ent, Assyrian
art culminated, and the empire seemed likely to extend itself over the
whole of the East. It was then, indeed, that Assyria most completely
answered the description of the Prophet--"The Assyrian was a cedar in
Lebanon, with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of high
stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him
great; the deep set him up on high with her rivers running about his
plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and
his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of the
multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of the heaven
made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the
beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt
_all great nations_. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of
his branches for his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden
of God could not hide him; the fir-trees were not like his boughs; and
the chestnut-trees were not like his branches; _nor any tree in the
garden of God was like unto him in his beauty_."

In one respect, however, Assyria, it is to be feared, had made but
little advance beyond the spirit of a comparatively barbarous time. The
"lion" still "tore in pieces for his whelps, and strangled for his
lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin."
Advancing civilization, more abundant literature, improved art, had not
softened the tempers of the Assyrians, nor rendered them more tender and
compassionate in their treatment of captured enemies. Sennacherib and
Esar-haddon show, indeed, in this respect, some superiority to former
kings. They frequently spared their prisoners, even when rebels, and
seem seldom to have had recourse to extreme punishments. But
Asshur-bani-pal reverted to the antique system of executions,
mutilations, and tortures. We see on his bas-reliefs the unresisting
enemy thrust through with the spear, the tongue torn from the mouth of
the captive accused of blasphemy, the rebel king beheaded on the field
of battle, and the prisoner brought to execution with the head of a
friend or brother hung round his neck. We see the scourgcrs preceding
the king as his regular attendants, with their whips passed through
their girdles; we behold the operation of flaying performed either upon
living or dead men; we observe t