separate notice; we shall therefore proceed at once to the consideration of these particulars in relation to the latter people.

Government of the Babylonians.-This, like that of all other Eastern states, was essentially despotic, gradually degenerating from the pure patriarchal form into the sway of an absolute monarch. Everything centred in the person of the sovereign; all decrees were issued by him; and, claiming a supernatural character, he even demanded divine worship. The names of the kings, accordingly, were derived from those of their gods, or of former rulers who were confounded with them; and, on a similar principle, they affected strict retirement from the vulgar eye, and seldom appeared in public.

Haughty and arrogant as they were, these autocrats were nevertheless obliged to have frequent communion with their nobles, with whom we find them occasionally feasting, and from whom were selected the chief officers who administered the government of the country. Of the duties of some of these functionaries we are incidentally informed by various authors; and it appears that the judges were divided into three sections, and chosen from the gravest personages of the empire. On the first class devolved the regulation of marriage, and the punishment of all crimes which violated its sacred obligations; the second took cognizance of robberies and thefts; and the third decided in all civil affairs. We find also, from the book of Daniel, that Nebuchadnezzar deputed his authority to princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counsellors, and sheriffs, whose duty it was to maintain good order in all departments of the imperial service. Again, from the same source, we gather that the great king had a household corresponding in the extent of its establishment to his mighty state, including the captain of his guard, the prince of his eunuchs, the supreme judge, and the chief of the magicians, who were always in attendance. The first of these was the minister of his justice; the second had charge of the interior of the royal dwelling, and the education of the youth who were brought up within the palace; the third sat at the king's gate, that is, in an adjoining apartment, to hear complaints and to pass judgment; the last attended near his person, to interpret all omens and dreams, fix fortunate periods, and to satisfy the monarch's mind with

regard to everything that related to prognostication. All these were chosen on account of their personal qualities, as well as the excellence of their mental endowments. He was saluted with the Oriental form of "O king! live forever!" which resembles nearly the mode of address adopted at the present day towards the great sovereigns of Asia, whose courts, in respect of attendance and magnificence, bear a close resemblance to those of the Assyrian and Mesopotamian empires.

Of their laws nothing in detail appears to be known, except that strange and revolting arrangement, particularly described by Herodotus and Strabo, whereby it was provided that, instead of parents disposing of their own daughters in marriage, all young women should be brought to a public place appointed for the purpose, and put up for sale, one by one, to the highest bidder. The money thus obtained for the most beautiful was employed in obtaining husbands for those left without an offer, and who were disposed of in the same manner, with a premium proportioned to their want of personal attraction. But the historian informs us also that the whole business was conducted with the strictest attention to decorum, being always under the superintendence of the officers appointed for this duty, respectable by their age and rank, and who, before the bargain was concluded, received security from each purchaser that he would marry the object of his choice.

We have no information respecting their punishments, farther than that they appear to have been inflicted according to the will or caprice of the reigning monarch. This we see exemplified in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and in that of the prophet himself, when, through the intrigue of his enemies, he was cast into the den of lions.

The administration of their various religious rites was committed to the Chaldeans, who composed the hierarchy of the country, and engrossed the whole of their boasted learning. They were not only the priests, but formed the scientific body of the nation, pretending to the gift of prophecy, a knowledge of augury and divination, and the power, by means of enchantment, of influencing the destinies of men. By these means they acquired a most dangerous influence over their superstitious countrymen; but who these Chaldeans originally were, is a problem

that has never yet been satisfactorily solved, although frequently made the subject of much learned discussion. Even the stock from which they sprung, and the land where they first acquired power, are matters still involved in darkness. From the profane writers of antiquity we gain little knowledge on the subject; and although they are frequently mentioned in Scripture, the notices are isolated, and sometimes obscure. Thus far it is certain that they were a distinct nation as far back as the days of Terah, the father of Abraham, who lived "in Ur of the Chaldees;" and it may be inferred, from a statement in the book of Job, that they were a predatory race. Yet the prophet Isaiah, it might be thought, must have had some other people in his view when he said, "Behold the land of the Chaldeans: this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that awell in the wilderness." Could this have been applied to a tribe who lived in Mesopotamia in the days of Terah and Abraham ?

