remiah, and
Daniel; the Father of History records their valuable inventions; and an
Aristotle was not ashamed to be beholden to them for scientific data.
They were good observers of astronomical phenomena, careful recorders of
such observations, and mathematicians of no small repute. Unfortunately,
they mixed with their really scientific studies those occult pursuits
which, in ages and countries where the limits of true science are not
known, are always apt to seduce students from the right path, having
attractions against which few men are proof, so long as it is believed
that they can really accomplish the end that they propose to themselves.
The Babylonians were astrologers no less than astronomers; they
professed to cast nativities, to expound dreams, and to foretell events
by means of the stars; and though there were always a certain number
who kept within the legitimate bounds of science, and repudiated the
astrological pretensions of their brethren, yet on the whole it must
be allowed that their astronomy was fatally tinged with a mystic and
unscientific element.

In close connection with the intellectual ability of the Babylonians
was the spirit of enterprise which led them to engage in traffic and
to adventure themselves upon the ocean in ships. In a future chapter
we shall have to consider the extent and probable direction of this
commerce. It is sufficient to observe in the present place that the same
turn of mind which made the Phoenicians anciently the great carriers
between the East and West, and which in modern times has rendered
the Jews so successful in various branches of trade, seems to have
characterized the Semitized Babylonians, whose land was emphatically "a
land of traffic," and their chief city "a city of merchants."

The trading spirit which was thus strongly developed in the Babylonian
people led naturally to the two somewhat opposite vices of avarice and
over-luxuriousness. Not content with honorable gains, the Babylonians
"coveted an evil covetousness," as we learn both from Habakkuk and
Jeremiah. The "shameful custom" mentioned by Herodotus, which required
as a religious duty that every Babylonian woman, rich or poor, highborn
or humble, should once in her life prostitute herself in the temple of
Beltis, was probably based on the desire of attracting strangers to
the capital, who would either bring with them valuable commodities
or purchase the productions of the country. The public auctio