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*' Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the king- 

 dom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ? " But 

 it was foretold that Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the' 

 Chaldees' excellency, was to become a desolation and the abode of wild 

 beasts ; and no one can visit those vast ruins without feeling that the pro-!- 

 phecy has been changed into history, and the inspired denunciations intc 

 accomplished facts. (Applause.) I speak here of what I have seen with 

 my own eyes, and I have no doubt that Mr. Rassam, whom I am glad to see 

 here, has also looked upon the same scene. I would say, in conclusion, that 

 the subject of the derivation of the word Ea, or la, is certainly one of ver 

 great interest as well as of great importance, particularly at the present dayy 

 when theories concerning Jehovah, or Javeh, are so often being disputes 

 and discussed. (Applause.) 



Mr. W. St. C Boscawen. — I am extremely glad to have been here to-night 

 to hear Mr. Budge's paper read, because it forms quite an elaborate appendix 

 to that which I had the honour of bringing before this Institute last 

 month. If we take the dry and perhaps unsystematic arrangement of the 

 sentences in the Assyrian as literally translated, the good points of the inscrip- 

 tion in Mr. Budge's paper may not at first appear ; and this being so, I will 

 endeavour, in as few words as possible, to put before you some of those 

 points which strike me most forcibly in connexion with this subject. In the 

 first place I would remind you that we know very little of Nebuchadnezzar, 

 from an historical point of view, beycmd what appears in the Bible. It is a 

 remarkable fact, that we have in the British Museum some thirty or forty 

 inscriptions belonging to Nebuchadnezzar's reign, all of which record great 

 works such as [the buildings at Babylon, We have dedications of temples 

 and public structures, but only one small fragment of some fifteen or 

 twenty lines or so, which has any relation to his historical career. Never- 

 theless, there are a number of fragments which constitute indirect pieces of 

 evidence tending to show that the Biblical accounts of Nebuchadnezzar's 

 campaigns are historically correct. Mr. Budge has referred to the prominent 

 part which Riblah took in the campaigns of Nebuchadnezzar. You maj 

 remember seeing a few weeks ago, in the Times, an interesting letter from 

 M. Ganneau, giving an account of an important discovery made in the 

 neighbourhood of Hermul, showing that within a few miles of Riblah tli,e 

 Assyrians had an important station, to which they brought down the cedar, 

 cut in the Lebanon, and where those cedars were trimmed and prepared fo 

 the purpose of being carried to Babylon. What is now known of Nebuchad 

 nezzar is principally from his boast of having rebuilt Babylon. He migh, 

 indeed say, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built?" for there is 

 hardly a building or mound throughout the whole of Babylon or Chaldea, or 

 any place in which bricks are discovered, where we do not find the inscribed 

 bricks of Nebuchadnezzar. This brings very vividly before us the works 

 that great king carried on in Babylon ; and if I may be allowed, I will 

 refer to one or two interesting points in connexion with these works. 



