132 



THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 



If this were done in Mesopotamia, and the land was irrigated as 

 in the palmy days of Babylon, there is very little doubt that there 

 would be room for millions of agriculturists ; and we have in India 

 exactly the population that wants that outlet. There is a great 

 population, growing faster than the country can accommodate it, 

 and Indians are finding their way into British colonies, where there 

 is no suitable place for them. Here is a country, practically without 

 inhabitants, ready for them. 



Dr. Pinches makes a little reference to the astronomy of Babylon, 

 That is a subject upon which I would like to say a few words, but 

 not to-night — it would take one too far. The history of the begin- 

 nings of astronomy is one of very great interest, and Dr. Pinches 

 and other Assyriologists have thrown a great deal of light upon it. 



On page 113 Dr. Pinches notes that when speaking of Babylonia 

 Xenophon uses the word Assyria. I should like to ask him what he 

 would say about the use of the words Assyria and Babylonia in 

 Holy Scripture. To the ordinary layman Assyria is sometimes used 

 where he would expect Babylonia and Babylonia where he would 

 expect Assyria, and the Higher Critics have laid much stress on the 

 fact. 



There was just one other point I wished to mention. Dr. Pinches 

 says : — 



Cyrus proposes that labourers (agriculturists) should be 

 left by both sides to pursue their daily work, in order that, 

 after the war, want and famine might be avoided, and to this 

 the Assyrian king consents. 



Commentators on the Book of Job have pointed out that it has 

 been generally the custom of the Bedouin Arabs to raid the agricul- 

 tural districts, but it was a point of honour with them that they left 

 the men alive. They did not kill the cattle or the labourers ; they 

 regarded them as the goose that laid the golden egg, and expected 

 to come back the next year and raid them again. But you 

 remember that Job's servants told him that the Sabeans and the 

 Chaldeans had fallen upon them and slain the men at the ploughs. 

 Dr. Pinches may be able to say whether that seemed to throw any 

 light on this particular matter — whether the Chaldeans were usually 

 in the habit of doing what the Bedouin Arabs abstained from doing 

 — that is to say, slaughtering the peasants instead of merely robbing 

 them. 



