the
north. The people of this first kingdom will therefore be called
Chaldaeans, although there is no evidence that they applied the name to
themselves, or that it was even known to them in primitive times.

The general character of this remarkable people will best appear from the
account, presently to be given, of their manners, their mode of life,
their arts, their science, their religion, and their history. It is not
convenient to forestall in this place the results of almost all our
coming inquiries. Suffice it to observe that, though possessed of not
many natural advantages, the Chaldaean people exhibited a fertility of
invention, a genius, and an energy which place them high in the scale of
nations, and more especially in the list of those descended from a
Hamitic stock. For the last 3000 years the world has been mainly
indebted for its advancement to the Semitic and Indo-European races; but
it was otherwise in the first ages. Egypt and Babylon--Mizraim and
Nimrod--both descendants of Ham--led the way, and acted as the pioneers
of mankind in the various untrodden fields of art, literature, and
science. Alphabetic writing, astronomy, history, chronology,
architecture, plastic art, sculpture, navigation, agriculture, textile
industry, seem, all of them, to have had their origin in one or other of
these two countries. The beginnings may have been often humble enough.
We may laugh at the rude picture-writing, the uncouth brick pyramid, the
coarse fabric, the homely and ill-shapen instruments, as they present
themselves to our notice in the remains of these ancient nations; but
they are really worthier of our admiration than of our ridicule. The
first inventors of any art are among the greatest benefactors of their
race; and the bold step which they take from the unknown to the known,
from blank ignorance to discovery, is equal to many steps of subsequent
progress. "The commencement," says Aristotle, "is more than half of the
whole." This is a sound judgment; and it will be well that we should
bear it in mind during the review, on which we are about to enter, of the
language, writing, useful and ornamental art, science, and literature of
the Chaldaeans. "The child is father of the man," both in the individual
and the species; and the human race at the present day lies under
infinite obligations to the genius and industry of early ages.

CHAPTER IV.

LANGUAGE AND WRITING.

It was noted in the preced