. It is
interesting to recall the fact that, about 908 B.C., Jezebel, the wife of
Ahab and daughter of the king of Tyre, set up the cult of the dual
principles of nature in Israel and, destroying the priests and prophets of
Jehovah, built a temple to Baal and Astarte and appointed 450 priests and
500 prophets to the respective service of these divinities. This
historical incident furnishes a striking instance of the united cult of
the Above and Below in direct antagonism to that of the Centre which had
already developed into a definite and pure monotheism.(101)

ASSYRIA.

A study of the Assyrian symbols of royalty, which I recently had an
opportunity of making at the British Museum, has led me to the conclusion
that, in Assyria, during many centuries, a perfect equilibrium was
maintained throughout the state which, by a strict cooerdination of all its
parts, represented a harmonious entity.

An observation I have made, which may be worth noting, is that Assyria
seems to occupy, in relation to Babylonia, somewhat the same position as
Peru to the more ancient and greater centres of culture in Mexico and
Central America. In the latter the original ground-plan of the archaic
civilization seems to be lost and hidden under the ruin and devastation
caused by the growth of diverging cults. In Peru and Assyria alike we seem
to have examples of organizations starting afresh on the old plan or
reversions to the primitive type of civil and religious government in
which simplicity, order, balance and harmony were again restored and
maintained. If I may venture to hazard a general observation about the
ancient civilizations of Western Asia I should say that, whereas the
primeval centre of primitive pole-star worship in Babylonia had, in course
of time, brought forth as its highest development the monotheism of the
Israelites, and as its lowest the cults of Ishtar and Bel, it also appears
to have given birth to a reproduction of its former self, to the Assyrian
empire, in which the most ancient form of culture was preserved intact,
and in time spread its influence not only to other nations but also back
to Babylonia itself.

As in Peru, it appears to have been the policy of the kings of Assyria,
who had before them the results of an opposite course pursued at
Babylonia, to discountenance the manufacture of symbolical images and the
establishment of minor centres of government, the leading motive being to
maintain the ideal of an a