doubly destructive, from the native indolence of the Turks, by whom it is now inhabited.

Cities and Chief Towns.-Of the cities of Assyria, Nineveh was the chief, and the capital of the empire. This city derives its name most probably from Ninus, the son of Nimrod, by whom it was built.*

It is in vain that we search for the site of this once potent city. Some authors are of opinion that the village Nunia now stands upon the spot which was formerly occupied by Nineveh. But as to this there is a great diversity of opinion among learned men. And perhaps the truest opinion is, that the place of its situation is not to be discovered. This, indeed, appears to be the import of the prophetic denunciation," with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof," (Neh. i. 8.) that is, God will so destroy Nineveh, that not so much as the place where it once stood shall be known to after-ages. And this exposition seems confirmed by chap. iii. ver. 17. of the same prophecy: "Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day: but when the sun ariseth, they flee away,' and their place is not known where they (are, it is rendered in our Bible; but the verb not being expressed in the Hebrew, it may be, and actually is, in the Vulgate, rendered, where they) have been:" which rendering seems much more apposite and momentous than the other, denoting what is now come to pass; that the very place, where the kings and princes of the Assyrians once lived in such splendour, should in time be not discoverable. And this is particularly taken notice of by Lucian in one of his dialogues, where he says, that Ninus was so utterly destroyed, that there remained no footsteps of it, nor could one tell so much as where it once stood. (Wells, vol. i. p. 123.) Nineveh did not rise into greatness for some ages; but it at length became the greatest city in the world. It is said, (Jonah, iii. 3.) that "Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three

The reader will perceive that we have followed the marginal rendering of Gen. x. 11., which is most consistent with the original text, with many of the ancient versions, and with the subject upon which the historian is treating.

days' journey;" which well agrees with the accounts of Strabo, and Diodorus. The former expressly says, that it was larger than Babylon, and the latter gives us its particular dimensions, stating it to be 150 stadia long, and 90 broad, and consequently 480 in circuit, or 48 miles, reckoning 10 stadia to an English mile. Nor was its strength less than its size. Its walls were 100 feet high, and so broad, that three chariots could drive on them abreast; and on the walls were 1500 towers, each 200 feet in height. The number of inhabitants in Nineveh hardly corresponded with its amazing size. When Jonah was sent to declare its threatened ruin, it contained "more than six score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left, besides much cattle." (Jonah, iv. 11.) Reckoning these persons to have been infants of two years old, and under, and that these were a fifth part of the whole, which, as Bochart observes, is generally the case, all the inhabitants of Nineveh, would not be more than six hundred thousand. London, the circumference of which is scarcely more than one-third that of Nineveh, is supposed to contain, at the present time, 1,274,800 souls. Hence it will appear that the whole of this vast city was not built upon, but contained gardens, parks, and extensive fields, detached houses and buildings, like Babylon; and other great cities of the East, at the present day, as Bussorah, &c.

The other principal cities of Assyria were Calah, Resen, Bessara, Ctesiphon, Arbela, and Artemias, of which, haying shared the fate of Nineveh, it is rendered impossible to adduce any thing satisfactory.

Of Calah, Dr. Wells remarks, "since we find, in Strabo, a country about the head of the river Lycus, called Calachene, it is very probable, that the said country took this name from Calach, which was once the capital city of it. Ptolemy also mentions a country, called Calacine, in these parts. And whereas Pliny mentions a people called Classitæ, through whose country the Lycus runs, it is likely that Classitæ is a corruption of Calachitæ. To this city and country it was, in all probability, that Salmanassar transplanted some of the ten tribes of Israel, as we read, 2 Kings, xvii. 6." Resen is placed by Moses between

Calah and Nineveh, and is called " a great city." (Gen. x. 12.) This description of the inspired writer has induced some learned men to think it the same as that called by Xenophon, Larissa. It is certain that the situation of Larissa, on the Tigris, agrees well enough with the situation of Resen as described by Moses; as also does its size, being eight miles in compass, and having its walls 100 feet high, and 25 feet broad. Of Ctesiphon, it is here unnecessary to say more than that its remains are still to be seen; which indicate it to have been of large extent. Of the other cities which we have named we can give no information.

