gn for an idea,
much as the Arabic numerals, 1, 2, 3. etc., are non-phonetic signs
representing the ideas, one, two, three, etc. The known characters of
this description are between twenty and thirty.

The known Assyrian characters are thus brought up nearly to three
hundred! There still remain a considerable number which are either
wholly unknown, or of which the meaning is known, while the phonetic
value cannot at present be determined. M. Oppert's Catalogue contains
fourteen of the former and fifty-nine of the latter class.

It has already been observed that the monumental evidence accords with
the traditional belief in regard to the character of the Assyrian
language, which is unmistakably Semitic. Not only does the vocabulary
present constant analogies to other Semitic dialects, but the phonetic
laws and the grammatical forms are equally of this type. At the same
time the language has peculiarities of its own, which separate it from
its kindred tongues, and constitute it a distinct form of Semitic
speech, not a mere variety of any known form. It is neither Hebrew, nor
Arabic, nor Phoenician, nor Chaldee, nor Syriac, but a sister tongue to
these, having some analogies with all of them, and others, more or
fewer, with each. On the whole, its closest relationship seems to be
with the Hebrew, and its greatest divergence from the Aramaic or Syriac,
with which it was yet, locally, in immediate connection.

To attempt anything like a full illustration of these statements in the
present place would be manifestly unfitting. It would be to quit the
province of the historian and archeologist, in order to enter upon that
of the comparative philologer or the grammarian. At the same time a
certain amount of illustration seems necessary, in order to show that
the statements above made are not mere theories, but have a substantial
basis.

The Semitic character of the vocabulary will probably be felt to be
sufficiently established by the following lists:

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CHAPTER VI.

ARCHITECTURE AND OTHER ARTS.

"Architecti multarum artium solertes."--Mos. CHOR. (De Assyriis) i. 15.

The luxury and magnificence of the Assyrians, and the advanced condition
of the arts among them which such words imply, were matters familiar to
the Greeks and Romans, who, however, had little ocular