ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE EUPHRATES. 
337 
indeed “ cast her forth from her grave,” and re-awakened learned 
men to a new interest in what Babylon had been, and what it still 
was ; the antiquarian, rejoicing in the ancient specimens of the 
arts it might present to his curiosity ; the historian and the 
divine, in the connecting lights its present appearance might 
throw on history and religion. From succeeding travellers, Pere 
Emanuel, Niebuhr, Beauchamp, &c. we have had accounts of 
different parts of the remains; but amongst them all, none seem 
to have gone so far into the desert as to notice the Birs Nim- 
rood, excepting the two first; and the one could not approach 
near enough to make the observations he wished ; while the 
other observed to so little purpose, “ that, if we may judge from 
the inaccurate description he gives, (remarks Mr. Rich,) he might 
as well never have seen it at all.” 
The ruins of the city, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, 
lay on more protected ground; and hence we have various 
accounts of them by all their pens. But Mr. Rich, from his 
residence near the spot, and consequent opportunity of estimat¬ 
ing the value of each published observation, even now considers 
“ the site of Babylon, as not having yet been either thoroughly 
explored, or described.” His own “ Memoir” on the subject, 
however, gives that satisfaction to the mind of his reader, which 
it appears he had vainly sought in others; and the sight of his 
manuscript, on the remains of a place I was determined to ex¬ 
plore to the farthest reach of granted facilities, could not but 
doubly excite my ambition. 
When we consider that so many centuries have passed, since 
Babylon became a deserted habitation, and that it yet lay in the 
neighbourhood of populous nations, our surprise ought to be, 
not that we find so little of its remains, but that we see so much. 
VOL. II. 
X X 
