104 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, .1888. 



icau representatives of Biblical archieology fouiid au adequate pecun- 

 iary assistance for their national undertaking we could soon have in 

 Washington one of the finest collections of the world. 



It has been very cleverly said that archaeology is like the giant An- 

 taeus in the Greek myth ; we develop in strength as often as we come 

 in contact with the ground. I sincerely hope that we' shall be able to 

 begin digging at no distant date. People in Europe would hardly be- 

 lieve that we have everything for a national expedition to Mesopotamia 

 save the money. Such a project appeals to every one who takes an in- 

 terest in the dawn of civilization and the history of religion. The mon- 

 uments in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris furnish the key to 

 countless mysteries in the early history of man. They answer a multi- 

 tude of questions whose solution is indispensable for a study of the de- 

 velopment of religion and culture. They add new leaves to the book of 

 man's earliest traditions. They confirm and elucidate the sacred records 

 of the Old Testament. Chaldea is the cradle of the great race of Israel, 

 the birth-place of his ancestors. To Ohaldea we can trace the roots of 

 his nationality and his religion, and indirectly the roots of Christianity. 

 If we wish to have some knowledge of the primitive period in which the 

 chosen i)eople developed, we must dig for it in Assyria and Babylonia. 



It is true we can not recover gold, as the natives fancy. A treasure 

 of Priam will never be found in the sterile mounds of Mesopotamia. All 

 that we can unearth aresculptures and inscriptions, nothing but stones, 

 broken stones, but stones to which the word of Scripture applies: "If 

 men should hold their peace the stones will cry out." 



