a grand solar Temple; and he attempts to prove his assertion by a long train of evidence brought from ancient authors, and from historical facts, that scarcely permit us to doubt the truth of his statements. The result of his argument will be found in the following passage. "Immersed in these extensive speculations, it was this enlightened race of philosophers, who, 720 years before Christ, hearing of the miracle of the shadow of the sun, their tutelary God, going back ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz, sent some of their learned train to Hezekiah, to make inquiry concerning so singular a phænomenon. That they were ASTROLOGERS, also, cannot be denied by those who consider how intimately, in those remote periods, the two sciences were connected, both NATURE and MAN being considered by them as under the immediate influence of the celestial orbs; storms, tempests, and all the train of pestilential diseases, were thought to be engendered by their relative situation in the heavens; that is, in the language of astrology, their opposition or conjunction; success or defeat in war depended upon their for tunate or malignant aspect; even in scripture we are told, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera; which, though perhaps only a flight of eastern poetry, still serves to mark the prevalence of the superstition in those early times. The epithets so frequently bestowed by the antient poets on the constellations, designating the influences they were supposed to shed at their rising or setting-their denominating, for instance, ORION, nimbosus; the PLEIADES, pluviales; or, as expressed by Horace, in the following opposite passage Nec, sævus Arcturi cadentis afford very ample proof of their addiction to these superstitous vagaries. "From this long train of facts, I think it sufficiently evident, that, in the erection of the tower of Babel, the builders had other ideas besides merely making themselves a name, or exalting a signal, or beacon, which the Hebrew word SEM, and the Greek onua, derived from it, implies, to prevent their being dispersed or lost, in their huuting excursions, or otherwise, over the vast and trackless wilds of Chaldæa and Arabia. I have not the least intention of impugning the scripture account of its erection, in whichsoever of these senses the word SEM may be understood, but I contend that the more predominant idea in their minds was to erect a tower of that vast altitude, for the sake of accurately observing the motions of the celestial orbs; that their devotion to the worship of FIRE gave to it its pyramidal form; and that, in fact, the tower of Babel was neither more or less than A TEMPLE AND HIGH ALTAR TO THE SUN, erected by an idolatrous race, who had long deserted the temples and altars of the true God. A HIGH ALTAR, indeed, I may with justice denominate it, since on its vast table, according to Herodotus, (Clio, 183), at the anni versary festival of this God, the Chaldans regularly consumed incense to the amount of a thousand talents.” In metallurgic science, their skill is proved by the innumerable images which they made of their false deities, in gold, silver, and copper, described in the subjoined extract. "The process from making pottery to moulding figures in clay was not diffi cult; but these designs in brass, and the grouping of the figures, must have required much greater skill and labour. "There can be no doubt, however, that the art of throwing metals, even the most stubborn, into fusion, was early and extensively known to the descendants of Tubal Čain, who is said to have been the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; and the one hundred gates of brass with which this great city at a later period was fortified, and the golden statues and utensils that ornamented the temple of Belus, may be adduced as proofs of their surprising advance in metallurgic science. But it was in the fabrication of images, formed of the metals, that they, above all things, excelled; those images by which the planetary deities, adored by them, were represented and to their infinite variety, and the gorgeous manner of adorning them with paint and gilding, according to their imagined colours, while round their heads sparkled the irradiations of glory, such as the constellations appear to dart forth. Scripture bears the fullest attestation in the following remarkable passages, which denounce the vengeance of Heaven upon the apostate Jews for imitating them. She, i. e. Judah, doated upon the Assyrians, ker neighbours, captains, and rulers, clothed most gor geously. And when she saw men pour trayed upon the walls, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermi. lion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity; then, as soon as she saw them with her cyes, she doated upon them, and sent messengers unto them unto Chaldea. And again, towards the close of the same chapter, it is said, "Moreover, this they have done unto me: WHEN THEY HAD BLAIN THEIR CHILDREN TO THEIR IDOLS; when they came, the same day, unto my sanctuary to profane it.— And, farthermore, ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo! they came, for whom THOU DIDST WASH THYSELF, (that is, perform ablutions), PAINTEDST THINE BYES, AND DECKEDST THYSELF WITH ORNAMENTS. And sallest upon a stately bed, with a TABLE (that is an altar) PREPARED BEFORE IT, WHERE UPON THOU HAST SET MINE INCENSE AND MINE OIL. And a voice of a multitude, being at ease, was with her, and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabians from the wil derness WHICH PUT BRACELETS UPON THEIR HANDS, AND BEAUTIFUL (radiated) Ezekiel CROWNS UPON THEIR HEADS." xxiii. 