London or Paris, when viewed as the abodes of men! Here are seen, monuments of every art and science; the astonishing effects of commerce; opulence and independence reigning among all classes; the diffusion of knowledge; the reign of science; freedom and plenty.

9. The Assyrian empire rose, flourished, and fell, while the world was in its infancy. Few maxims of its government have reached our times; few incidents have escaped oblivion; and those which have, are doubtless tinctured with the stream of tradition, passing through long and bewildering tracks of time. From what we can gather from such dubious lights, we are led to conclude that the fabric of ancient monarchical governments was very simple. It may be expressed in a few words, sovreign power, and absolute subjection. Where the monarch chanced to be an amiable character, the condition of the subject was very tolerable; but power so unrestrained in the hands of a bad man, produced the most dreadful tyranny.

QUESTIONS.

1. Of what country is now ancient Assyria a part?-2. Who first settled it?--3. Who next took possession of it?-4. What was the political importance of Assyria?—5. What title did her kings assume?-6. What two memorable cities did Assyria contain?-7. Where was Nineveh situated ?-8. How was it surrounded?-9. How many inhabitants did it contain?--10. Where was Babylon situated?-11. What was its form?-12. How large its circumference?-13. What was the height of the wall that surrounded it?-14. Under whose direction was Nineveh built? —15. What was the origin of Babylon?-16. Who is supposed to have taken possesion of Babel or Babylon, after the confusion of language?-17. Who raised Babylon to its most renowned state?-18. Why did Semiramis thus enlarge and adorn this city?-19. How many persons is she said to have employed in the work?-20. What may be said generally of the Assyrian kings?-21. Which one of them, whose life and reign are recorded, is deserving of particular notice?-22. What important circumstances particularly distinguished the reign of Sennacherib?-23. What was the effect of his defeat, when attompting the reduction of Jerusalem ?--24. At what time did the Assyrian empire commence ?-25. How long did it exist?-26. Who took and destroyed Nineveh ?-27. Who took Babylon?-28. How was its conquest effected?--29. When was it?--30. After

the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, who attempted to make it the capital of his empire?-31. What was its condition after the death of Alexander?-32. Does it now exist?--33. Is the exact place of its situation known to us?-34. How do Nineveh and Babylon compare with modern cities?

THE RUINS OF BABYLON.

THE many coloured domes*

Yet wore one dusty hue,

The cranes upon the Mosque

Kept their night-clatter still;

When through the gate the early traveller pass'd,
And when, at evening o'er the swampy plain
The bittern's boom came far,

Distinct in darkness seen,

Above the low horizon's lingering light
Rose the near ruins of old Babylon.
Once, from her lofty walls, the charioteer
Look'd down on swarming myriads; once she flung
Her arches o'er Euphrates' conquered tide,
And through her brazen portals when she pour'd ̋
Her armies forth, the distant nations look'd
As men who watch the thunder-cloud in fear
Lest it should burst above them.-She was fallen!
The queen of cities, Babylon, was fallen!

Low lay her bulwarks-the black scorpion basked
In palace courts within the sanctuary

The she-wolf hid her whelps.

Is yonder huge and shapeless heap, what once
Hath been the aërial gardens' height on height,
Rising, like Media's mountains, crown'd with wood,
Work of imperial dotage? Where the fane
Of Belus? Where the golden image now,
Which, at the sound of dulcimer and lute,
Cornet and sackbut, harp and psaltery,
The Assyrian slaves ador'd?

* Of Bagdad.

A labyrinth of ruins, Babylon

Spreads o'er the blasted plain.

The wandering Arab never sets his tent
Within her walls. The shepherd eyes afar
Her evil towers, and devious drives his flock.
Alone unchang'd, a free and bridgeless tide,
Euphrates rolls along,

Eternal nature's work.

Through the broken portal,
Over weedy fragments,
Thalaba went his way.

