Selections, 



[NO. 2 5 NEW SERIES^ 



scriptions Hur, and representing the biblical Ur of the Chaldees, 

 inscriptions have been found of a king, " Kudur, the conqueror of 

 Syria," who was probably the Chedorlaomer of the Bible. At any 

 rate, a king named Ismi-Dagan, who lived some generations later, 

 is proved, by a series of chronological dates found in the Assyrian 

 tablets, to belong to the 19th century B.C., so that the era of the 

 earlier king agrees pretty well with the ordinary computation of 

 the age of Abraham. The names of about twenty-five kings have 

 been recovered of the ancient period, and there are good grounds 

 for believing that the Assyrians did not succeed in establishing an 

 independent empire at Nineveh till the early part of the fifteenth 

 century B.C. 



From B.C. 1273 to 625, the Assyrians seem to have been the lords 

 paramount of Western Asia, and their history is preserved in an 

 almost continuous series of documents, from the institution of the 

 empire to the taking of Nineveh by the Medes and Babylonians. 

 During the later part of this period, or from about 800 B.C., Jew- 

 ish history runs in a parallel line with that of Assyria ; and where- 

 ever a comparison can be instituted between the sacred records and 

 the contemporary annals of Nineveh, the most complete agreement 

 is discovered between them ; and that not only in regard to the 

 names of the kings, but also in respect to their order of succession, 

 their relationship to each other, the wars in which they were engag- 

 ed, and even the leading features of those wars. Col. Rawlinson 

 noticed many such examples of coincidence, and drew attention to 

 the great value of the verification which was thus obtained of Scrip- 

 ture history. 



The third, or Babylonian period, was then shortly discussed ; the 

 reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus being especially selected 

 for illustration. A description was given of the excavation of the 

 great ruin near Babylon called Birs Nimrud, and a translation was 

 read of the edict of Nebuchadnezzar inscribed upon the clay cylind- 

 ers, which were found imbedded in the walls of the temple. A 

 number of original relics, discovered among the ruins of Chaldasa, 

 Assyria, and Babylonia, and illustrative of these three periods of 

 history, were also exhibited to the meeting, previously to their 

 being deposited in the British Museum. 