14." Of their high advance in architectural science, irresistible evidence will be found in the following passage. "The more we reflect on the majestic structures raised at Babylon, and the nature of the ground on which they were erected, the more must we be lost in admiration and astonishment at the wonderful mechanical skill, the indefatigable labour, and the unwearied patience, of the persevering architects! Egypt was a country stored with inexhaustible quarries of the most durable species of marble. The pyramids of Egypt were constructed on a basis of solid rock, in a fine climate, and elevated above the reach of inundating floods. They have already bid defiance to the elements for 3000 years, and it is probable may do so for 5000 years longer, if a calculation formed on the progress of their decay since the time of Herodotus, may be depended upon, and should the globe itself endure so long. The materials for constructing the vast edifices of that country, were to be met with in infinite variety in the Lybian mountains adjoining, and they only wanted the labour of the artificer, and the forming hand of the sculptor, to be fashioned into temples and columns, for the admiration of posterity; but the whole region of Babylon, particularly in the early periods we are describing, was a vast morass, and required to be properly drained and prepared to sustain upon its surface any ponderous mass of masonry. The same indefatigable labour was also necessary to procure the materials for building, bricks formed of clay, and burned to a burning, as is mentioned in the margin of our Bibles. Considered in this point of view, the labour of erecting the edifices at Babel, I must again repeat, may be esteemed as very far exceeding that of those pyramids, and the stupendous temples of the Thebais; and we must not wonder to find Sir Walter Raleigh, in his account of this tower, giving credit to an obsolete author, whom he cites to prove that it was forty-six years in building, which, as he observes, to make sound foundations for such a pile in the low and marshy plains of Shinar, seemed requisite. "All the efforts of the Babylonians, therefore, to gain celebrity in this way, must have been the result of the most ardent zeal, supported by inconceivable personal toil; and from the fabric of the materials, as well as the marshy nature of the country, no very flattering hope of their duration could ever have been formed. Yet, to the surprise of admiring travellers, the vast ruins of many of them are still visible, and strike with awe the exploring eye. The remainder, owing, either to the river having changed its bed, the gradual increase of soil, or perpetual inundations, during 2000 years, have vanished, never more, perhaps, to be discovered, or even their outlines efficiently traced! "From all these concurring circumstances, it will appear to the reader less surprising than it otherwise might, that after the most attentive examination, Mr. Rich should not have been able to find any decided vestige either of the bridge, or the vast embankment, said by Herodotus to have been thrown up on each side of the river, to restrain its occasionally impetuous torrent within proper bounds, aud prevent its overflowing the adjoining country. real cause will probably be found by the reader's turning to the page of Arrian, the most authentic of the historians of Alexander, by whom we are informed, that that river, the Euphrates, about the summer solstice, being elevated to a great height by the melting of the snow on the mountains of Armenia, used annually to overflow all the flat country of Mesopatamia and Babylonia, regions inhabited by the primitive race ofinen; whence arose the absolute necessity of those high embaukments on its shores. On the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, and the subsequent transferring of the seat of his empire to Susa, these and other great works, that had cost the toil of ages to construct, and the wealth of empires to support, baving purposely been neglected, and suffered gradually to go to decay, that great river returning to its full strength, at the usual season of the year, the summer solstice, the banks on each side of it would necessarily be exposed to the same ravages which they had before experienced: the swollen and unresisted floods would impetuously sweep away every vestige that remained of them, and at no very extended period leave the country what, on the western şide particularly, it has long been, a vast morass: or, in the emphatic language of scripture, an habitation for the billern, and pools of water." What evinces their skill in architecture, will also prove their intimate ac. quaintance with geometry, which is so inseparably connected with that science; and, in respect to hydraulics, by their being able to drain the marshy Country of Babylon, aud irrigate the famous Hanging Gardens by means of vast engines, that forced up the water of the Euphrates to an immense height, their advance in that science is irrefragably proved. The account of those hanging gardens, so watered by those engines, is too curious to be omitted in this survey of ancient Babylon. "Having inserted in the preceding section only a very slight account of these gardens, which had water conveyed to them in the surprising manner mentioned a few pages back, I now present the reader, from Quintus Curtius, with a more detailed description of their structure and dimensions. "These celebrated gardens were situated within the precincts of the palace, and occupied a square of four plethra, or four hundred feet on every