nations, is its intensely religious character. The long
and solemn invocation of the Great Gods with which it opens, the
distinct ascription to their assistance and guardianship of the whole
series of royal successes, whether in war or in the chase; the pervading
idea that the wars were undertaken for the chastisement of the enemies
of Asshur, and that their result was the establishment in an
ever-widening circle of the worship of Asshur; the careful account which
is given of the erection and renovation of temples, and the dedication
of offerings; and the striking final prayer--all these are so many
proofs of the prominent place which religion held in the thoughts of the
king who set up the inscription, and may fairly be accepted as
indications of the general tone and temper of his people. It is evident
that we have here displayed to us, not a decent lip-service, not a
conventional piety, but a real, hearty earnest religious faith--a faith
bordering on fanaticism--a spirit akin to that with which the Jews were
possessed in their warfare with the nations of Canaan, or which the
soldiers of Mahomet breathed forth when they fleshed their maiden swords
upon the infidels. The king glorifies himself much; but he glorifies the
gods more. He fights, in part, for his own credit, and for the extension
of his territory; but he fights also for the honor of the gods, whom the
surrounding nations reject, and for the diffusion of their worship far
and wide throughout all known regions. His wars are religious wars, at
least as much as wars of conquest; his buildings, or, at any rate, those
on whose construction he dwells with most complacency, are religious
buildings; the whole tone of his mind is deeply and sincerely religious;
besides formal acknowledgments, he is continually letting drop little
expressions which show that his gods are "in all his thoughts," and
represent to him real powers governing and directing all the various
circumstances of human life. The religious spirit displayed is, as might
have been expected, in the highest degree exclusive and intolerant; but
it is earnest, constant, and all-pervading.

In the next place, we cannot fail to be struck with the energetic
character of the monarch, so different from the temper which Ctesias
ascribes, in the broadest and most sweeping terms, to all the successors
of Ninus. Within the first five years of his reign the indefatigable
prince conducts in person expeditions into almo