1. The size of the city. Jonah says it was about three days' journey, and 120,000, who did not know their right From the fact that it contained much

hand from their left.

cattle, Mr. L. infers that it was not a compact city, but that it contained pasturage. In Eastern countries, a population scattered thinly over an immense territory, was frequently called a city. Mr. L. very satisfactorily proves that the four great mounds, Nimroud, Koiyunjik, Khorsabad and Kuramles, include the site of Nineveh, and he says, if we take these places "as the corners of a square, it will be found that its four sides correspond pretty accurately with the 480 stadia, or sixty miles of the geographer which make the three days' journey of the prophet.'

2. Jonah represents the king of Nineveh, as clad in robes and surrounded by his nobles. Now, the bass reliefs on the walls of the palaces representing the kings and their courtiers, with their costume and armor, as excavated by Mr. L., agree most wonderfully with what is said by Jonah and Nahum.

3. It is said that the king of Assyria was killed as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god. This name means the great eagle. Now, in regard to this, Mr. L. says, "On the earliest Assyrian monuments, one of the most prominent sacred types is the eagle-headed or vulture-headed human figure. Not only is it found in collossal proportions on the walls, or guarding the portals of the chambers, but it is also constantly represented amongst the groups on the embroidered robes." The author appears to be confident that this is the same idol which was worshipped by Sennacherib.

4. Ezekiel, when on the banks of the Chebar, in Babylon, saw in his vision four living creatures, and he says, (Ezekiel 1: 10)-"As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle." Now, says our author, in remarking upon this passage, "It will be observed, that the four forms chosen by Ezekiel to illustrate his description—the man, the lion, the bull, and the eagle, -are precisely those which are constantly found on Assyrian monuments as religious types. The wheel within a wheel, mentioned in connection with the emblematical figures, may refer to the winged circle, or wheel, representing at Nimroud, the supreme deity. These coincidences are too marked not to deserve notice; and do certainly lead to the inference, that the symbols chosen by the prophet were derived from the Assyrian sculptures." The prophet Daniel, also, who must have been well acquainted with the interior of Assyrian and Babylonian temples, introduces the lion with the wings of an eagle, as a figure of strength and power.

5. Ezekiel must have been familiar with the interior of Assyrian palaces, for he gives a most remarkable description of their sculptures-Ezekiel 23: 14, 15. "She saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans, portrayed with vermilion, 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." Such imagery portrayed with vermilion, is what Mr. Layard, for several

years past, has been excavating from the rubbish of ages, and subjecting to the gaze of this enterprising and wonderloving age.

6. Allusion is made in the Bible to the fact that some parts of Nineveh should be destroyed by fire. The discoveries of Mr. L., prove that such has been the case, as many of the alabaster walls, which were covered with sculpture and inscriptions, had suffered so much from that element, that upon exposure to the air, the dissolution was so rapid, that he had scarcely time to copy the inscriptions.

We trust that a day will soon come when those inscriptions in cuniform letters that cover the walls of Assyrian palaces, will yield up their hidden lore to the learned, and then, without doubt, we shall have much more extensive and clear knowledge of the Assyrians than we now have; but in the mean time we may adore that wonderful Providence who permits man to look back upon as much of his works as he is capable of reading.*

*The following are a small specimen of the cuniform letters found on the bricks of the oldest palace of Nimroud. These writings which are most abundant, no one has yet been able to read with any degree of certainty. These characters are supposed to mean

to denote a Country.

or these

are supposed

When these writings are understood, they will undoubtedly bear important witness to the truth of the Old Testament.

For the foregoing accounts concerning Nineveh, we are indebted to a work entitled "Nineveh and its remains." by A. H. Layard, LL. D.

An interesting account, respecting the discovery of Shushan, the palace, between Turkey and Persia, and also the tomb of the prophet Daniel, have recently been going the rounds of the newspapers. If true, these statements serve, in a most wonderful manner, to confirm the histories given in Esther and Daniel. There being nothing improbable in them, and as they appear to come from good authority, we shall venture to lay the substance of them before our readers. It is said that a gentleman in Boston, has received a letter from a scientific American gentleman, residing in Persia, stating that Col. Williams, the English Commissioner, had discovered the remains of the ancient palace Shushan. The location was confirmed beyond all doubt, and in the "pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble," (Esther 1: 5, 6,) the marble columns and dilapidated ruins Col. W. and his men were able to read the truth of the inspired history. At a little distance, was a tomb upon which was sculptured the figure of a man, bound hand and foot, with a monstrous lion about to bound upon him. No one could doubt the historic allusion of these graphic figures. Thus, after the lapse of more than twenty-three hundred years since the books of Esther and Daniel were written, their duplicate is found engraven upon these ancient relics.

Another account of equally thrilling interest, we gather from a similar source. It is said that certain characters written upon the summits of the craggy rocks of Sinai, have recently been deciphered, by certain learned men of Europe, who, after much labor, succeeded in constructing an alphabet from several ancient languages. Many of the writings were at such heights as to be accessible only by

the assistance of ladders or stagings, and must have been made by persons residing for a long time in the wilderness. The astonishment was great when satisfactory evidence was obtained that these rude characters, which had for so long time, attracted the curious gaze of travelers, were really written by the children of Israel, commemorative of events that took place on their way through the wilderness.

Some of the sentences read as follows:

"The people, the hard stone satiates with water, thirsting."

"The hard rock water, a great miracle."

"Destroy, springing on the people, the fiery serpents. Hissing, injecting venom, heralds of death, they kill. The people prostrating on their back, curling in folds. They wind round, descending on bearing destruction."

"The people sustain on a pole, erecting a stardard the male serpent fiery as molten brass.”

Thus, these writings, supposed to have been written more than three thousand years ago, are now called forth by the Christian erudition of the present age, to give their testimony in favor of the inspired volume.

We shall wait with anxiety for the full confirmation of the above accounts.

IV. It may be asked, why do we not find more in reliable historians, of ancient times, corroborative of the truth of the Bible? We reply by the interrogation who are the reliable historians among the heathen, as far back as the days of Moses, or even in the times of the prophets? Greece and Rome, with all their refinement in literature, and skill in art, were incapable of recording their own history, with any degree of exactness, till within three or four