ing in the sight of the Almighty; and hence the result of his displeasure, their dispersion.

"When Babel was confounded, and the great
Confederacy of projectors, wild and vain,
Was split into diversity of tongues,
Then, as a shepherd separates his flock,
These to the upland, to the valley those,
God drave asunder, and assign'd their lot
To all the nations. Ample was the boon
He gave them, in its distribution fair

And equal; and he bade them dwell in peace."-Cowper.

But has man obeyed his high commands? Ask of history, and of observation, and they will answer, No! The same restless ambition has been displayed by man in all ages of the world; and many, full many, are the Babel builders of our own day. But what availeth their devices and designs? Opposed by the powerful arm of Omnipotence, they were quickly brought to nought; and men are taught to experience the truth of the wise man's words, that

"There is no wisdom, nor understanding

Nor counsel against the Lord."-Prov. xxi. 30.

He sits in the heavens, and defeats the impotent attempts of those who oppose his will; and though the whole world should confederate against him, the rebuke of the prophet might be applied to them with beautiful propriety.

"Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; And give ear, all ye of far countries;

Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces;

Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought.

Speak the word, and it shall not stand."-Isa. viii. 9 10.

It is the wisdom of man to bow at the footstool of his Creator, to ask of him wisdom to know, and strength to perform his holy will; it is his happiness to lay down his arms of rebellion, and to seek his mercy through Christ.

The building of a lofty tower is applicable, in the most remarkable manner, to the wide and level plains of Babylonia. In that plain no object exists, different to another, to guide the stranger in his journeying; and which, in those days, as in the present, was a sea of land, the compass of which was unknown. The effect of these high places remains as striking

as ever.

"Chaldean beacons over the drear land
Seen faintly from thick tower'd Babylon
Against the sunset."

the pile of Akkerkoof, the memorable Birs, and the still ore colossal mounds of Urchoe, Teredon, and Irak, alough they deceive the traveller as to distance, yet still faithlly guide him to one point in his destination."

'There is no statement that this great work sustained any mage at the confusion: it is simply stated that the erection ased. What were its precise dimensions, it is not possible state different writers make it range from a furlong to ve thousand miles in height! As there was no stone to be und in the alluvial tract washed and produced by the floods 'the Euphrates and Tigris, all the building, of whatever kind, ust have been built of brick, and cemented in the manner entioned in Scripture. "And they had brick for stone, and ime had they for mortar," Gen. xi. 3.

It is generally supposed, that this fabric was in a considerble state of forwardness at the confusion, and that it could ave sustained no considerable damage, when the building f Babylon was recommenced. From hence, it is not improbble that the original Tower of Babel formed the nucleus that amazing tower which, in the time of the early authors t classical antiquity, stood in the midst of the temple which as built by Nebuchadnezzar, in honour of the idol god BeThis was called the

18.

TOWER OF BELUS.

It would appear that Nebuchadnezzar, whose reign comenced about 605 years B. c., took the idea of making this ncient pile the principal ornament of the city, which it was is delight to render famous. The earliest authentic infornation concerning this tower, in common history, is derived from the pages of Herodotus. This author did not inspect it, however, till thirty years after it had been damaged by Xerxes, king of Persia, who did so in his indignation against the form of idolatry with which it had become associated. He describes the spot as a sacred inclosure, dedicated to Jupiter Belus, consisting of a regular square, of 1,000 feet on each side, and adorned with gates of brass. In the midst of this area arose a tower, whose length, breadth, and altitude, was 500 feet. The structure consisted of eight towers, one above another, and on the outside, steps were formed, wind

VOL II.

ing up to each tower, and in the middle of every flight seats were provided as resting places. In the topmost tower there was a magnificent chamber sacred to Belus. This chamber was furnished with a splendid couch, near which was a table of gold. There was no statue there when Herodotus visited Babylon, whence some have concluded that the Assyrians imagined the deity frequented his temple when he pleased. Diodorus, however, states, that there was originally a statue of Belus, forty feet high, erected on its summit; and Herodotus himself was informed by the Chaldeans, that there formerly stood in the temple of Belus, a statue of solid gold, twelve cubits high, which was spared by Darius Hystaspes, but afterwards was taken away by Xerxes, who slew the priest that forbade its removal. But this latter statue is supposed by Dr. Hales to be the "golden image," made by Nebuchadnezzar, in all the pride of conquest, which he set up as an object of idolatrous worship to his subjects, as recorded by the prophet Daniel. See Dan. iii. 1. It was evidently, he says, distinct from the statue of Jupiter Belus, noticed by Diodorus, and was designed to represent Nebuchadnezzar himself, or the genius of his empire, according to Jerome, supported by Daniel :- "Thou art this head of gold," Dan. ii. 38.

The riches of the temple of Belus, in statues, tables, censers, cups, and other sacred vessels, were immense. All were of massy gold. According to Diodorus, the sum total amounted to 6,300 Babylonish talents of gold, or rather more than 21, 000,000l. sterling.

