possess but little stone; and with both nations, accordingly, brick was the ordinary material employed in building. In both countries quarries of granite and other stone existed in the mountains which bordered the valley-land, with rivers upon which the stone might be floated down on rafts. But the one nation used this material, and the other did not. The Egyptians, indomitable in science, and animated by grander views than their Asiatic rivals, sent several hundred miles for intractable but everlasting granite, whereon to design their sculptures and inscriptions, and with which to rear those vast and countless edifices which seem destined to perpetuate the fame and history of their founders to the end of time. The Assyrians, fonder of luxury than of fame, more desirous of display than of enduring strength, contented themselves with materials which they could get without trouble, but ornamented the brick with colours, or coated it with slabs of soft alabaster, which they found protruding from the ground beneath their feet. The architecture of Egypt was grand and strong-that of Assyria was vast and showy. Egyptian sculpture was angular, and strove to be correct,-that of Assyria was round and florid. Although we know as yet but little of the arts and customs of life among the Assyrians, we may confidently conjecture that they were left comparatively unshackled by rule, and at the sway of individual impulse; whereas in Egypt rule and system. pervaded everything, alike in art and in society.

Of all the empires of the first period of the world, the Assyrian is the one whose history and civilisation most closely connect themselves with the subsequent destinies of mankind. India and China were isolated empires, each developing a civilisation for itself, independent of and wholly uninfluencing the rest of the world. Egypt was less so; but it also, secluded in position and unproselytising in spirit, stands apart from the community of nations, and may be studied like an isolated statue placed in a niche. With Assyria, however, the case is far otherwise. Its influence, extending for centuries over

Western and Southern Asia-from the frontiers of Affghanistan to the Levant, from the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Ægean Sea-was potent in modifying a vast population, destined to give birth to many civilised States. From its loins proceeded the empire of Persia,—which was, in fact, in all respects only a modification of the empire which it supplanted; while these two, by their great influence over all Western Asia, including the Greek settlements of Ionia, must have affected in no slight degree the Hellenic mind-especially from the period when Alexander by his conquests drew Greece bodily into Asia. As yet the book of Assyrian history and civilisation is only beginning to be unrolled; but there are already in the possession of the literati of Europe written cylinders and inscriptions which, when deciphered, will cast important light upon matters as yet in the dark. Doubtless many more will be found even in the ruins already opened,-only one of which, let it be noted, has been thoroughly searched. Above all, ruins upon ruins are to be seen scattered over the plains of Mesopotamia, which Mr Layard describes as the evident remains of ancient cities, and which offer ample scope for the labours of more than one generation of investigators. We shall get at the truth at last. Years may roll by, and still see but little progress made in the search ;-but there, underneath, lie the records of the Past for which we seek, and Earth will keep them safe until we are ready to dig for them in earnest.

INDIA: ITS CASTES AND CREEDS

INDIA is pre-eminently a Land of Idols and of strange gods. Polytheism and its never-failing attendant, idolatry, which in modern times have disappeared so much from the face of the earth, still exist in pristine vigour in the Indian peninsula. Bred in our northern homes, where one or two circles of rude stone pillars-the roofless temples of the Druids-are the sole relics of a paganism almost pre-historic in date and too bald for idols, the sons of England stand aghast as for the first time they open their eyes upon the Hindoo world which Providence has placed in our keeping. Graven images and heathen temples —we had heard of such things with the hearing of the ear, and read of them in Bible story at our mother's knee; but no sooner does youthful soldier or civilian land in India, than lo! his eye beholds them everywhere around, endless in number, unchallenged in prestige, as if he had been carried back three thousand years into the past. The denunciations of the Prophets and the irony of the Psalmist of Israel rise into his memory as he sees the idol-maker at work in his shop, or the image-god led about in its painted car, with gay or frenzied crowds bowing themselves before the work of their own hands-gods that "have mouths, but speak not; eyes, but see not; ears, but hear not; noses, but smell not; hands, but handle not; feet, but walk not; neither have any breath in their mouths." A manycoloured paganism, alike gay and terrible-mingled light and

darkness is around him, fresh and vigorous; and, startled, he asks himself-Has Time stood still here? or are there indeed nations with whom existence has been stagnation for two thousand years, and which, like Earth's poles, remain for ever stationary while all else whirls onward in the march of Time?

Even the stern Monotheists of the Judæan hills, lofty worshippers of the viewless Jehovah, with all their intensity of hatred to idol-worship, must have wrung from poetry more fervid anathemas had their rapt gaze extended to the peninsula of Ind. The lowlands of Tyre and Philistia might bow to the fish-god Dagon,-the banks of Abana and Pharpar and the groves of the Orontes might be gay with the licentious rites of Ashtaroth, memories of the gods of Egypt stood recorded in the Pentateuch, and in the dark hours of the Captivity the Hebrew looked with heightened hatred upon the nobler symbolworship of Assyria; but not Syria, Assyria, and Egypt combined would have equalled that stupendous development of paganism and idolatry which still exists as a spectacle for Man's humiliation and instruction, upon the plains of India. Nowhere else did a polytheistic worship rear itself on so grand a scale or in such vivid colours. Greece idolised men-Egypt animals-Africa has her fetishes of stocks and stones; but India has idolised all. Only one other civilised country in the world continues Pagan-namely, China; but India and the land of Confucius are the very opposites of each other in the forms and character of their religion. Roam through China, and although Buddhist pagodas dot the country, you will find that the idols or rather the everlasting one, of Buddha-excite little or no veneration in the people; and Confucianism, the State and national creed, ignores idol-worship altogether. The people of the Flowery Land venerate, and present symbolic trifles to, the viewless manes of their ancestors; the Emperor, as the high-priest of the nation, offers upon an altar fruits of the earth to the sun and other skyey influences; and a vague

notion prevails of an impersonal god or divine law which they call "heaven." It is a paganism of matter-of-fact men; and idol-worship, virtually ignored by the State, languishes amongst the people. But cross the Himalayas, and what a contrast appears! In India it is the positive, not the negative, side of paganism that presents itself. Imagination there supersedes Reason,-Personality replaces the more abstract feeling of Law, -Polytheism supersedes Deism,-GOD is fractured into a thousand minor deities, representative of his various attributes, -for every god there is an idol, and for every idol myriads of worshippers! Instead of the bald humility of the reverent Confucius, who confessed that he knew little about the Supreme, in India imagination has run riot, and has enveloped the gods with an atmosphere of stupendous fable, in which the sublime alternates with the grotesque, and the gigantic and superhuman is mingled with puerilities which could only have proceeded from the low imagination of rustic bards. This is not the whole truth,—a world of high speculation lies behind or soars above this crowded region of idols, monsters, and fables; but such unquestionably are the features of Indian religion which are the most obvious and universal, and hence most expressive of the national character.

How striking a proof is it of the strength of the adoring principle in human nature-what an illustration of mankind's sense of dependence upon an unseen Supreme-that the grandest works which the nations have reared are those connected with Religion! Were a Spirit from some distant world to look down upon the surface of our planet as it spins round in the solar rays, his eye would be most attracted, as the morning light passed onward, by the glittering and painted pagodas of China, Borneo, and Japan-the richly-ornamented temples and stupendous rock-shrines of India-the dome-topped mosques and tall slender minarets of Western Asia-the pyramids and vast temples of Egypt, with their mile-long avenues of gigantic statues and sphinxes-the graceful shrines of classic Greece