if the Birs was a building distinct from the Tower of Belus, how so stupendous a pile, in its perfect state, should never have attracted the attention of those who have enumerated the wonders of Babylon.

The interest attached to the Tower of Belus is the probability of its identity with the tower which the descendants of Noah constructed in the Plain of Shinar, the completion of which was prevented in so memorable a manner.

Some commentators differ from the sense in which Genesis xi, 4 is commonly understood, and as the translators of our Bible give it,-"a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven;" the phrase is literally, "and its top in the skies;"-a metaphor common in all languages and nations for an elevated summit. This is certainly a more rational interpretation than supposing a people in their senses, even at that early period, would attempt to scale heaven by means of a building of their own construction.

The intention of raising this structure might have been displeasing to the Almighty on many other accounts; such, for instance, as the paying divine honors to other beings. It is probable enough that some attempt to frustrate the appointed dispersion of mankind was involved in the undertaking; and it does not appear that the confusion of tongues was so much a punishment for this attempt, as a proper and obvious measure for giving effect to the intended dispersion and distribution of the human race. Leaving this matter, in which we have only conjectures and doubtful interpretations to guide us, we refer our readers to the varied accounts we have collected from ancient writers and modern travelers,

to form their own conclusions for the site of the Tower of Belus, and of that "whose top is in the skies."

From what remains, and from the most favorable accounts handed down to us, there is every reason to believe, that the public edifices which adorned Babylon were more remarkable for vastness of dimensions than elegance of design; the sculptures that have been found speak a barbarous people; and we may consider it would be difficult to make anything of such unpropitious materials as brick and bitumen.

The sacred volume of our faith contains in several places notices of Babylon, and in the prophetical books appear so many denunciations of the crimes and vices of the people and their monarch, that a reference to the accomplishment of the doom of both city and kingdom especially claims our notice. The prophet Isaiah tells us,-"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But the wild beasts of the desert shall be there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures."

The general notice we have given of the present condition of the site, shows that the heaps cover the remains of the beauty of the "Chaldees' excellency;" for many centuries it has been forsaken by man, and left entirely to the "doleful creatures;" the hyena and the jackal, serpents and scorpions, with other venomous creatures, are now its only occupants.

The time when it became totally deserted has not been clearly ascertained. Strabo, who wrote about B. C. 50, says that in his time a great part of it was a mere desert; that the Persian had partly demolished it, and the neglect of its Macedonian masters had nearly completed its destruction; and Pliny, who wrote about a century after, describes its site as a desert, and the city as "dead ;" and Pausanias, who lived in the following century, says, “Of Babylon, a greater city than which the sun did not formerly behold, all that now remains is the Temple of Belus and the walls of the city." Jerome, who resided in the East in the fourth century of our era, informs us that Babylon was then quite in ruins, and the walls served only for a park for the king's hunting.

One would imagine that such a city as Babylon is described to have been, was in no danger of being thus totally abandoned or coming to naught. Such a city as this might surely, with less vanity than any other, boast "she should continue forever," if anything human or of human production could endure everlastingly. But the fiat had gone forth; for the prophet Jeremiah, in the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, by command of the Most High, declares, "It shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord." At the time appointed, the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, who appears to have been an instrument of Providence raised up for high purposes, struck the first great blow to the prosperity of the city. The height and strength of its walls for many months baffled the invader; but having understood that at a certain day, then near approaching, a great annual fes

tival was to be held, when it was customary for the Babylonians to spend the night in reveling and festivity, he thought it a fit opportunity for executing a scheme of which the besieged had not the smallest apprehension. The Babylonians had looked upon the river as the greatest protection, and Cyrus saw that, by turning the course of the stream, he might make dry the bed of the river, and the fall of the city was then certain: accordingly, on the night of the feast, he sent a party of his men to the canal, which led to the great lake made by Nebuchadnezzar to receive the waters of the Euphrates, while he was facing the banks of the river with walls; to this party he gave directions, as soon as it was dark to cut down the great dam which kept the waters of the river in their place, and separated them from the canal; other parties made openings in the trenches round the city, that had been made during the two years' siege; and thus at midnight, the bed of the river being made dry, the army of Cyrus found easy entrance--the guards, no doubt partaking of the disorder and negligence of the night, were surprised and killed. While all this was going on without, a remarkable scene was transpiring within the palace, Daniel was deciphering the writing on the wall, and Cyrus and his soldiery entered the banqueting-hall, where, encountering Belshazzar, he slew him with all his followers.

Here we see the prophecy and its literal fulfillment, by Isaiah: we are told, that "the Lord saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure."

And by Jeremiah: "A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up. In their heat I

will make them drunken, and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake." The facts of the capture of the city are related by those truthful historians, Herodotus and Xenophon; the prophecies were delivered by Isaiah, who lived two hundred and fifty years before Herodotus, and three hundred and fifty before Xenophon; and by Jeremiah, about one hundred years after Isaiah.

After its capture by Cyrus, Babylon, formerly the seat of empire, was reduced to the rank of a provincial city; and the inhabitants, who had grown wealthy and proud during their empire over the East, could ill brook this change of fortune, and therefore made an effort to regain their former power. Accordingly, in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, twelve years subsequent to the death of Cyrus, after some years of preparation, they openly revolted. For twenty months they sustained the siege and all the efforts of Darius; and when the conqueror was again in possession of the city he threw down the walls. In the succeeding reign another blow was struck toward the downfall of Babylon. Xerxes, after his return from his unfortunate expedition into Greece, partly to indemnify himself for his losses, and partly out of zeal for the Magian religion, which held every kind of image-worship in abhorrence, destroyed the temples, and plundered them of their vast treasures, which appear to have been hitherto spared, thereby accomplishing the other prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah: "Babylon is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken into the ground. Wherefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will do judgment upon her graven images.