About two centuries after the devastations committed by Xerxes, Alexander, among other projects, conceived an idea of restoring this celebrated tower to its pristine splendour. As a preparatory step to this undertaking, he employed 10,000 men to remove the rubbish which had fallen from the dilapidated structure; but, after they had laboured therein two months, Alexander died, and the work ceased. From this it may be inferred by the reader, that but faint traces of the original structure can remain at the present day. Such is the case; and hence it is that some identify it with the Mujelibe, about 950 yards east of the Euphrates, and five miles above the modern tower of Hillah; others with the Birs Nemrud, to the west of that river, and about six miles to the southwest of Hillah; and others with Nimrod's tower at Akkerkoof.

THE MUJELIBE.

The Mujelibe was first supposed-by Pietro Della Velle to be the Tower of Belus. This traveller examined its ruins A.D. 1616, and he characterizes the mass as "a mountain of ruins," and again, as a "huge mountain." He is supported in his opinion by D'Anville, Rennell, and other high names; but none of them, except Kenneir, possessed any distinct information concerning the Birs Nemroud.

The Mujelibe, or "overturned," is one of the most enormous masses of brick-formed earth, raised by the art and labour of man. According to Rich, the mound is of an oblong shape, irregular in its height, with its sides facing the cardinal points. The measurement of the northern side being 200 yards in length; the southern 219; the eastern 182; and the western 136. The elevation of the south-east, or highest angle, he says, is 141 feet. is 141 feet. The western face of the building is most interesting, on account of the appearance which it presents. It is a straight wall, that seems to have cased and parapeted this side of the magnificent pile. The south-west angle is rounded off; but whether it was so formed, or it has been thus worn by the hand of time, cannot be stated. On the summit, it is crowned with something like a turret, or lantern. The other angles are not so perfect, but it is probable, they were originally thus ornamented. The western face is the easiest, and the northern the most difficult of access. Every portion of this mighty structure, though erected as if it would resist the utmost shock of time, has been torn by the rains, which here fell in torrents, with the force and body of water-spouts, in a terrific manner. The eastern face, particularly, is worn into a deep channel, from the summit to the base. The summit is covered with heaps of rubbish; in digging into which, layers of broken burned brick, cemented with mortar, are discovered, and whole bricks, with antique inscriptions on them, are not unfrequently found. The whole. is covered with fragments of pottery, brick, bitumen, pebbles, vitrified scoriæ, and even shells, bits of glass, and mother of pearl. Dens of wild beasts (in one of which Rich found the bones of sheep and other animals) are very numerous among this ruin; and in most of the ravines are numbers of bats and owls. Yes, these mighty buildings, which were once, perhaps, the chambers of royalty, are now the haunts of jackals, and other ferocious animals; reminding us of the awful prediction of the prophet:

"Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there;

And their houses shall be full of doleful creatures;

And owls shall dwell there,

And satyrs shall dance there,

And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses,
And dragons in their pleasant palaces.”—Īsa. xiii. 21, 22.

It may be mentioned that the Hebrew word Sheirim, rendered "satyr" here, is translated by Dr. Henderson "wild goats," and it literally signifies " hairy ones;" a signification still preserved in the Vulgate. In Gen. xxvii. 11, 23; in Lev. iv. 24, xvi. 9, it is applied to the goat; and in Lev. xvii. 7. 2 Chron. xi. 15, to objects of idolatrous worship, perhaps in the form of goats, and translated "devils." It is probable, that in the verse quoted, and in Isa. xxxiv. 14, some kind of wild goat is intended; but it may be interesting to observe, that Rich, who explored these masses A. D. 1812, heard the oriental account of satyrs while thus employed. He had always imagined the belief of the existence of such creatures to be confined to the mythology of the west, but a Tahohadar who accompanied him accidentally mentioned that, in this desert, there is an animal resembling a man from the head to the waist, and having the thighs and the legs of a goat and a sheep. He also informed him that the Arabs hunt it with dogs, and eat the lower parts, abstaining from the upper, on account of their resemblance to the human species The belief of the existence of such creatures, however ideal, is by no means rare in the vicinity of the Babylonian wilds.

BIRS NEMROUD.

It has been observed, that every one who sees the Birs Nemroud feels at once, that of all the masses of ruin found in this region, there is not one which so nearly corresponds with his previous notions of the Tower of Babel; and he will decide that it could be no other, if he is not discouraged by the apparent difficulty of reconciling the statements of the ancient writers concerning the Temple of Belus with the situation of this ruin on the western bank, and its distance from the river and the other ruins. This difficulty is not insuperable; but without identifying the Birs Nemroud with the Temple of Belus, we prefer giving the reader a description of it, leaving him to draw his own conclusions.

This sublime ruin stands in the midst of a solitary waste, like the awful figure of Prophecy herself, pointing to the