a kingdom to a tiger-like thirst for blood. Nor was this cruel temper
shown only towards the subject nations and captives taken in war.
Babylonian nobles trembled for their heads if they incurred by a slight
fault the displeasure of the monarch; and even the most powerful class
in the kingdom, the learned and venerable "Chaldaeans," ran on one
occasion the risk of being exterminated, because they could not expound
a dream which the king had forgotten. If a monarch displeased his court,
and was regarded as having a bad disposition, it was not thought enough
simply to make away with him, but he was put to death by torture. Among
recognized punishments were cutting to pieces and casting into a
heated furnace. The houses of offenders were pulled down and made into
dunghills. These practices imply a "violence" and cruelty beyond the
ordinary Oriental limit; and we cannot be surprised that when final
judgment was denounced against Babylon, it was declared to be sent, in
a great measure, "because of men's blood, and for the violence of the
land-of the city, and all that dwelt therein."

It is scarcely necessary to add that the Babylonians were a proud
people. Pride is unfortunately the invariable accompaniment of success,
in the nation, if not in the individual; and the sudden elevation of
Babylon from a subject to a dominant power must have been peculiarly
trying, more especially to the Oriental temperament. The spirit which
culminated in Nebuchadnezzar, when, walking in the palace of his
kingdom, and surveying the magnificent buildings which he had raided on
every side from the plunder of the conquered nations, and by the labor
of their captive bands, he exclaimed, "Is not the great Babylon which
I have built by the might of my power and for the honor of my
majesty?"--was rife in the people generally, who, naturally enough,
believed themselves superior to every other nation upon the earth.
"I am, and there is none else beside me," was the thought, if not