BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



are frequently translations or copies of Chal- 

 da3an works. Thirdly, the works of the sect 

 known as Mendaites, Nazoreans, Christians 

 of St. John, who must be classed generally 

 under the name Sabians, represent to us, 

 to a certain degree, in their method of 

 thought, and possibly in their language, the 

 remains of Babylonian literature ; though 

 the flights of imagination from which the 

 ancient Chaldseans never appear to have 

 been wholly exempt, assume in them such 

 a point of extravagance, that it would 

 be with reluctance that we would acknow- 

 ledge these fanciful wanderings to be the 

 actual remains of an intellectual cultivation 

 which has exercised so considerable an in- 

 fluence on the mind of man. 



A source more fertile, however, than any 

 which we have hitherto pointed out, has 

 been opened to us in these last few years. 

 Ingenious criticism has shewn that it is 

 in the heart of Arabian literature that we 

 must seek for the most precious collection 

 of Babylonian writings. Independently of 



