GEORGE SMITH 309 



library, to which the citizens, who were taught in their 

 early years to read and write, had free access. Whether 

 any of the books were written on papyrus is uncertain ; 

 all that have survived the conflagration, in which the 

 palace was destroyed, are on tablets of kiln-made brick. 

 Of such tablets many thousands have been recovered, 

 not only from Nineveh, but from other towns, and many 

 of them are now preserved in the British Museum. Thus 

 within the last fifty years modern Europe has obtained 

 a glimpse, and more than a glimpse, into the literature of 

 a civilisation that perished just as the Roman was coming 

 into existence; for, as Sir Walter Raleigh puts it, "In 

 Alexander's time learning and greatness had not travelled 

 so far west as Rome, Alexander esteeming of Italy but as 

 a barbarous country, and of Rome as but a village. But 

 it was Babylon that stood in his eyes, and the fame of 

 the East pierced his ears." 



The recovered literature covers a vast field of human 

 interest, in science, as in astronomy and mathematics, 

 particularly in astronomy, for the Chaldeans were famous 

 star-watchers, and had already named the stars and 

 constellations, associating them with the deeds and 

 mighty works of their heroes and demigods, so that the 

 star-lit sky became a pictured dome, and the zodiac a 

 frieze to the Assyrian, reminding him of history or fable, 

 like the sculptures and paintings which adorned the king's 

 palaces ; in religion and poetry, and in commerce, many 

 of the tablets recording business contracts, and revealing 

 a system of mortgage and banking, money being frequently 

 lent at from 13 to 20 per cent., which was moderate; 

 for the advantages of cent, per cent, were already known 

 and appreciated by these simple Semitic folk. 



It was amongst the tablets from King Assurbanipal's 

 library at Nineveh that George Smith, now over twenty 

 years ago, made a famous discovery. He found a frag- 



