AGE AXD ANTIQUITY 



OF THE BOOK OF 



NABATH.EAN AGRICULTURE. 



There is no longer any dctibifiii the pre- : • 

 sent age, that a Babylonian/ literature^ -did • . 

 exist, composed of works connected Sv'itli* : ■' 

 the arts and sciences, which are nearly 

 always written in a religious form. The 

 age and the character of the intellectual 

 labours of the Chaldeeans are uncertain ; but 

 there are many evidences, more especially 

 in the monuments that have descended to 

 our days, to prove that Babylon was, from 

 the most remote antiquity, the centre of 

 civilization for all the East. Indeed, al- 

 though it might appear at the first glance 

 that the literature of Babylon had disap- 



l 



