BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 10 



disappeared without leaving any traces ; 

 literatures of high antiquity are only 

 represented by shreds, passed through a 

 thousand transformations, and are scarcely 

 recognisable. I willingly admit that Ba- 

 bylon may have had books and schools 

 fifteen centuries before Christ. The title 

 of "The Book of Nabathsean Agriculture" 

 to the high antiquity which Dr. Chwolson 

 attributes to it, must be sifted without bias 

 of any kind. 



Dr. Chwolson' s principal argument is 

 derived from the information furnished by 

 "The Book of Nabathsean Agriculture" as 

 to the political condition of Babylonia at 

 f-he time when the work was composed. He 

 agrees with M. Quatremere, that it contains 

 no trace of the existence of Christianity, 

 or of the existence of Arsacidan, Seleucidan, 

 and Sassanidan rule. Twenty Babylonian 

 kings are enumerated in "The Agriculture," 

 and of these twenty names, there is not one 

 which coincides with that of a king of any 

 known Babylonian dynasty. In the chapter 



