CORRIGENDA. Page 36, for "Berossus," read "Berosus." 41, for "Assur-adan-pal," read "Assur-bani-pal." 54, 61, 62, 66, for "Nabopalasar," read "Nabopolassur." 73, for no existing," read "scarcely any existing." 74, for "Nabonadius, or Belshazzar," read "Nabonidus, the father of Belshazzar." 78, for "Nabonadius," read "Nabonidus." 203, for B.O. 747," read "B.O. 721." 242, for "B.C. 930 to about B. c. 900," read "B.C. 850 to B.C. 815." 332, for "grandson," read "son.” 340, for "Tiglath-Pileser I.," read "Merodach-adan-akhi, King of Babylon." NINEVEH AND PERSEPOLIS. CHAPTER I. THE story of ancient Assyria, and of those parts of Persia and Media which lie near its boundary, the Tigris, has been so often told, that there would seem to be little need of a new history. In the early days of our childhood, tales from eastern sources, and anecdotes from the lives of the Oriental rulers, were our never-failing source of amusement; in our boyhood, the narratives of the wars between Persia and the small but gallant states of Greece were the earliest exercise of our youthful abilities, while, in our riper years, the study of languages which, under different modifications, have continued to exercise a lasting influence over the destinies of the Oriental world, has been the necessary preparation of those, who yearly leave our shores to win an enduring reputation in the far distant East. Scarcely any portion of the world has, at least in early times, attracted so much attention. The cradle of the human race, its earliest records are the most ancient writings of Holy Scripture the scene of the confusion of the once universal language, it seems the starting-place of the many varieties of human speech—the home of the earliest people of whose parentage any, even the faintest, remembrance has been preserved, we turn to it with feelings of peculiar interest, for it were indeed strange, if a land so famous did not possess a more than common charm; if the deeds of its inhabitants had not been sung by the poet, or narrated by the historian; and if travellers had not devoted many an hour of painful toil to the investigation of its decaying and half-ruined memorials. B |