324 On Scriptural and profane Accounts 
raised. If corresponding tales respecting the 
origin of Assyrian monuments have obtained 
longer and more extensive belief, has this 
been owing to their having a firmer basis, or 
their being less rigorously scrutinized ? (3+) 
The argument, if admitted, would prove too 
much ; it would follow not only that Semi- 
ramis had lived and reigned, but reigned 
over countries in which we have already 
shown it to be inconsistent with history and 
probability, that Assyrian dominion should 
have been established till about eight centu- 
ries before Christ. 
To some it may appear improbable that 
such a confusion of mythology and history 
should take place as I have supposed ; but let 
it be considered, that, in the earliest times, 
priests were the sole depositaries of literature, 
and that mythology appears to have been in 
all countries the earliest subject upon which 
literature was employed. Is it wonderful, 
then, that the divinities having been repre- 
sented under human forms, human passions 
and adventures having been ascribed to them, 
and names given to them which, in the lapse 
of time and the changes of language, were 
no longer understood ; it should have been 
forgotten that the, human form was merely 
the dress by which an abstract idea had been 
