A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



which includes the other; which, indeed, is so all-en, 

 compassing as scarcely to leave any phase of Baby- 

 lonian thought outside its bounds. 



The tablets having to do with omens, exorcisms, 

 and the like magic practices make up an astonishingly 

 large proportion of the Babylonian records. In view- 

 ing them it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the 

 superstitions which they evidenced absolutely domi- 

 nated the life of the Babylonians of every degree. 

 Yet it must not be forgotten that the greatest incon- 

 sistencies everywhere exist between the superstitious 

 beliefs of a people and the practical observances of 

 that people. No other problem is so difficult for the 

 historian as that which confronts him when he en- 

 deavors to penetrate the mysteries of an alien religion ; 

 and when, as in the present case, the superstitions in- 

 volved have been transmitted from generation to gen- 

 eration, their exact practical phases as interpreted by 

 any particular generation must be somewhat prob- 

 lematical. The tablets upon which our knowledge of 

 these omens is based are many of them from the li- 

 braries of the later kings of Nineveh; but the omens 

 themselves are, in such cases, inscribed in the original 

 Accadian form in which they have come down from 

 remote ages, accompanied by an Assyrian translation. 

 Thus the superstitions involved had back of them hun- 

 dreds of years, even thousands of years, of precedent; 

 and we need not doubt that the ideas with which they 

 are associated were interwoven with almost every 

 thought and deed of the life of the people. Professor 

 Sayce assures us that the Assyrians and Babylonians 

 counted no fewer than three hundred spirits of heaven, 



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