rounded by a ditch, out of which the bricks had been made. They were afterwards reduced to the height of fifty cubits, by Darius Hystaspes. Above the city two canals were cut to convey the flood water of the Euphrates to the Tigris; and to the west was an artificial lake, said to have been forty miles square, into which the waters of the river could, when necessary, be diverted. The palace of Nebuchadnezzar was constructed on the western side, near the bridge connecting the two parts of the city, and is represented as having been eight miles in circuit; but this, doubtless, included the royal gardens and parks. There were several brazen gates, and many idols of gold, especially one of Belus, thirty feet high, placed on a pedestal of the height of fifty feet. But there was yet another wonder of art for which this ancient city was celebrated, and which may be said to have been its peculiar distinction ;-I allude to its hanging gardens. Of these we know little, but that they were piled into successive sloping terraces, and reached, in their utmost elevation, as high as the walls, being founded on immense vaults, rising successively higher and higher as they receded from the city, and thus forming a beautiful and refreshing prospect to the inhabitants, as if they had been surrounded by hills in full cultivation. This deception must have been peculiarly grateful and imposing, from its forming a remarkable contrast to the plain of almost interminable extent, in the midst of which the city was built. The present state of this once magnificent city, demonstrates the instability of all earthly greatness, while it exhibits a very striking instance of the fulfilment of prophecy. It was foretold of this place, which seemed formed to resist all powers of decay, that it should "become heaps," and nothing can more graphically describe its present ruinous condition. Immense tumuli of temples, palaces, and human habitations of every description, form, in all directions, long and varied lines of ruins, which in some places" rather resemble natural hills, than mounds covering the remains of great and splendid edifices."*"Long mounds, running from north to south, are crossed by others from east to west," and are only distinguished by their form, direction, and number, from the decayed banks of canals. "Our path,' says Captain Mignan, "lay through the great mass of ruined heaps on the site of shrunken Babylon;' and I am perfectly incapable of conveying an adequate idea of the dreary, lonely nakedness which lay before me."+ "The decomposing materials of a Babylonian structure," observes another traveller, "doom the earth, on which they perish, to lasting sterility. On this part of the plain, both where traces of buildings were left, and where none had stood, all seemed equally naked of vegetation, the whole ground appearing as if it had been washed over and over again by the coming and receding waters, till every bit of genial soil was swept away; its half clayey, half sandy surface being left in ridgy streaks, like what is often seen on the flat shores of the sea, after the retreating of the tide."+ It is particularly worthy of remark, that of the immense walls of this ruined city, not a trace remains. "The broad walls of Babylon," said the prophet, "shall be utterly broken down;" and this prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter. Some slight remains of the arches on which were spread the hanging gardens attached to the walls, may here and there be remarked; but as to the walls themselves, Mr Rich observes, "I have not been fortunate enough to discover the least trace of them in any part of the ruins at Hillah; which," he adds, "is rather an unaccountable circumstance, considering that they survived the final ruin of the town, long after which they served as an enclosure for a park; in which comparatively perfect state, St Jerome informs us, they remained in his time."§ It is curious to attend to the Porter's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 294, 297. + Mignan's Travels, p. 139. Rich's Memoirs, pp. 43, 44. gradual disappearance of these mighty erections. In the sixteenth century, both the inner and outer walls, mentioned by Herodotus, could still be distinctly traced, and are described by Rauwolff, who visited the site, as two ascents, distinguished by a ditch, and extending themselves like unto two parallel walls, a great way about." The bricks, of which they were built, have been carried off, to erect other towns; while the rains of centuries, and the annual inundations of the Euphrates, have completed their extinction. I conclude this account of fallen Babylon, in the striking words of an eye-witness, whose interesting description I have already quoted more than once. “The whole view was particularly solemn. The majestic stream of the Euphrates, wandering in solitude, like a pilgrim monarch, through the silent ruins of his devastated kingdom, still appeared a noble river, under all the disadvantages of its desert-tracked course. Its banks were hoary with reeds; and the gray osier willows were yet there, on which the captives of Israel hung up their harps, refusing, while Jerusalem was not, to be comforted. But how is the rest of the scene changed since then! At that time, those broken hills were palaces,— those long undulating mounds, streets,—this vast solitude filled with the busy subjects of the proud daughter of the East. Now, wasted with misery, her habitations are not to be found,’—and for herself, is spread over her.”” * Porter's Travels, vol. ii. p. 207. the worm TENTH WEEK-FRIDAY. ARCHITECTURE.-ITS ANCIENT HISTORY AND PRACTICE- LITTLE is known of Nineveh, and that little is obscured with fable. Its destruction was effected before the date of authentic profane history, and those ancient historians who have recorded the tradition of its greatness and its fate, could only have been personal witnesses of its ruins. Before Herodotus, the oldest of these historians, wrote, it had long ceased to exist as the habitation of living men. Sacred Scripture, indeed, speaks of it as a city of vast extent, great population, and immense riches; but from the prophetical writings, which alone allude to it, no particular account of the nature of its edifices was to be expected. By heathen historians, its walls are said to have been a hundred feet in height, and sixty miles in compass, defended by fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet high. It was twice taken, first by Arbaces, about seven centuries and a half before the Christian era, and then by Cyaxares, after an interval of about eighty years, when it was finally destroyed; and so completely had the work of destruction been effected, that the very place where once it stood and awed the world, was for many centuries unknown, and still remains doubtful. This is one of the doomed cities of holy writ, and the prediction which foretold that the Lord would “make an utter end of the place thereof;" that it should become "a desolation, and dry like a wilderness," has been accomplished to the very letter. There are various other stupendous works of art in these extensive, and now comparatively desert regions, of which ancient history speaks. Among these the palace of Persepolis, whose ruins are still conspicuous, and the temple of Solomon, are the most remarkable of the era to which I allude. Of Palmyra and Balbec, the wonderful remains belong to a later period, being decidedly of Roman origin. I shall not, however, stop to give any description of these specimens of ancient art, being unwilling to be tedious. Of Solomon's magnificent and pious work, an ample description is contained in the sacred volume, which is in every body's hands; and Persepolis having been built by Eygptian workmen, exhibits too many traces of its origin to require more than a reference to what has been already said on that style of architecture. But there is one very remarkable trace of an ancient city in the south-west quarter of this region, which I must not pass over;-I allude to that of Petra, the celebrated capital of the descendants of Esau. This singular place has only lately been minutely surveyed; and, indeed, little more was known of it than that it was once the site of a flourishing city, till after the commencement of the present century, when it was visited first by Burkhardt, and afterwards, very recently, by Captains Irby and Mangles, whose interesting accounts, as quoted by Dr Keith, I shall follow. A narrow and circuitous defile surrounded on each side by precipitous or perpendicular rocks, varying from four hundred to seven hundred feet in altitude, and forming, for two miles, a sort of subterranean passage, opens on the east the way to the ruins of Petra. The rocks, or rather hills, then diverge on either side, and leave an oblong space, where once stood the metropolis of Edom, and where now lies a waste of ruins, encircled on every side, save on the north-east, by stupendous cliffs, which still show how the pride and labour of art tried there to vie with the sublimity of nature. Along the borders of these cliffs, detached masses of rock, numerous and lofty, have been wrought into sepulchres, the interior of which is excavated into chambers, while the exterior has been cut from the live rock into forms of towers, |