side. In Grecian fabulous narration they are deemed a miraculous work; equalling in altitude the summit of the walls, and being rendered delightful by the shade and majestic height of numerous trees. The square pillars which support the whole weight are built of stone; and upon these pillars the flooring is formed of squared wrought stone, of strength sufficient to bear the earth thrown deep upon it, and the moisture exuding from the watering of the trees; and such vast trees do these massy co. Jumns sustain, that their roots descending downwards occupy the depth of no less than eight cubits, or 12 feet, whilst the trees themselves are not less than 50 feet high, and are as productive of their fruits as if they grew and were nourished in their own proper soil. Again, whereas dilapidating Time oppresses and brings to decay not merely works fabri cated by art, but even, by degrees, nature itself; this massy structure, which is pressed upon by the roots of so many trees, and is loaded with so vast a grove, remains unhurt; because twenty broad walls support it, with intervals of 11 feet, so that to those beholding it at a distance, the woods seem to hang over the brows of their own proper mountainous hills. Yet, of all this immense pile of wood and stone, Mr. Rich acquaints us, not a vestige now remains, unless a solitary tree, of a most ancient date, much venerated by the inha. bitants, and called Athele, may be thus denominated; although we are informed by him, that ⚫ at present the gardens on both sides the river are very extensive, so that the town of Hellah itself from a little distance appears embosomed in a wood of datetrees.' This circumstance proves, however, that the climate, in general, is friendly to horticulture, and that artifi cial gardens, like those described by Diodorus and Curtius, might have once flourished in full-blown pride at Babylon. Mr. Ives, too, when residing at Bagdad, May 25, 1758, writes thus in his journal: We are at present supplied with pretty good apples and apricots, from some gardens which are situated by the side of the river near Hellah, and in those gardens are vines, date, and other fruit trees; grapes and plums will be ripe in a few days." Having considered the bricks found amid the ruins of Babylon, and compared the inscriptions upon them with those engraved upon the ruined columus of CHELMINAR, or Persepolis, 1 he finds the general outline of the characters to be so consonant, notwithstanding slight deviations, as to leave no doubt that they were the work of the same ancient race; and, he, therefore, from Babylon transports its I readers to the old metropolis of the Persian empire. To Persepolis, in consequence, he assigns a higher antiquity than has been hitherto thought reconcileable to Persian history, and he fortifies himself with the proofs adduced by Sir W. Jones of there having flourished, in the most ancient periods, a dynasty of kings prior to the Persians and Indians, and called IRANIAN, from IRAN, the eastern name for Persia, understood in its most extended geographical limits. Mr. M. commences this interesting subject in the following man ner. "Of the celebrated Persepolitan remains, just mentioned, I shall be pardoned for at once declaring my humble, but decided, opinion, that the antiquity of, at least, the greater part of them goes back to a much higher period in the history of the world than is generally supposed, and was, probably, nearly coeval with our fire worship pers of Chaldæa; for the kindred addiction of the Persians, though in a mitigated degree, to that superstition, long before the age of Zoroaster, is evidently demonstrated by the sculptured figures of their antient sovereigns, pourtrayed among these reigns, and those at Naxi Rustan in the neighbourhood, either kneeling, or standing in a suppliant posture, before the engraved symbols of those two leading Babylonian deities the Sun and Fire. The great distinction between their mode of worship, so strenuously insisted upon by Dr. Hyde, has already been repeatedly pointed out; viz. that the Persians professed to use no images in their adoration, for the slight symbolic delineation of the sun and fire upon the wall of a cavern, to fix their attention, which that author contends was all their aim in making them, upon the ALMIGHTY POWER who created both, can hardly, he thinks, be called by that name; while the Assyrian ignicolists used them perpetually, profusely, and in vast variety. These symbolic delineations, however, of the sun and fire upon the walls of Persepolis, before which the just mentioned figures are represented as kneeling, or standing in a suppliant attitude, with all due deference to Dr. Hyde, cannot be considered otherwise than as images, and were therefore in all probability, placed there before the time of Zoroaster, who flourished in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, and whom that reformist attended in his visit to the Brahmins in their cavern recesses in Upper India. The general idea among antiquaries, founded on the information of Diodorus, that this edifice was constructed by Cambyses, after his invasion of Egypt, and assisted by Egyptian architects, his captives in war, may in part be true, and is in a great measure proved by the ornamentai sculptures introduced, among which may be conspicuously observed the winged globe and the sphinxes, symbols so peculiar to Egypt; but it is more probable that Cambyses only completed and enlarged works of such stupendous labour as must have cost the toil of ages to construct; ages, the records of which are now sunk in eternal oblivion! For this deplorable