FROM WORLD-DOMINION TO SUBJECTION. 



135 



Rawliiison have found Nebuchadrezzar's bricks in so many towns 

 and villages 1 



The Chairman : I think the meeting will agree to pass a hearty 

 vote of thanks to Dr. Pinches for a paper of most uncommon 

 inte?est, and also for the very beautiful series of slides with which 

 he supplemented it. 



Di. Pinches : I am very much obliged to you for your kind 

 reception of my paper, and for the vote of thanks. Our Chairman 

 is an authority upon astronomy ; and I have no intention of con- 

 troverting what he says in that matter. I was much interested in 

 what he said of the wells in the Punjab. I think it very possible 

 that ihe fertility of Babylonia might be increased by some such 

 mean^ She has rivers, and I believe Sir AVilliam Willcocks' scheme 

 consisted in digging canals. 



Th( remarks upon Cyrus's proposal that the labourers should be 

 sparec were also very interesting. I am quite prepared to accept 

 the tleory that the Chaldeans were a very merciless lot, though 

 proba)ly they were not worse than many other nations and tribes 

 amonj- their contemporaries. I do not think Cyrus had any intention 

 of reommending that the labourers and cattle should be spared in 

 ordei that he might come and rob them again the next year. I 

 thinl his aim was higher. His aim was to become king of 

 Babylonia, and leave the people in possession of all their property. 



I im glad to think with regard to the Book of Daniel that the 

 Higier Criticism is in fact buried. The tablets of which I have 

 pubished accounts certainly do seem to imply that the portion of 

 the Book of Daniel referring to the taking of Babylon is as correct 

 as ve could expect it to be. That is exceedingly satisfactory. 



] have mentioned in the paper that there is no distinction in 

 Assyrian inscriptions between " build " and " re-build," and that 

 miy be the case in Daniel. So when Nebuchadrezzar said, " Is not 

 tlis great Babylon which I have built ? " the word " rebuilt " would 

 come within the meaning of the term employed. I do not say that 

 je claims to have built Babylon. We know that Babylon and its 

 temples go back to a more ancient period than his time, or even 

 that of his father. One thing is certain, that portions of Babylon 

 were destroyed again and again and rebuilt by various kings ; and 

 Nebuchadrezzar did not claim to have done more than that. 



The fertility of Babylonia is very great. It would be a very fine 



