10 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



Assyrian, enabled Sir Henry Rawlinson to find the key to the Assyr- 

 ian characters. . . . 



It is very difficult, in spite of the numerous texts deciphered by 

 modern savants, to form any idea of Assyrian literature ; yet the 

 literature must have been considerable, for Layard found a complete 

 library founded by King Asshurbanipal in two of the rooms of his 

 palace at Nineveh. This library consisted of square tablets of baked 

 earth, with flat or slightly convex surface, on which the cuneiform 

 writing had been impressed while the clay was soft, before baking. 

 The characters were very clearly and sharply defined, but many of 

 them so minute as to be read only with the help of a magnifying glass. 

 These tablets, which are preserved at the British Museum, contain a 

 kind of grammatical encyclopedia of the Assyrio-Babylonian lan- 

 guage, divided into treatises ; and also fragments of laws, mythology, 

 natural history, geography, etc. Treatises on arithmetic were also 

 found in the library, proving that mathematical sciences were known, 

 with catalogues of observations of the stars and planets. We have 

 already mentioned that astronomy was greatly honored amongst the 

 Chaldean priesthood, who had studied the course of the moon with 

 so much precision that they were able to predict its eclipse. 



Science and literature developed, in spite of a primitive writing 

 engraved upon clay tablets ; the art of sculpture was already highly 

 refined ; monuments, which without being majestic like the Egyptian 

 were imposing in their size and splendid in their colours ; rare ele- 

 gance in clothing and furniture, denoting great wealth, the result of 

 active commerce ; a cruel, even ferocious character, revealed by their 

 treatment of prisoners, and indeed by all their history ; a learned 

 caste, devoting themselves to the sciences and also to the unscientific 

 methods of astrology ; a religion elevated by the primitive idea of a 

 supreme god, yet degraded by polytheism and often by gross de- 

 bauchery ; kings sufficiently intelligent to construct splendid palaces 

 and immense cities, and yet inflated with pride and glorying in the 

 most stupid cruelty such is the picture opened to us by the records 

 of Assyrian and Babylonian history. When we observe on the 

 Assyrian bas-reliefs all the industries and all the arts, we are inclined 

 to acknowledge that they were superior to the nations that surrounded 

 them, and we understand how the Greeks drew inspiration from 

 Assyrian work as well as from Egyptian. Verschoyle. History of 

 Civilization. 