History.-Assyria would appear, on the authority of the scriptures, to have been the primitive abode of mankind, at least after the Universal deluge: and many remarkable coincidences are said to concur in support of this opinion. One writer (Adelung) observes, that the central plain of Asia, being the highest region in the globe, must have been the first to emergè from the universal ocean, and therefore first became capable of affording a habitable dwelling to terrestrial animals and to the human species; hence, as the subsiding waters gradually gave up the lower regions to be the abode of life, they may have descended and spread themselves progressively over their new acquisitions. The Desert of Kobi, which is the summit of the central steppe, is the most elevated ridge in the globe. From its vicinity the great rivers of Asia take their rise, and flow towards the four cardinal points. The Selinga, the Ob, the Irtish, the Lena, and the Jenisey, send their waters to the Frozen Ocean; the Jaik flows towards the setting sun; the Amur, and Hoangho, and the Indus, Ganges and Burampooter, towards the east and south, On the declivities of these high lands are the plains of Tibet, lower than the frozen region of Kobi, where many fertile tracts are well fitted to become the early seat of animated nature. Here are found not only the vine, the olive, rice, the legumina and other plants, on which man has in all ages depended, in a great measure, for his sustenance; but all those animals run wild upon these mountains, which he has tamed and led with

See Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. vol. ii. p. 409, &c,

him over the whole earth, as the ox, the horse, the ass, the sheep, the goat, the camel, the hog, the dog, the cat, and even the gentle rein-deer, which accompanies him even to the icy polar tracts. In Kashmire, plants, animals, and men exist in the greatest physical perfection. Other arguments are adduced in favour of this opinion, by referring the origin of the arts and sciences, especially of astronomy, to the centre of Asia.

The early part of the Assyrian history is involved in darkness, which it is not now possible to dissipate. The history of this empire, as handed down to us by Diodorus, Tragus, Justin, Castor, Eusebius, &c. is so contradictory and absurd, that we cannot possibly give it our assent. Nor is this such a reflection on these eminent men as the reader may at first sight conceive, for it is universally allowed that all their information was derived from the original historian, Ctesias of Cuidas, who was famous, even in his own time, as an arrant fabulist. Aristotle, who lived a very few years after him, asserts, that he was altogether unworthy of credit. Besides which, the fragments of Assyrian history given us by Herodotus, a far more ancient and honest historian, are incompatible with his account; and Dionysius of Halicarnassus affirms, that the Assyrian antiquities are involved in fable. Setting aside these testimonies, we may affirm, that Ctesias must appear unworthy of credit, from the nature of the events which he relates. His history of India is universally allowed to be a fiction, as it is filled with actions and events which never could take place. But his Assyrian history is disgraced with the same improbabilities. Who can believe that Ninus, soon after the flood, could lead to battle millions of men ; that Semiramis, at the age of twenty, could perform the exploits which he ascribes to her; could employ two millions of men in building cities,, and procure three hundred thousand skins of black oxen to dress her camels in the form of elephants! The boundaries which he assigns to the Assyrian empire are incompatible with the extent of other nations at that period. In the time of Abraham we find Chedorlaomer, and his three allies, possessing distinct kingdoms on the frontiers of Assyria, without the least mark of dependence on that empire, (Gen.

.

xiv. 1.) when, according to Ctesias, his country must have composed a part of that empire. In the time of the Judges, we hear of a powerful kingdom in Mesopotamia, on the west of Assyria. (Judg. iii. 8—11.) Above all his whole account is inconsistent with the history of the Assyrians recorded in scripture. The scripture not only represents David extending his conquests over a great part of the country on the side of the Euphrates, and Benhadad and Hazael governing Syria as an independent state, but Pul is the first King of Assyria that the inspired writer mentions from the time when that country was planted by Ashur; and that he was in reality the founder of that empire, is proved by Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms.*

(To be continued.)

Biblical Criticism.

I. On the Old Testament.

GENESIS, Chap.

Verse 1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God, □ (Elohim.) As the right apprehension of the character and attributes of the Supreme Being is absolutely necessary, as well for the regulation of our moral conduct, as to render us acceptable worshippers, and as the sacred scriptures are the only medium through which this can be obtained, it becomes of the utmost importance that the terms employed in them to designate the Most High should be accurately understood. The word commonly used for this purpose is that in the text, Elohim, which is translated God. The word God "is pure Anglo-Saxon, and among our ancestors signified, not only the Divine Being, now commonly designated by the word, but

* See Edinb. Encyclop. vol. ii. pp. 573, 574.