Heeren, following Gesenius in his disquisition on this very text, is disposed to seek for the original Chaldeans in the mountains of Kurdistan, or still farther to the north, and suggests that the name may have been applied by the Semitic nations to the more barbarous tribes of upper Asia, as that of Turani afterward was, by the inhabitants of Iran or Persia, to the Tartars. He regards them as a nomad race, who, about the year B.C. 630, descending from the mountains of Taurus and Caucasus, overwhelmed southern Asia, and, entering the Mesopotamian plains, first as mercenaries, at length started forth as conquerors, and made themselves masters of the rich provinces of Babylonia and Syria. This, however, appears to be a mere conjecture, founded on insufficient grounds, and inconsistent with the declaration of Scripture as to the existence of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia at a much earlier period.

Mr. Faber, who has treated the question fully in his ingenious work upon Pagan Idolatry, regards the Chaldeans as a branch of the descendants of Cush, the son of Ham; and his theory is so curious that we shall attempt a very slight sketch of it, in order to give the reader an idea of

note.

Chap. i., 17. + Chap. xxiii., 13. Historical Researches, 3 vols. 8vo, Oxford, 1833, vol. ii., p. 147, and

the various speculations to which this dark subject has given rise.

This learned author supposes that the descendants of Noah did not quit the land of Armenia at an early period after the Flood, but that the patriarch lived and died in the vicinity of the spot whence he issued from the Ark. No sooner did his personal influence cease to be felt, than divisions took place among his progeny, which disposed the different families or clans to a separation. Nimrod, a man of an ambitious spirit and powerful mind, being surrounded by his kindred, who regarded him with devotion, naturally controlled the councils of the whole body, who, passive and disunited, easily submitted to his sway. To restrain the turbulent, laws soon became necessary, as well as officers to administer and an armed police to enforce them. These statutes were framed, of course, by the great leader, whose family constituted the magistrates, and from whose tribe were chosen the conservators of the peace; who, thus armed, and formed into a disciplined band, became the first military establishment-an irresistible engine in the hands of the mighty hunter.

But the religion professed by these early inhabitants of the earth-a devotion to the will of the one almighty Creator-was unfavourable to the project of absolute dominion entertained by Nimrod; for the command of God had gone forth that they were to separate, and replenish the earth with human beings: a consummation which the ambitious chief sought to prevent. To effect his purpose, a change of worship was necessary, and that, accordingly, became his next object. To administer this new religion a priesthood was indispensable, selected from his own military caste, whose interests were identified with those of the tribe, and in whom alone their ruler could trust. Such an institution would, of course, be reverenced and upheld by soldiers proud of their privileges, who, at the same time, would naturally regard their holy brethren as their best coadjutors in obtaining and preserving their own power.

Such was Nimrod, the leader of the Noachites, and on such a basis was his power constituted, when, according to our author, he led the unbroken nation of mankind, about 559 years after the Flood, from the country of Armenia into the plains of Shinar, and about 54 years later commenced the tower and city of Babel. This undertaking, a short

time afterward, was brought to an abrupt conclusion by divine interposition; whence followed the ordained dispersion of mankind.

The moral effect of so severe a blow upon such a proud nation would, it is supposed, appear in dividing them into many portions, each of whom would seek their own fortune where chance might lead, some containing individuals of all classes and castes, others composed entirely of priests and military; which last would carry with them a high notion of their former privileges, and claim for themselves the peculiar honours due to a race of unpolluted nobility.

This tribe or clan, of which Nimrod was the chief, and, in fact, the king, is designated by Mr. Faber the Cushim or Cuthim, as being the descendants of Cush, the son of Ham; and they are regarded by him as fulfilling a very exalted destiny, and sustaining a most remarkable part in the history of mankind. It is imagined by many that Ham and his race became accursed on account of the sin against his father Noah; but this exposition of the well-known passage in the 9th chapter of Genesis is rejected by the author just named, who, for reasons which he sets forth, conceives the curse to be limited to Canaan, while he confers the sceptre of the world on the warlike posterity of Cush, notwithstanding that reading of the Sacred Volume which blesses both Shem and Japheth, and gives to them Canaan as their servant.

He also maintains that the first postdiluvian empire, that of the Cuthites, commenced with the institution of an idolatrous religion at Babel. After this, he admits, Scripture is silent on the future fate of the family; but he nevertheless asserts that there is no quarter of the world where the name and the race are not to be found. He conceives that, while many of them emigrated to different quarters of the earth, Nimrod, with the portion who adhered to him, founded Babel, and three subordinate towns; and that he afterward went forth to Nineveh, where he discovered the family and descendants of Asshur already settled. These he drove out, and built a city after his own name, while his former capital, now abandoned, sunk for a time into a merely provincial town. Meanwhile, the dispersed Cuthites took their way in various directions, settling at first principally in the mountainous tract which stretches from