had one foot extended before the other. The second grasped in her right hand a serpent, and held in her left a sceptre enriched with precious stones. third was seated, having at her feet two lions erect and two serpents. From Daniel we learn, that a living serpent was kept and worshipped in the exterior of the temple, whose pretensions to divinity the prophet easily exploded by a judiciously prepared meal. On a platform which rested on the top of the tower, was an observatory, where the priests, in obedience to the requirements of their Sabian religion, gave themselves up to the study of the movements of the heavenly bodies. The results of their observations, inscribed on burnt bricks, are said to have gone back at the time of the Grecian conquests in the East, to the distance of nineteen centuries. The walls of the lower parts were covered with images of monstrous animals sacred to Belus; which, if we may follow the authority of Berosus, and not rather regard them as types of various powers as found in different animals, were intended to commemorate those capricious creations which were the first efforts of half-skilled nature. Whatever their origin and import, these figures represented men with two wings each, some with four wings, others with a double face (such animals are still found even in Christian countries). Others combined the two sexes, or had the legs and horns of an ox with the feet of a horse; or, again, they had the lower parts of a man, and the upper parts of a horse. There were also to be seen bullocks with human heads, dogs with four bodies ending in fishes, horses with dogs' heads, men with the heads of horses, and other monstrosities of all kinds. Besides these singular emblems of the Babylonian superstitions, there were on the walls of this edifice inscriptions in arrow-headed characters which gave an account of great public events. The temple was enriched

with the offerings of king and people, and honoured as long as the sway of the Chaldæans lasted at Babylon. But, after the conquest of Cyrus, it fell rapidly. Indignant at the frauds which Daniel had laid bare, that prince put the priests of the idol to death, and permitted the prophet to overturn his altars. These were at a later period again raised up; but, from the time of Daniel, the sanctuary ceased to be sacred in the eyes of the conquerors of Babylon. Darius ventured to violate it: he was strongly inclined to carry off the standing golden image, and desisted only in consequence of the resistance of the attendant priest. This priest was slain by Xerxes, his son and successor, who took possession of the idol and the other treasures of the temple, destroying, at the same time, the parts of it which were appropriated to the residences of the priests and their families. Alexander, surnamed the Great, became in turn conqueror of Babylon. His entry into the city is thus graphically described by Q. Curtius: A great part of the inhabitants stood on the walls, eager to catch a sight of their new monarch: many went forth to meet him. Among these, Bagophanes, keeper of the citadel and royal treasures, strewed the entire way before the king with flowers and crowns: silver altars were also placed on both sides of the road, which were loaded not merely with frankincense, but all kinds of odoriferons herbs. He brought with him for Alexander gifts of various kinds, flocks of sheep and horses: lions also and panthers were carried before him in their dens. The magi came next, singing in their usual manner their ancient hymns. After them came the Chaldeans, with their musical instruments, who are not only the prophets of the Babylonians, but their artists. The first are wont to sing the praises of the kings: the Chaldeans teach the motions of the stars, and the periodic vicissitudes of the times and seasons. Then followed, last of all, the Babylonian knights, whose equip ment, as well as that of their horses, seemed designed more for luxury than magnificence. The king, Alexander, attended by armed men, having ordered the crowd of the towns. people to proceed in the rear of his infantry, entered the city in a chariot, and repaired to the palace. The next day he carefully surveyed the household treasure of Darius, and all his money. For the rest, the beauty of the city and its age turned the eyes, not only of the king, but of every one, to its own splendid spectacles.

After the death of Alexander, Seleucus Nicator, his successor in this province, transported to Selencia the inhabitants of Babylon, intending to reduce that ancient city to nothing, in order to make place for the new city which he had just founded, calling it after his own name. Nevertheless, preserving an appearance of respect for the now

almost forgotten god, he permitted his priests to rebuild the ruins of the enclosure, and again to fix their dwellings around its interior. In the second century, Pausanias visited Babylon, and found this gigantic monument, the temple of Bel, which he terms the grandest ruin of the place. He is the last ancient writer that speaks on the subject. Modern travellers think they find its remains in the ruins of an immense square tower, built of bricks, bearing arrowheaded inscriptions, and surmounted by shattered and broken remnants of ancient buildings. This confused mass the natives call Mijahlibah (turned upside down).

We read in the book of Daniel (iv. 30), that Nebuchadnezzar, while walking in the sumptuous palaces with which he had adorned the city, suddenly broke forth in these vain-glorious words:-'Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the capital of my empire, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?' Idle boast: poor, ignorant man! little did he think that the moment of humiliation and overthrow was at hand. The same hour he was driven from men; for, his weak intellect becoming dazzled and disordered by glare, vanity, and excess, he was, like other wretched maniacs of old, expelled from human society, and, living on the spontaneous products of the soil, did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

This great vaunted city also now drew near to the pangs of that destruction with which she had been threatened by the truthful voice of Hebrew prophecy (Isa. xlv. seq.), which foretold the overthrow of the idolatrous and tyrannical empire, with unequalled precision and force, even naming the agent whom the Almighty would employ, his anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him, to open before him the two-leaved gates. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places. Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; they stoop, they bow down together, themselves are gone into captivity. Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground, O daughter of the Chaldæans; for thou no more shalt be called tender and delicate. The gates of brass' here mentioned present one of those minute points that cannot be invented. Three brazen gates led into the grand area of the temple, and every considerable gate throughout the city was of brass. The predicted overthrow came. Belshazzar, given up to his pleasures, threw the cares of government entirely on his mother. After making some feeble efforts to arrest the hastening torrent, he soon de