BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 9T 



the work of Said, entitled Kitdb tabacdth al- 

 umen, we find a Babylonian scholar figuring 

 as Istefan al-Babeli? whom the Arabian 

 author places confidently in the times of 

 Jethro, in spite of his Greek name and 

 Christian prefix of Stephanus. If some 

 Hellenistic scholar were to take the trouble 

 of carefully examining the Greek manu- 

 scripts on astrology and magic which have 

 come down to us, I have no doubt that he 

 would find there a host of texts, really Baby- 

 lonian, kindred to those to which Dr. Chwol- 

 son has drawn our attention. 



From all this we may deduce, I imagine, 

 a complete idea of the intellectual state of 

 Babylonia, in the first centuries of our era ; 

 but it will not, as Dr. Chwolson believes, 

 furnish us with science at all equal to that 

 of the Greeks. What was deficient in this 

 movement was neither activity nor extent; 

 it lacked earnestness and method. If we seek 

 to appreciate, as a whole, the part which 

 Babylon took in the grand work of civili- 



1 Pp. 21-22 of the manuscript of M. Schefer. 



5 



