more detailed acknowledgment. Besides the original monuments in the British Museum, the facsimile engravings of the sculptures excavated, which have been published in the great works of these gentlemen, constitute (as we before intimated) the materials from which this volume has been composed. To the respective texts of these authors, the present work is indebted for many valuable observations and references, especially to the "Nineveh and its Remains" of the former gentleman. In the second volume of that work, its learned author has partially gone over the same ground as that which is here examined; but the writer deems it proper to state that in no case has he referred to the observations of his predecessors in inquiry, until he had first examined the particular subject in question for himself, and formed his own opinion. The analysis of the bas-reliefs, before alluded to, will show that the present volume, whatever be its claims to correctness of description and deduction, is a work of independent research; while a glance through its pages will be sufficient to prove that it is no piracy of another's valued labours, even though in many cases it arrives at the same conclusions, and adduces the same illustrations.

The Author would acknowledge his obligation to many travellers who have described Oriental manners, and particularly those of Persia (a kingdom which has protracted to our own times a succession from the throne of Nimrod), and to none of these more than to Dr. Kitto, the experience and observation of whom, and his constant devotion of his great talents

to Biblical hermeneutics, have conferred a peculiar value on his numerous writings.

It has been thought desirable to preface the more immediate subject of the work by a brief summary of the physical characteristics of the region under review, and by a succinct summary of what we know of the history of the empire. For the former, Mr. Ainsworth's "Assyria, Babylonia and Chaldea," has been the principal authority. The reader will please to consider the first chapter, and part of the second, as somewhat introductory to the general subject.

The engravings, one hundred and fifty-eight in number, have been drawn and cut with the greatest care, and may be relied on for their minute accuracy.