NIIT-VEU SCULPTURES. 



309 



too brief sketch of the British ! tions, and interprets bass-reliefs, 



Museum, finely apostrophises this 

 " prisoner of the marble, haply once 

 an Indian wife and mother :" 

 "Mysterious framework of bone, 

 locked up in the solid marble, un- 

 wonted prisoner of the rock ! an 

 irresistible voice shall yet call tliee 

 from out the stony matrix. The 

 other organisms, thy partners in 

 the show, are incarcerated in the 

 lime for ever thou but for a term !" 



THE NINEVEH SCULPTURES IN THE 

 BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Antiquarian and archaeological 

 research is treading hard after the 

 investigations of geology itself. For 

 the purpose of establishing the suc- 

 cession and superposition of rocks, 

 as first elaborated in our own island, 

 geologists have extended their ex- 

 plorations from the back woods of 

 America on the west, to' the con- 

 fines of Asia on the east demon- 

 strating the vast and prolonged pre- 

 parations made by Creative Wis- 

 dom and Benevolence to fit the sur- 

 face of the globe for becoming the 

 habitation of rational and immortal 

 beings ; and what an august light 

 does science thus shed on the power 

 and progress of creative agency! 

 Where geology terminates the re- 

 cord of creation, archaeology begins 

 to illustrate the history of God's 

 Providence in his dealings with the 

 early races of man " the gray fa- 

 thers of the world." Carrying us 

 back to the earliest era of po.st-dilu- 

 viaii history, and setting us down in 

 the country which was the cradle of 

 the human race, it disentombs from 

 the oblivion of ages confirmations 

 the most unequivocal of the state- 

 ments of the Sacred Writings, his- 

 torical and prophetic, respecting the 

 first dwellers on the plains of the 

 Tigris and the Euphrates. It places 

 before our eyes the monuments on 

 \vhich tho Assyrian kings recorded 

 their victories deciphers inscrip- 



sculptured in the infancy of art, 

 twenty centuries before the Chris- 

 tian era; and describes Assyrian 

 arts and manners which long after- 

 wards effloresced into the myths 

 and symbols of the Greeks. Nine- 

 veh, the metropolis of the Assy- 

 rians, had been levelled with the 

 ground before the period of authen- 

 tic profane history began ; even its 

 site was involved in doubt when 

 Xenophon and his army encamped 

 upon its ruins, (for the Mespila ot 

 the Anabasis is understood to have 

 been the ancient Nineveh,) during 

 the celebrated retreat of the Ten 

 Thousand. According to the chro- 

 nology adopted by Mr. Layard, 

 whose authority we shall follow, 

 and of whose singularly interesting 

 work we shall freely avail ourselves 

 in the notice of his discoveries, it 

 was in the year 606 B.C. that Nine- 

 veh was captured by Cyaxares, 

 king of Persia and Media, a date 

 which agrees with the period as- 

 signed both by the Sacred Scrip- 

 tures and by Herodotus to the con- 

 quest and destruction of " that great 

 city." Of the history of Nineveh 

 few particulars that can be relied 

 on have descended to us in profane 

 history. The extraordinary feats 

 related of Niuus and Semiramis, 

 the two founders of the Assyrian 

 empire the vast armies of men at 

 their command, their immense trea- 

 sures, their stupendous buildings 

 and hanging gardens, are evidently 

 in a large degree fabulous. It ia 

 from the incidental allusions to 

 Nineveh in the Bible that we de- 

 rive our chief knowledge of the 

 actual condition of tho Assyrian 

 capital ; and the corroborative light 

 reflected upon the statements of 

 the Bible by the discoveries of Mr. 

 Layard, is probably the most im- 

 portant ;UH| v.iluablo contribution 

 of modern times to (lie r\t< rnal evi- 

 dences of the Divino origin of our 

 holy religion. 



