ns of
antiquity, and had made considerable progress in the arts and sciences
before their conquest by the Persians, is generally admitted. The
classical writers commonly parallel them with the Egyptians; and though,
from their habit of confusing Babylon with Assyria, it is not always
quite certain that the inhabitants of the more southern country--the
real Babylonians--are meant, still there is sufficient reason to believe
that, in the estimation of the Greeks and Romans, the people of
the lower Euphrates were regarded as at least equally advanced in
civilization with those of the Nile valley and the Delta. The branches
of knowledge wherein by general consent the Babylonians principally
excelled were architecture and astronomy. Of their architectural works
two at least were reckoned among the "Seven Wonders," while others, not
elevated to this exalted rank, were yet considered to be among the most
curious and admirable of Oriental constructions. In astronomical science
they were thought to have far excelled all other nations, and the first
Greeks who made much progress in the subject confessed themselves the
humble disciples of Babylonian teachers.

In the account, which it is proposed to give, in this place, of
Babylonian art and science, so far as they are respectively known to us,
the priority will be assigned to art, which is an earlier product of
the human mind than science; and among the arts the first place will be
given to architecture, as at once the most fundamental of all the fine
arts, and the one in which the Babylonians attained their greatest
excellence. It is as builders that the primitive Chaldaean people, the
progenitors of the Babylonians, first appear before us in history;
and it was on his buildings that the great king of the later Empire,
Nebuchadnezzar, specially prided himself. When Herodotus visited Babylon
he was struck chiefly by its extraordinary edifices; and it is the
account which the Greek writers gave of these erections that has, more
than anything else, procured for the Babylonians the fame that they
possess and the position that they hold among the six or seven leading
nations of the old world.

The architecture of the Babylonians seems to have culminated in the
Temple. While their palaces, their bridges, their walls, even their
private houses were remarkable, their grandest works, their most
elaborate efforts, were dedicated to the honor and service, not of man,
but of God. The Temp