Cautious he trod, and felt

The dangerous ground before him with his bow.
The jackal started at his steps;

The stork, alarmed at sound of man,
From her broad nest upon the old pillar top,
Affrighted, fled on flapping wings;

The adder in her haunts disturb'd,
Lanc'd at the intruding staff her arrowy tongue.

Twilight and moonshine, dimly mingling, gave
An awful light obscure-
Evening not wholly clos'd-

The moon still pale and faint,-
An awful light obscure,

Broken by many a mass of blackest shade;
Long columns stretching dark through weeds and moss;
Broad length of lofty wall,
Whose windows lay in light,

And of their former shape, low-arch'd or square,
Rude outline on the earth
Figured, with long grass fringed.

Reclin'd against a column's broken shaft,
Unknowing whitherward to bend his way,
He stood and gaz'd around.

The ruins closed him in-
It seem'd as if no foot of man
For ages had intruded there—
He stood and gaz'd awhile,

Musing on Babel's pride, and Babel's fall;.
Then, through the ruin'd street,
And through the farther gate,
He pass'd in silence on.

THE EGYPTIANS.

THE Egyptians are among the earliest nations of which we have any account. The Mosaic writings represent Egypt, about 436 years after the flood, a flourishing and well regulated kingdom. This circumstance is sufficient evidence, that Egypt was peopled soon after the flood, in order to have become a well regulated kingdom, at the time mentioned by the inspired writer The nature of the country also itself affords a presumption of the great antiquity of the empire, and its early civilization. From the fertilizing effects of the waters of the Nile, it is probable that agriculture would be more early practised here, than in regions less favoured by nature.

2. Although the Egyptian history is much connected with fable, it is pretty well ascertained, that the Egyptians were considered as the most enlightened people in the world and that the other ancient nations were much indebted to them for their knowledge in arts and sciences. The Egyptians instructed the Greeks-the Greeks performed the same office to the Romans-and the latter have transmitted much of that knowledge to the world, of which we are in possession to this day. The Egyptians were probably the first who made any considerable, if not the first who made any advances in Geometry, Astronomy, and Medicine; and it is generally supposed, they made no mean proficiency in Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture.

3. The government of Egypt was a hereditary monarchy. The powers of the monarch were limited by constitutional laws; yet in many respects his authority was extremely despotical. The penal laws were uncommonly severe. Funeral rites were not confer

red, till an examination was had, and a judicial decree passed approving the character of the deceased The characters even of the sovereigns were subjected to this inquiry. There was also an extraordinary regulation in Egypt regarding the borrowing of money. The borrower gave in pledge the body of his father, which was deprived of funeral rites if he failed to redeem it. 4. The busbandmen devoted their whole attention to agriculture; and the son continually succeeded the fa ther in his occupation-thus they became the most famous for tillage, of any people in the world. The shepherds also followed the same vocation from one generation to another, and consequently attained to great skill in pastoral concerns, endeavouring to vie with each other in contrivances for the increase of their flocks. The same law which compelled the descendants of the shepherd and husbandman to follow the vocation of their ancestors, extended to arts and trades of every description; for every Egyptian was obliged to take up his father's employment, and to apply himself wholly to that, without presuming to intermeddle with any other.

5. The Egyptians had a great number of gods of different ranks and orders-the two principal ones were Osiris and Isis, supposed to have been the sun and moon, whose influences preserved and governed the world. They reckoned these two planets the great causes of generation and nutrition, and the sources from whence the other parts of nature, which they also regarded as deities, were derived. And notwithstanding their attainments in science, this people was so grossly idolatrous, that, exclusive of the worship they paid their pretended gods, they actually bestowed divine honours on animals and vegetables of almost every description.

6. It is unanimously agreed, by historians, that Menes, who in Scripture is called Misraim, the second son of Ham, was the first person who swayed the Egyptian sceptre. A large number of the kings of Egypt, like those of other ancient nations, are only known to us by their names. Herodotus, the Grecian historian, mentions that Egypt had a catalogue of three hundred and