90 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



the same literature, with this difference, 

 that the books preserved and probably re- 

 written or re-modelled by the Mendaites 

 have suffered from the influence of Parseeism, 

 and followed that fatal growth of imbecility 

 which the East was not able to resist. As 

 to the Nabathaean language, it is no longer 

 doubtful that it was identical with that of 

 the Mendaites; 1 and it was probably from 

 manuscripts, analogous to those which are 

 termed Sabian in our libraries, that Ibn 

 "Wahshiya made his translations. 



"Who can assert that we have here an 

 intellectual group of which it is impossible 

 to prove its origin and unity ? Take away, 

 to avoid the appearance, of begging the 

 question, the four Nabathcean works which 

 have come down to us, still what Arabian 

 writers inform us concerning the Sabians ; 

 what we know of the School of Harran, 

 which perpetuated the traditions of the 

 Syro -Baby Ionian school, improved by hard 



1 See Histoire Generale des Langues S^mitiqucs, 1. III., c. ii., 

 sect. 82. 



