BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



89 



period of the Seleucides, has furnished 

 criticism with enigmas which cannot be 

 explained ; for those natural deductions, 

 which are so sure a guide, in considering 

 honest productions of the mind, are entirely 

 at fault, when dealing with these equivocal 

 and artificial compositions, the fruit of en- 

 feebled reason and sordid passions. 



To the best of my belief, then, a very 

 ^-» limited range must be assigned to the Naba- 

 thaean school. This school presents to us the 

 last phase of Babylonian literature, that which 

 extends from the first centuries of our era, 

 or, if you will, from the period of the Seleu- 

 cides or Arsacides, to the Mussulman inva- 

 sion. This literature, stricken to death by 

 Islamism, dragged out a miserable existence 

 during the Middle Ages, among the poor 

 sect of the Sabians, Nazoreans, or Christians 

 of St. John, and sank to an unheard-of 

 degree of degradation and extravagance in 

 their writings. The works translated by 

 Ibn Wahshiya, and the books of the Men- 

 daites, are to us productions of one and 



