kings that we obtain the best copies of the Babylonian religious
texts, treasured and preserved by her with all the veneration of which
her religious mind was capable,--and the religious fervour of the
Oriental in most cases leaves that of the European, or at least of the
ordinary Briton, far behind.


The later period in Assyria.

Assyria went to her downfall at the end of the seventh century before
Christ worshipping her national god Assur, whose cult did not cease
with the destruction of her national independence. In fact, the city
of Assur, the centre of that worship, continued to exist for a
considerable period; but for the history of the religion of Assyria,
as preserved there, we wait for the result of the excavations being
carried on by the Germans, should they be fortunate enough to obtain
texts belonging to the period following the fall of Nineveh.


In Babylonia.

Babylonia, on the other hand, continued the even tenor of her way.
More successful at the end of her independent political career than
her northern rival had been, she retained her faith, and remained the
unswerving worshipper of Merodach, the great god of Babylon, to whom
her priests attributed yet greater powers, and with whom all the other
gods were to all appearance identified. This tendency to monotheism,
however, never reached the culminating point--never became absolute--
except, naturally, in the minds of those who, dissociating themselves,
for philosophical reasons, from the superstitious teaching of the