Evening star., 1927-11-06

At Nineveh, north Of Assur on the
Tigris, Sargon II (722-705) and Senna-
| cherib (705-681) built new capital,
| whose splendor outshone anything
| that western Asia had seen before.
| Within their palaces sculp tor s
| wrought works of bas-relief which still
remain unrivaled in their portrayal OF
| moving and suffering animals. In
| the palace of Sennacherib's grandson,
Assurbanipal (668-626) - whom the
Greeks called Sardanapalus-recent
explorers have found the remains OF
the imperial library, containing $4,000
| volumes" las we should say) in clay.
tablet form. One tablet tells the old
legend of the flood, and appends this
stern inscriptions: "Whosoever shall
carry off this tablet may Assur
and Belit overthrow him in wrath and
anger, and may they destroy his name
and posterity in the land" So an
cient are the habits of book keepers.
y u y X
And then the wheel of history turn
ed once more, and a new tribe of hardy
nomads, unspoiled with libraries, ap.
peared as "Kaldi," or Chaldeans, in the
south, looked with envy upon the
| wealth of Nineveh, laid siege to 1t
with the help of the Medes, captured
rand ruined it (612 B.C) and formed
an empire of their own. Upon the re-
mains of ancient Babylon the Chal.
deans built another capital, as luxu-
rious as any that the land had seen;
and on the roof of his great palace
Nebuchadnezzar (604-56D laid out
those famous Hanging Gardens of
Babylon" which the Greeks numbered
among the Seven Wonders of the
World. Commerce and industry -four
ished, and science grew as never be.
fore. It was the Chaldean astrologers
who, in the attempt to foretell human
events by the course Of the stars,
laid the bases of astronomy, plotted
the Zodiac, named the consultations,
and mapped out the sky. The five
planets were to them gods; and though
we know those planets now by Roman
names Jupiter, Venus, etc). these are
but Latin correlatives OF Chaldean
deities (Marduk, Ishtar. etc.. The
loveliest of these gods, 1shtar. the
Babylonian Venus, is still unwittingly
honored in our festival Of Easter.
So Chaldea waxed in wealth and
power, and gathered taxes far and
wide. In 586 BIC. the little kingdom
of Judah, the southern half of Pales-
| tine, fell to the conquerors, Jerusalem
was captured and destroyed. and
thousands of Jews were carried to
Babylon in bondage. 1t was this trag.
edy that made little Judea great, and
| prepared 1t to become the supreme
moral teacher Of mankind.
y II %x
From Dan to Beersheba" Palestine
runs $50 miles north and south: east
and west it varies from 25 to 80 miles;
in all it achieves the area OF New
Jersey. It's soil Is poor: for the most
part barren hills, and plains of rock
and sand; too parched to pay fruitfully
for human effort; pinned in by the
desert and shut off from the sea. New.
ertheless in that mountainous waste
great people grew. sending out
from its beleagured cities majestic
poetry, profound philosophy and re-
iigions that have exalted and trans
formed the soul of man.
They were a fusion Of many nomad
tribes; in their origin, Renan thinks.
they were like the Arabs that ride
the desert today. What gave them
unity was first the patriarchal polyga-
nous family, stern and omnipotent as