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city on the Euphrates, which afterwards acquired such fame as the capital of the Babylonian empire. The name of Nimrod signifies a rebel, and according to Armenian and European accounts, the land where he erected his kingdom was in the allotment to the sons of Shem; and his revolt and violent encroachment upon the territories of others, form the basis on which we may with good reason affix to him the evil character he bears. Whatever consequence this first city had acquired, there is no doubt it was lost soon after the confusion of tongues.

The same sacred volume also informs us, that the people began the building of "a mighty tower, whose top may reach unto heaven." Whether there was any or what bad intention in this erection, has afforded much matter for discussion, into which it is not necessary here to enter. It has been observed, that "the idea of preventing their being scattered abroad by building a lofty tower is applicable in the most remarkable manner to the wide and level plains of Babylonia, where scarcely one object exists differing from another to guide the traveller in his journeying, and which in those early days, as at present, were a sea of land, the compass being unknown.". It is probable that the political advancement of these early people had taught them a self-reliance destructive of their reliance on God; and that it was their implied distrust in God's promise that the world should never again be destroyed by water, that constituted the real sin. Be this as it may, we can but regard it as a wondrous effort of early civilization, and, as such, inquire what was its fate in after-times.

There is no statement that this great work sustained

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any damage at the confusion; it is simply said that the building of the city, and doubtless of the tower itself, was discontinued. It is generally admitted that the fabric was in a considerable state of forwardness at the confusion, and it is highly probable it could have sustained no great damage at the time when the building of Babylon was commenced.

The city of Babylon, the capital of the Babylonian empire, was situate on the river Euphrates, about fifty miles south of Bagdad. Its origin is lost in the remote obscurity of early times. It is rather remarkable that Herodotus gives us no intimation respecting its founder; and from this we may fairly conclude that its antiquity was so great, and ascended so high, that this earliest of antiquaries could not satisfy himself concerning it. We learn from him that it was the most celebrated city of Assyria, and that the kings of that country made it their residence after the destruction of Nineveh, and he very clearly describes the appearance of the city when he visited it. It was situate in a great plain, and was in form of a perfect square, each side 120 stadia in length; which would make its circuit not much less than fifty miles. This extent seems so enormous, that many writers of eminence consider there must be either mistake or exaggeration; but when we see how the metropolis of the British empire is every year increasing in all directions, it may be expected, at no very remote period, to reach the same dimensions as this wonder of the ancient world. Still more, when we are told that the city of Babylon was very loosely built, and that much of the ground inclosed by the walls was left vacant, or laid out in gardens,-an arrangement, by the way, I which it would be well if our advanced civilization

would only lead us to copy,-it may reasonably be doubted whether it contained a population proportionate to its size, or comprehended as large a number of buildings as London does at present; therefore, however surprising this account may in the first instance seem, it is not so incredible as some suppose.

"Of Babylon's wondrous walls, within

Whose large inclosure the rude hind or guides

His plough, or binds his sheaves, while shepherds guard
Their flocks, secure of ill: on the broad top

Six chariots rattle in extended front.

Each side in length, in height, in solid bulk,
Reflects its opposite a perfect square:
Scarce sixty thousand paces can mete out
The vast circumference. An hundred gates
Of polished brass led to that central point,

Where, through the midst, bridged o'er with wondrous art,
Euphrates leads a navigable stream,

Branch'd from the current of his roaring flood."

It was encompassed by a wide and deep ditch, lined with brickwork and filled with water, and the soil dug out was made into bricks, with which a wall was built two hundred royal cubits high and fifty in thickness. (A cubit is about eighteen inches.) The bricks were baked in furnaces, and hot bitumen was used to cement them together; a layer of reeds being placed at every thirty layers of bricks. The sides of the ditch were first built in this manner, and then the walls above them; and upon the edges of the wall they erected towers with only one chamber, each opposite the other, between which there was space enough left for a chariot with four horses. In the walls there were a hundred gates, twenty-five on each side; all these gates were made of solid brass, and of prodigious size and strength.

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