The age-herald., 1897-09-12


 est colors and some of their other facui- undeveloped condltion-that of exact mathematics among them
 Babylonian and Assyrian history was carefully recorded, both on paper simi- lar to that used in Egypt and in the brick books" peculiar to the Euphrates Valley. The Assyrians and Babylon fans had leaTmsd by experience so much of the vicissitudes of civilization that they had no confidence in paper. They wanted a literature which could stand fire. As they could not devise fire-proof library buildings, they made flr@-proof books. As a result of this forethought, every year is giving us more and more of their history, their science their poetry, even of the magic for which thsy had worldwide celebrity.
 The Assyrtan library was as careful ly adjusted as the libraries of modern cities. The brick books were arranged on shelves and numbered, the number serving for a title. Any one who en- tered the library to consult it's refer ence works gave their numbers to he scribe in charge. and they were handed ] him from the shelves. It seems almost | llAcACuiDIe Sucn nllllult uSidi-5 Ol this lolg-forgotten life could have ben recovered where 100 years ago nothing
 of 1t seemed to remain except broken l stcHEs and overthiown columns, but
 when we have these things from such scholars as Maspero, summing up the EresuIs of his own work, and that elf his colalbcrers we cannot doubt them. l Tn beginning to write book an As 1 -x,n-io Io1,x, so,, 1,o page consisting of a brick so far dlied as to take and hold the impression made l in it by the triangular metal pen or stylus used in writing. As one page after another was completed, the bricks were baked hard in an oven, and care fully arranged on the shelves of the royal library. Every .book was thsn precious possession. King Assurbani- pal, better known as Sardanapalus, col 1 1ected a large library, of which he was very proud. Mcdern explorers have dyg into it and recovered many of its scat tered bricks. finding that in every work the king took care to have himself re- corded as a patron of the arts and sciences.
 One of rhe objects of the public li- ibn5ry was to preserve the deeds to land and titles to d.her property This was done with great pains. Three copies were made of every deed or title, one for record and one for each of the con tracting parties. To prever: them from forging alterations in the clay, the in- scrlption first made was covered with another layer of clay, on the surface of which it was repeated, so that the in- ncr writing which the forger could not | .J.t. 4l.-
 always remain in witness against him. Another great object of the libraries 1 was to preserve poetry, especially relig- ious poetry. Some of the psalms and hymns recovered from brick books and tablets are much like those of the Old Testament. 'Tn heaven, who is high," we read in one which is o1,en quoted, Thou alone art high In earth who is high? Thou alone-thou art high. As for thee, thy word in heaven is declared; the spirits of earth kiss the ground" The oldest traditions of the race were also preserved with scrupulous care. We have thus recovered with the spade history of the creation and of the flood, in many respects parallel to that so care fully preserved by the Hebrews and transmitted to us intact, through the 
 The early traditions of the Babylo- nians were no doubt recorded and kept | without change, but it was a habit of l their priests and wise men to use such l traditions as many changed forms 70 1 teach mysteries" to the uninitiated. It was almost universally believed in the Chriatian world that crder and civ | iiizatioa would be destroyed by the gen. | af tho npOn1e So every effort was made to keep higher | education from the prfane ard the ~vul- gar Higher learning was held by so- cieties of priests and students similar to some modern secret societies, and was lmparted by them only to the ind | tislsed, who were sworn not to reveal l it.. In order theI; it might be the more easily remembered, tales and poems were constructed, which, if read or heard | by the unfnitiated, would seem to be mere tales, but to the initiated would convey the meaning of the mystery to which they had been admitted. The be- | ginnfngs of our science were thus trans-
 mitted for centuries by oath4bound adopts, speaking to each other in ale l gories and dark sayings" To reveal | such mystries. to attempt to admit any
 
 1 what was supposed to give. of what | really did give, the highest intellectual power possible for the time. was to be worthy of dealh. What we now consid- CT the educators highest merit was then the worst sacrilege. II happens in this way tha. what seem to us the mo5s ab- surd stories which could be jumbled to- gether may have been the composition ot men whose minds had attained well-developed sense of order. They themselves may have been as fully con- scious of ahe ludicrous inconsistency of the story as Swift was in writing "Gul- liver's Travels" Perhaps in 1000 years the learned man who suddenly discov- | CTS the "esoteric meaning of the meth l cd by which Gulliver was welcomed to l the land of the Yahoos, w.ll be first as- | sailed by all other learned men as 1 charlatan, and finally, after his death, | treated wi h singular honors as an inel- 1 .1 rlxo1 al- r@-.