The epochs in the intellectual life of an ancient people are not
comparable to geological epochs, for instance, because the forces at
work were directed by human wills, whether in the interests of
progress or otherwise. The battle of creeds has ever been a battle of
minds. It should be recognized, therefore, that the human element
bulks as prominently in the drama of Babylon's religious history as
does the prince of Denmark in the play of _Hamlet_. We are not
concerned with the plot alone. The characters must also receive
attention. Their aspirations and triumphs, their prejudices and
blunders, were the billowy forces which shaped the shoreland of the
story and made history.

Various aspects of Babylonian life and culture are dealt with
throughout this volume, and it is shown that the growth of science and
art was stimulated by unwholesome and crude superstitions. Many rank
weeds flourished beside the brightest blossoms of the human intellect
that wooed the sun in that fertile valley of rivers. As in Egypt,
civilization made progress when wealth was accumulated in sufficient
abundance to permit of a leisured class devoting time to study and
research. The endowed priests, who performed temple ceremonies, were
the teachers of the people and the patrons of culture. We may think
little of their religious beliefs, regarding which after all we have
only a superficial knowledge, for we have yet discovered little more
than the fragments of the shell which held the pearl, the faded petals
that were once a rose, but we must recognize that they provided
inspiration for the artists and sculptors whose achievements compel
our wonder and admiration, moved statesmen to inaugurate and
administer humanitarian laws, and exalted Right above Might.

These civilizations of the old world, among which the Mesopotamian and