If an uninspired heathen was denominated by his contemporaries the muse of history, and has been eulogised by a living genius as the Homer of history, what shall we say of Moses who drank inpiration at the limpid fountain,-who saw Jehovah face to face, and conversed with God as a man with his friend? Who in his relation of the birth of nature, and the wonders of creation, speaks as if he had heard the song of the morning stars, and the shout of the sons of God! But before entering on our narrative, a few observations on the geographical limits of the country which was the scene of its mighty wonders, may not be unappropriate. There is no spot on the surface of our globe more interesting as connected with antiquity, than that range of country which lies between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates; for if, as the poet sings, "Eden stretch'd her line "From Auran eastward to the royal towers surely that scene occupied by the first of the human race, is well entitled to our deep and pensive regard. And if, notwithstanding the revolutions in earth and sea, occasioned by that astonishing catastrophe which convulsed the world, and destroyed the first progenitors of mankind, we still find, in the Euphrates,*—which "Southward through Eden went a river large,” a name familiar to Noah and his ancestors, this country must have claims upon our attention too attractive to need to be much enforced. Assyria, taken separately from Mesopotamia, extends on the eastern banks of the Tigris, from the limits of Armenia on the north, to those of Babylon on the south; and on the east it is divided by a chain of mountains from Media. Assyria is sometimes called Aturia by ancient! And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the third river is Hiddekel, (the Tigris) that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.-Gen. ii. 10. 14. authors, though this name was proper only to a particular canton in the environs of Nineveh.* Assyria, however, was never limited to the little province of that name, of which Nineveh was the capital, but comprehended all the country from the south of Babylonia to the Euxine Sea. While Babylonia itself spread over the whole territority both on the Euphrates and Tigris, as far as the Persian Gulf, and was bounded on the west by Arabia Deserta, and on the east by Susiana; the name of Chaldea being with more peculiar precision appropriated to that part of it nearest to the gulf, though it is sometimes applied, especially by the sacred writers, as the general appellation of the whole country. The greatest part of Babylonia being comprehended between the Tigris and Euphrates, it has been called Mesopotamia, signifying a country between two rivers; and in the books of Moses it is denominated Aram-Naharaim, or Syria of the Rivers. D'Anville Ancient Geography, vol. 2, p. 471. + Gibbon, see appendix, A. D'Anville, vol. 1. p. 424. But in the ages, of which we are about to write, the Assyrian or Babylonian name, extended far beyond the limits of any of the provinces which we have mentioned; and in the general use of either of these epithets, we must be understood as comprising under them the whole dominions subject to the Assyrian princes, whether they reigned at Nineveh, or Babylon. We may be found to vary this designation indeed, occasionally, towards the close of the dynasty of Nabopollassor, because the term Chaldean, becomes of more frequent use among profane authors, after the captivity of Judah. The limits of this mighty empire under Nebuchadnezzar, extended as far as Egypt, and included, either as its tributaries or vassals, Syria, Palestine, Phonecia, and Arabia. Indeed, the words Assyria and Assyrian, are used by the Greek writers in so comprehensive a sense, as often to include all the countries and nations from the Mediterranean sea on the west, to the river Indus on the east.* The air and climate of Babylonia was temperate and salubrious in general, though at certain seasons of the year this country was visited with those pestilential winds which are common in most parts of Asia. It seldom enjoyed the refreshing influence of showers of rain; but this disadvantage had no deleterious effect on the produce of the soil, the land being irrigated by rivers and canals, and watered artificially by trenches and engines. These supplied the want of rain, and tended both to refresh the verdure, and to promote fertility. The southern parts of Babylonia, between the rivers, have been compared to the Delta of Egypt, being composed of numerous islands, and lying under nearly the same parallel of latitude. The climate of this once favoured country is still delightful: Its winters are described as temperate and balmy; the weather particularly fine, with a few interruptions of brief though heavy showers; the mornings clear and bracing, and the heat of the sun, even at noon, not exceeding the warmth of a summer's day in England.* Travels in Persia by Sir Robert Kerr Porter. |