of the national worship
was at least tolerated, though some formal acknowledgment of the
presiding deities of Assyria on the part of the subject nations may not
improbably have been required in most cases.

Secondly, there is an indication that in certain countries immediately
bordering on Assyria endeavors were made from time to time to centralize
and consolidate the empire, by substituting, on fit occasions, for the
native chiefs, Assyrian officers as governors. The persons appointed are
of two classes--"collectors" and "treasurers." Their special business
is, of course, as their names imply, to gather in the tribute due to the
Great King, and secure its safe transmission to the capital; but they
seem to have been, at least in some instances, entrusted with the civil
government of their respective districts. It does not appear that this
system was ever extended very far, Lebanon on the west, and Mount Zagros
on the east, may be regarded as the extreme limits of the centralized
Assyria. Armenia, Media, Babylonia, Susiana, most of Phoenicia,
Palestine, Philistia, retained to the last their native monarchs; and
thus Assyria, despite the feature here noticed, kept upon the whole her
character of a "kingdom-empire."

The civilization of the Assyrians is a large subject, on which former
chapters of this work have, it is hoped, thrown some light, and upon
which only a very few remarks will be here offered by way of
recapitulation. Deriving originally letters and the elements of learning
from Babylonia, the Assyrians appear to have been content with the
knowledge thus obtained, and neither in literature nor in science to
have progressed much beyond their instructors. The heavy incubus of a
dead language lay upon all those who desired to devote themselves to
scientific pursuits; and, owing to this, knowledge tended to become the
exclusive possession of a learned or perhaps a priest class, which did
not aim at progress, but was satisfied to hand on the traditions of
former ages. To understand the genius of the Assyrian people we must
look to their art and their manufactures. These are in the main probably
of native growth; and from them we may best gather an impression of the
national character. They show us a patient, laborious, pains-taking
people, with more appreciation of the useful than the ornamental, and of
the actual than the ideal. Architecture, the only one of the fine arts
which is essentially useful, forms their ch