178 
cities, and erecting temples, and Babylon was thus inhabited 
again. 
Several things are to be noted here. In the first place, 
that the Babylonians believed their history (like our Genesis) 
referred to the beginning of all things, man , of course, in- 
cluded. In the next place this is the first account we have 
of the art of writing being known before the flood.* The 
Greek of the original, from Apollodorus, speaks more clearly 
of the writings as ypafifiara, and these records , it says, 
were to be buried at Sippara, and were again dug up. This 
would correspond well with their being recorded, as Pliny 
says, on baked tiles , — a most lasting kind of deposit. The 
Temple of the Sun, at Sippara, was celebrated, and was repaired 
by an early Babylonian king.f 
Now, whatever truth there may be in all this, one thing is 
clear, that the Babylonians had no other conception than that 
of a religious history of mankind ; that they believed in his 
early civilisation, and connected together in their thoughts the 
first and second home of mankind. 
Another remarkable connexion to which I can only allude 
is the widely-diffused belief in Idris , or Seth, as a great astro- 
nomer, whose 'writings had come down to the Sabians, the 
star-worshippers of the new world. In the Babylonian account 
of the Deluge it is said that when the window of the ark was 
opened “ the land appeared high and mountainous, for it rose 
12 degrees above the horizon.^J This curious passage (accord- 
ing to Fox Talbot) seems to show that the Chaldeans used 
instruments for measuring and surveying. And since 12 
degrees is a very reasonable and probable elevation for a 
mountainous coast, seen not far off, it is likely that they 
divided the circle into 360 degrees, as we do. 
Not only do we find traces of a remarkable amount of 
civilisation, but also, however hidden under a mass of idolatry, 
we see clearly that they believed in one Supreme Being, — 
“ the god One also in a future life of blessedness to the 
righteous and destruction to the wicked. See a paper by Fox 
Talbot on “ The Beligious Belief of the Assyrians.” || 
A remarkable instance of a common knowledge of God as 
the Supreme Euler is found in 2 Chron. xxxvi. v. 13, where 
* Cory, p. 29. 
t Smith’s Early History of Babylonia ; also Rawlinson’s Herodotus , i. 358. 
X Soc. Bib. Arch. Trans. , iv. p. 58. 
§ Rawlinson speaks thus : — “ I have already stated that the Monad or 
single deity, was placed above and apart from the Triads, and that the great 
gods of the Egyptian pantheon were the deified attributes of the God One. ” 
— Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians , vol. ii. p. 487. 
f{ Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., ii. p. 50. 
