SS INTRODUCTION. 



government in an extensive kingdom. The great empire of' Assy- 

 ria, likewise, which had so long disappeared, becomes again an ob- 

 ject of attention, and affords the first instance we meet with in his- 

 tory, of a kingdom which fell asunder by its own weight, and the 

 effeminate weakness of its sovereigns. Sardanapalus, the last em- 

 peror of Assyria, neglecting the administration of affairs, and shut- 

 ting himself up in his palace with his women and eunuchs, fell into 

 contempt with his subjects. The governors of his provinces, to 

 whom, like a weak and indolent prince, he had entirely committed 

 the command of his armies, did not fail to seize this opportunity «f 

 raising their own fortune on the ruins of their master's power, 

 Arbaces, governor of Media, and Belesis, governor of Babylon, con- 

 spired against their sovereign, and having set fire to his capital 

 (in which Sardanapalus perished) divided between them his exten- 

 sive dominions. These two kingdoms, sometimes united under 

 one prince, and sometimes governed each by a particular sove- 

 reign, maintained the chief sway in Asia for many years. Phul re- 

 vived the kingdom of Assyria; and Shalmaneser, one of his succes- 

 sors, put an end to the kingdom ^f Israel, and carried the ten 

 tribes captive into Assyria and Media. Nebuchadnezzar, king of 

 Babylon, also in the year before Chrisjt 587, overturned the king- 

 dom of Judah, which had continued in the family of David from 

 T. p the year 1055, and conquered all the countries round him. 



' ' But in the year 538, Cyrus the Great took Babylon, and re- 

 duced this quarter of the world under the Persian yoke. 

 The manners of this people, brave, hardy, and independent, as 

 well as the government of Cyrus in all its various departments, 

 are elegantly desci'ibed by Xenophon, a Grecian philosopher and 

 historian. The sera of Cyrus is in one respect extremely remark- 

 able, besides that in it the Jews were delivered from their captivi- 

 ty, because with it the history of the great nations of antiquity, 

 which has hitherto engaged our attention, may be said to termi- 

 nate. Let us consider, then, the genius of the Assyrians, Babylo- 

 nians, and Egyptians, in arts and sciences ; and, if possible, disco- 

 ver what progress they had made in those acquirements which are 

 most subservient to the interests of society. 



The taste for the great and magnificent seems to have been the 

 prevailing character of those nations ; and they principally display- 

 ed it in their works of architecture. There are no vestiges, how- 

 ever, now remaining, which confirm the testimony of ancient wri- 

 ters with regard to the great works that adorned Babylon and Ni- 

 neveh : neither is it clearly determined in what year they were be- 

 gun or finished. There are three pyramids, stupendous fabrics, 

 still remaining in Egypt, at some leagues distance from Cairo, and 

 about nine miles from the Nile, which are supposed to have been 

 the burying-places of the ancient Egyptian kings. The largest is 

 five hundred feet in height, and each side of the base six hundred 

 and ninety-three feet in length. The apex is thirteen feet square. 

 The second covers as much ground as the first, but is forty feet 

 lower. It was a superstition among the Egyptians, derived from 

 the earliest times, that even after death the soul continued in the 

 body as long as it remained uncorrupted. Hence proceeded the 

 custom of embalming. The pyramids were erected with the same 

 view. Jn them the bodies of the Egyptian kings, it has been sup- 

 posed, were deposited. From what we read of the walls of Baby- 



