ons of Western Asia of every object of
value they possessed. These accumulations were continually added to, in the
case of Babylon, by the active commerce she carried on with the
mineral-producing countries, such as the Caucasus, Bactriana, India, and
Egypt.

There are some architectures--that of the Greeks for example--that preserve
a rare nobility even when deprived of their metal ornaments and
polychromatic decoration. The architects of Babylon and Nineveh were
differently situated. Deprived of metals some of their finest effects would
have been impossible. The latter could be used at will in flexible threads
or long, narrow bands, which could be nailed or riveted on to wood or
brick. They may be beaten with the hammer, shaped by the chisel, or
engraved by the burin; their surfaces may be either dead or polished; the
variety of shades of which they are capable, and the brilliance of their
reflections, are among the most valuable resources of the decorator, and
the colouring principles they contain provide the painter and enameller
with some of his richest and most solid tones. In Chaldaea the architect was
condemned by the _force majeure_ of circumstances to employ little more
than crude or burnt brick and bad timber; in Assyria he voluntarily
condemned himself to the limitations they imposed. By the skilful and
intelligent use of metals, he managed to overcome the resulting
disadvantages in some degree, and to mask under a sumptuous decoration of
gold, silver, and bronze, the deficiencies inherent in the material of
which his buildings were mainly composed.

NOTES:

[127] G. CURTIUS is of opinion that the word keramos, and consequently its
derivatives (kerameus, kerameia, kerameike, &c.,) springs rather from a
root CRA, expressive of the idea to _cook_, than from the word kerannumi,
to mix, knead (_Grundzuege der Griechischen Etymologie_, p. 147, 5th
edition).

[128] See _Nahum_ iii. 14.

[129] Even these dimensions were sometimes passed. The Louvre possesses an
Assyrian brick rather more than 17-1/2 inches square. See DE LONGPERIER,
_Notice des Antiquites Assyriennes_ (3rd edition, 1854, 12mo), No. 44.

[130] VITRUVIUS, 1. ii. ch. 3.

[131] PLACE, _Ninive et l'Assyrie_, vol. i. p. 225. The vault of the
gallery discovered by LAYARD in the centre of the tower that occupied a
part of the mound of Nimroud was constructed in the same fashion.
_Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 126.

[132]