AucJdand Institute. 547 



So also of ancient history, when, if not written for the purpose of advocating one or 

 another scheme of political government — democratic, oligarchic, or monarchic — it is 

 biassed by the patriotic feelings of the writer. Many, too, of the passages of these 

 authors have been palpably corrupted either by carelessness of transcribers or by wilful 

 alterations. Years of patient labour have been bestowed by learned men in endeavouring 

 to elucidate the readings of perplexing or contradictory paragraphs, with by no means 

 satisfactory results. 



But sixty years have passed since the j'ounger Niebuhr, not content with having 

 read nearly every written history, resolved to verify, as far as possible, the accounts of 

 the historiographers by a minute and critical examination of the ruins of buildings 

 mentioned, a survey of sites described in their works. He more especially devoted him- 

 self to Roman sources, and speedily came to the conclusion that much, if not all, the so- 

 called Eoman history, prior to the first Punic War, was by no means trustworthy. Many 

 scholars, more or less convinced by Niebuhr's facts and arguments, treated Greek history 

 in a similar manner, the result being a rude shock to what had become an established 

 faith. After doubt came attempts at reconstruction ; a more thorough research of all the 

 most world -renowned localities was organized ; Dr. Young's and Champalliou's attempts to 

 decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, and partial success, led to many collaborate urs follow- 

 ing in their tracks ; Egyptian annals going back for thirty centuries before the Christian 

 era have been compiled, and though much may be doubted, these facts remain — con- 

 ferring more authenticity than the often retranscribed manuscripts of early classic writers 

 — that in many instances the inscriptions on stone or writing; on papyras are of the 

 same antiquity as the events related, and have come down to us unaltered by succeeding 

 generations. But stone even has not always proved a permanent medium for conveying 

 records to posterity; in the Assyrian excavations of Eawlinson, Layard, Smith, and 

 others the earlier inscriptions or carvings on alabaster or stone have often been partially 

 effaced. In some cases the stone dado round rooms has been reversed, and the same 

 material re-used to pourtray the triumphs or solemnities of a later dynasty. These 

 ancients, however, had discovered a material as durable even as stone, and easily worked, 

 for recording events or myths. Slabs of clay had characters incised upon them, were 

 then baked, and thus defied that great destroyer — fire. Thousands of broken tiles of 

 this kind, ruled into columns, and numbered on the back or bottom, have been exhumed 

 at Nineveh ; the fractures having been caused, partly by the fall of the building contain- 

 ing this library, partly by disintegration through moisture. The date of the manufacture 

 of these tablets has been fixed as commencing with the reign of Assur, about 1500 

 years B.C., and concluding with the reign of Assurhanipal, about 670 years B.C., say 230 

 years later than the Arundelian marbles assign as the age of Homer and Hesiod. Many 

 of these later Assyrian tiles are not the originals, but copies of Chaldean or Babvloniau 

 tiles of far greater antiquity, mentioning only kings reigning at this latter city at least 

 900 years antecedently. It appears that the Assyrian monarchs besides committiu,"- to 

 these clay tablets the annals of their own respective reigns, caused copies to be made of 

 the tablets of other states for the royal library. This has been confirmed by the discovery 

 on still more ancient sites of pieces of tablets of earlier work narratiug the same story. 

 Incredible labour has been bestowed upon putting together corresponding fragments of 

 these many thousand broken tablets (I believe no perfect one has been found yet), some 

 have been partially completed, the cuneiform inscriptions interpreted, and amongst 

 valuable discoveries, most wonderful corroborations of the Mosaic description of the 

 deluge and rescue in the ark distinctly made out. 



