, when, walking in the palace of his
kingdom, and surveying the magnificent buildings which he had raided on
every side from the plunder of the conquered nations, and by the labor
of their captive bands, he exclaimed, "Is not the great Babylon which
I have built by the might of my power and for the honor of my
majesty?"--was rife in the people generally, who, naturally enough,
believed themselves superior to every other nation upon the earth.
"I am, and there is none else beside me," was the thought, if not
the speech, of the people, whose arrogancy was perhaps somewhat less
offensive than that of the Assyrians, but was quite as intense and as
deep-seated.

The Babylonians, notwithstanding their pride, their cruelty, their
covetousness, and their love of luxury, must be pronounced to have been,
according to their lights, a religious people. The temple in
Babylonia is not a mere adjunct of the palace, but has almost the same
pre-eminence over other buildings which it claims in Egypt. The vast
mass of the Birs-i-Nimrud is sufficient to show that an enormous amount
of labor was expended in the erection of sacred edifices; and the costly
ornamentation lavished on such buildings is, as we shall hereafter find,
even more remarkable than their size. Vast sums wore also expended on
images of the gods, necessary adjuncts of the religion; and the whole
paraphernalia of worship exhibited a rare splendor and magnificence. The
monarchs were devout worshippers of the various deities, and gave much
of their attention to the building and repair of temples, the erection
of images, and the like. They bestowed on their children names
indicative of religious feeling, and implying real faith in the power
of the gods to protect their votaries. The people generally affected
similar names--names containing, in almost every case, a god's name
as one of their elements. The seals or signets which formed almost a
necessary part of each man's costume were, except in rare instances, of
a religious character. Even in banquets, where we might have expected
that thoughts of religion would be laid aside, it seems to have been the
practice during the drinking to rehearse the praises of the deities.

We are told by Nicolas of Damascus that the Babylonians cultivated two
virtues especially, honesty and calmness. Honesty is the natural, almost
the necessary virtue of traders, who soon find that it is the best
policy to be fair and just in their dealings. W