PART. I. dered more close, by an apprehension of danger from abroad; and the intercourse between them more general, from a sense of mutual conveniency. Hence pa triotism and internal traffic, the two great sources of national happiness and prosperity. Men acquire a strong affection for their native country, and for their fellow-citizens, soon after the division of lands; in consequence of their common struggles to defend their cultivated possessions against the ravages of barbarous and hostile neighbours. An unlimited exchange of commodities, originating in a desire of mutual accommodation, takes place between the people of the same state; and that exchange quickens industry, gives birth to new arts, and calls forth all the ingenuity of man, in order to improve the fashion or fabric of the articles of barter. A general instrument of exchange, under the name of money, is invented: and commercial transactions being thus rendered more easy and expeditious, trade is extended from the members of a particular community to those of other states, Nations, like individuals, mutually supply each other's wants, and the social system is gradually perfected, Conformable to this view of the natural progress of society, we find Assyria and Egypt, countries abounding in spontaneous productions proper for the food of man, and of easy culture, more early populous and civilized than any other regions intimately known to the ancient inhabitants of our division of the earth. India and China, favoured with similar advantages, boast as old an acquaintance with the arts of civil life. And the kingdoms of Mexico and Peru, in the new world, owed their superiority in population and improvement over the other American districts, at the time of their discovery, also to soil and climate. But America, perhaps, had not emerged from the ocean at the 1. the period of which I speak. India had little, and LETTER The Assyrians, who possessed the fertile banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, and the fat and extensive plain between these two rivers, anciently known by the name of Mesopotamia, had many inducements to indulge the social principle, independent of all ideas of mutual safety and support. If nature denied them the olive, the fig, and the vine, she had bountifully bestowed on them the palm-tree"; which includes most of the virtues of those choice fruits, beside many others peculiar to itself's. And to that precious gift was added a soft and rich soil, that rewarded the labours of the husbandman with abundant crops of wheat, barley, and other kinds of grain-with the incredible increase of two, and even of three hundred fold. The 14. Herodot. lib. i. cap. cxciii. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 742, Edit. Lu tet. Paris, typis Regiis, 1620. Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xiii. cap. iv. 15. Id. ibid. et Kæmpfer, Amanitat. Exotice, fascicul. iv. The inhabitants of Assyria celebrated, in songs, the three hundred and sixty virtues of the palm-tree. Strabo, lib. xvi. P. 742. 16. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 740. 17. Herodot. lib. i. cap. cxciii. Theophrast. Hist. Plantar. lib. viii. cap. vii. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 742. For that extraordinary fertility. Assyria was partly indebted, in its most cultivated state, to artificial canals, that conveyed the waters of the Euphrates into the channel of the Tigris; and which, intersecting the plain of Mesopotamia, in various directions, by means of cross-cuts, afforded a constant supply of moisture to the fields, during the absence of rain. (Herodot. et Strabo, ubi sup.) Nor was this the only purpose these canals served: they prevented the lands from being deluged by the overflowing of the Euphrates; which was annually swelled, in the beginning of summer, by the melting of snows on the mountains of Armenia. (Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 740.) They served also to facilitate commercial intercourse, some of them being navigable. (Id. Ibid.) The confining of rivers within their banks, and draining off stagnat PART I. The inhabitants of such a country must have mul tiplied fast; and when united under one government, they must soon have become powerful. The Assyrians. are accordingly represented, by all ancient historians, as the first people who exercised extensive dominion among men. And the cities of Nineveh and Babylon, which might be considered as their two state anchors, afforded an early display of oriental magnificence18. The great temple at Babylon, erected to Belus, Bel, or Baal, the lord of heaven, in eastern language, peculiarly attracted admiration in old times. It was a square building, measuring two stadia", or about twelve hundred feet, on each side; and out of the middle of it rose a solid tower, or pyramid, also of a square figure, six hundred feet high20, and of an equal width at the base21. On the top of that tower was formed spa ing waters, seem to have been the first efforts made by man, for rendering comfortable his terrestrial habitation. 18. Herodot. lib. i. cap. clxxviii-clxxxiii. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 91-98, edit. Hanova, typis Wechelianis, 1604. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 737, 738, edit. sup. cit. The building of the former of those cities is, by Diodorous and Strabo, ascribed to Ninus, the first Assyrian emperor; and that of the latter to his widow, Semiramis. (Diod. Sicul. et Strabo, ubi sup.) But we have the authority of saered writ to affirm, that Nineveh and Babylon were founded in more early times; (Genesis, chap. x. ver. 9, 10.) though they probably owed to Ninus and Semiramis, that strength and grandeur which made them the wonder of succeeding ages. This opinion, so far as it regards Babylon, is supported by Herodotus, (lib. i. cap. clxxxiv.) and countenanced by another passage in the same venerable author; (lib. iii. cap. clv.) where we are told, That one of the gates of Babylon bore the name of Ninus, and another that of Semiramis. And the testimony of scripture is corroborated by Berosus, (ap. Joseph cont. Apian, lib. i.) who blames the Greeks for ascribing the foundation of Babylon to Semiramis, queen of Assyria. Babylon, which I shall afterward have occasion to describe, stood on the banks of the Euphrates. Herodot. lib. i. cap. clxxx. 19. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. clxxxi. 20. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 738. I. tious dome", which served as an observatory to the LETTER ancient Chaldean astronomers13. In this dome was a table of gold, and a pompous bed, but no statue. The lower part, or body of the temple, which surrounded the tower, was adorned with sacred furniture in the same precious metal; a golden altar and table, and a magnificent statue of the God, seated on a throne of solid gold's. The description of this superb temple cannot fail to awaken your lordship's curiosity, to become, acquainted with the religion and learning of the Assyrians of Babylon. And I shall endeavour to gratify it in some degree; as I may not, perhaps, afterward find an opportunity of so doing; and because the utter destruction of Nineveh, the chief city in Assyria Proper, and the capital of the Assyrian empire, before it had been visited by any European traveller, has left us totally ignorant of the state of knowledge among the inhabitants of that ancient metropolis; which stood on 22. Herodot. lib. i. cap. clxxxi. 23. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 98. 24. Herodot. ubi sup. Diodorous places in this dome, or ærial temple, three statues of prodigious weight and size. But he could only speak by report; for the great temple at Babylon, as he himself informs us, (lib. ii. p. 98.) had been pillaged by the sacrilegious rapacity of the Persian monarchs, long before his time. And if we believe Arrian, (Expedit. Alex. lib. vii. p. 480, edit. Amst. 1668.) it was destroyed, or utterly dismantled, by Xerxes, on his return from Greece; and consequently, Herodotus can hardly be supposed to have seen it, as he was then very young. But the honest testimony of this original histerian, who may be trusted in regard to what fell under his own observation, and when he speaks in his own person, beyond almost any ancient writer, leaves us no room to doubt that he viewed the temple of Belus before it was much despoiled. He relates distinctly what he saw in that temple; and he also mentions what be was told, by the Chaldean priests (lib. i. cap. clxxxiii.) concerning a gigantic statue of gold, that formerly stood in the lower part of it, and which was seized by Xerxes, (Id. ibid.) who slew the priest that attempted to oppose him. 25. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. clxxxiii, the PART I. the banks of the Tigris, as Babylon did on those of the Euphrates?. All ancient authors agree in representing the Babylonians as very early skilled in astronomy. Herodotus ascribes to them the invention of the gnomon, or sun-dial, with the knowledge of the pole, and division of the day into twelve equal parts: and he gives us reason to believe, that the Egyptians, as well as the Greeks, were indebted to them for these discoveries in the astronomical science30. This science, and every other part of philosophy, was chiefly cultivated among the Babylonians, by a body of men called Chaldeans ; who were set apart for the superintendence of religious worship, and invested with great authority". They maintained that the universe was eternal, the work of an eternal God; whose will gave it birth, and whose providence continues to govern it32. The Chaldeans are supposed to have owed their early proficiency in astronomy, partly to the early civi 26. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. cxciii. lib. ii. cap. cl. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vi. cap. xv. 27. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 738. 28. The testimony of philosophers on this subject is uniform, from Plato and Aristotle downwards; and with them concur all ancient historians, who have treated of Assyrian affairs. 29. Herodot. lib. ii. cap. cix. 30. Id. ibid. 31. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 115. They were, says he, the most ancient Babylonians. |