ignorance, in regard to the history of these wonderful ruins, the only reasonable way of accounting is, the utter loss or destruction (probably by their Grecian and Mahommedan conquerors) of the antient Persian archives, so that, before the time of Xenophon, we have no genuine historical knowledge of that ingenious people. "The reader will probably think it rather singular in me to refer to Elian, a writer on natural history in the reign of Hadrian, for any decisive intelligence relative to Persepolis; and yet that writer, from whatever quarter he obtained his information, relates what appears to approach nearer to truth than any of the preceding accounts; viz. that this vast edifice was constructed by CYRUS, the founder of the Persian monarchy. His words are, Cyrus the great, or the elder, became renowned for the famous palace which he constructed at Persepolis, of which he laid the foundations; Darius, for that built by him at Susa; and the younger Cyrus, for the pleasant gardens which he had himself planted and cultivated in Lydia.' Thus we see, while some writers are for referring the erection of these monuments to Cambyses, and some to Darius Hystaspes, this betterinformed author is for carrying the æra of their fabrication as high at least as the regular classical History of Persia will allow of, even to that Cyrus, who, according to the Greeks, founded the Persian monarchy in the sixth century before Christ. Down to the time of that prince, it is barely possible that the antient Babylonian characters might have remained in use in that part of Asia; and this circumstance will better account for those characters appearing on its monumental remains than any other hypothesis yet submitted to the public. However, the words laid the foundations may not be precisely true of even the great Cyrus himself, and the evidence to be met with in the ruins themselves may justify us, if, in spite of these classical authorities, we assign to their original construction a far higher date among the antiquities of Asia." Having made these ample extracts from Mr. M.'s publication, we must, for the present, take our leave of him, with expressing our best wishes for his success. He has been long engaged in the field of Indian literature, which we fear has not proved so productive to him as his great industry and exertions seem to merit. He promises an APPENDIX upon the change of the bed of the river Euphrates, for which he expects important documents from an eastern traveller now busied in exploring these venerable remains of ancient grandeur. In due time, there. fore, we shall return with pleasure to the consideration of his interesting lucubration. Manfred: a Dramatic Poem. By Lord Byron. As we predicted so has it chanced, bere is a drama from the pen that traced the "Corsair" and "Lara," the hero of which, is a metaphysical bad man, and its machinery and characters terrible, overstrained, and supernatural. Here is language full of nerve, and poetry clad in beauty, but like the splendid garb of a dwarf, or the fabled mantle of a giant, they cannot hide the form of deformity, or cheat us into a belief that we behold "nature's fair proportion." Witches and ghosts, real unsubstantial. Witches and ghosts will never be assi milated to modern ideas; we tolerate them from the mighty magician, the trammeller of nature, Shakespeare alone, and inferior conjurors must not borrow his wand of magic wonder, or enfold themselves in his charmed man tle. Besides this, we are beings endowed with curiosity, and to have that curiosity raised, but unsatisfied, will go hard to sour our tempers. From the first to the last act of our being, through all the seven ages of our pilgrimage, we are but children of a smaller or a larger growth, and awake but our expecta tions, or rouse our fancies, you must either by the sequel displease or gratify. Lord Byron has done the former-he has given us effects without detailing causes, and shewn us strange things without a clue to their developement. The poppets appear, move, and seem to have a being, but like the showman he draws a curtain over his machinery, and leaves us only to wonder such things are. As a drama, this is the character of Manfred, too inconsistent, and scanty as to incident, as it has, and turns only on one, which we do not find out at last; it could never please on the stage-and too weak and silly as to character, as it possesses and describes but one, it will never please as a drama in the closet-we purpose therefore to "reform it altogether"-and to consider and review it only as a poem. For "to this complexion must it come at last." As a poem, there the style is truly Byronian, full of force and rapidity, with now and then exquisite touches of fancy and feeling; short pointed axioms and abrupt terminations are as usual frequent, and these not unfrequently make the " blank verse half for it." The story is briefly this-Manfred (a nobleman leading a solitary life among the alps), is a being "a weary of his life;" and one who would submit to any chance to be rid ont." An occurrence in early life, with which we are never made clearly acquainted, and therefore can only guess at, has given this tone to his feelings, and this despe ration to his wishes. This skill in occult and magical sciences leagues him with spirits and witches, but demanding of them more than his power sanctions, he is visited by a curse which has its parallel alone in Southey's "Kehama.” We extract a part of this, for its intrinsic merit as composition, for its wildness and energy, and for the better delineation of our epitome. And a magic voice and verse |