hich, not
content with symbols, must have gods of wood and stone whereto to pray,
and which in its complicated mythological system, its priestly
hierarchy, its gorgeous ceremonial, and finally in its lascivious
ceremonies, is a counterpart to that Egypt, from which the Jew was
privileged to make his escape.

The Assyrians are characterized in Scripture as "a fierce people." Their
victories seem to have been owing to their combining individual bravery
and hardihood with a skill and proficiency in the arts of war not
possessed by their more uncivilized neighbors. This bravery and
hardihood were kept up, partly (like that of the Romans) by their
perpetual wars, partly by the training afforded to their manly qualities
by the pursuit and destruction of wild animals. The lion--the king of
beasts--abounded in their country, together with many other dangerous
and ferocious animals. Unlike the ordinary Asiatic, who trembles before
the great beasts of prey and avoids a collision by flight if possible,
the ancient Assyrian sought out the strongest and fiercest of the
animals, provoked them to the encounter, and engaged with them in
hand-to-hand combats. The spirit of Nimrod, the "mighty hunter before
the Lord," not only animated his own people, but spread on from them to
their northern neighbors; and, as far as we can judge by the monuments,
prevailed even more in Assyria than in Chaldaea itself. The favorite
objects of chase with the Assyrians seem to have been the lion and the
wild bull, both beasts of vast strength and courage, which could not be
attacked without great danger to the bold assailant.

No doubt the courage of the Assyrians was tinged with ferocity. The
nation was "a mighty and strong one, which, as a tempest of hail and a
destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, cast down to
the earth with the hand." Its capital might well deserve to be called "a
bloody city," or "a city of bloods." Few conquering races have been
tender-hearted, or much inclined to spare; and undoubtedly carnage,
ruin, and desolation followed upon the track of an Assyrian army, and
raised feelings of fear and hatred among their adversaries. But we have
no reason to believe that the nation was especially bloodthirsty or
unfeeling. The mutilation of the slain--not by way of insult, but in
proof of their slayer's prowess was indeed practised among them; but
otherwise there is little indication of any barbarous, much less of any
re