of accidents, and not brought under the control of enlightened Christian and social policy. Hence their mazy, involved, and compact structure, as though the component parts had been driven towards a common focus by a storm rushing from every point of the compass. The association of large numbers is favourable to the acquire

ment of energy of character, and to the play of improving means; but if the concentration is carried to excess, so as to trench upon due material accommodation, and this is sure to happen where individual cupidity is not subject to the control of a civic prudence, it is then a fruitful cause of moral debasement and physical emaciation.

The phrase, the "holy city," belonged to Jerusalem, but only in a ceremonial sense, and not as implying the personal sanctity of the mass of the inhabitants. In the latter acceptation, it has never been won by any city of the ancient or modern world; and a charge of wickedness, obviously, from the terms of the allegation, gross and general, was advanced against Nineveh. The humb ling fact is largely true at present, that men, forming an extended association, do not breathe purity upon each other; but, by collision, the depravity of human nature becomes excited and apparent, and by easy communication it is propagated. The classic pages of antiquity parade the same fact before us, but in the more revolting shape of a disgusting profligacy, exhibiting itself openly, without shame, and even taking its place in the very ritual of religion as a sanctified abomination. Yet, even-handed justice may constrain the admission, that if greater corruption of manners prevailed in the cities of the antique, there was less guilt than what belongs to the ungodliness of Christendom, because of the scanty means of moral elevation. Still, of the modern "city full" it may be said, at least in evangelized countries, that, however delinquent, there is usually a righteous leaven, a remnant faithful among the faithless." But no such relieving feature marked the case of the Assyrian capital. It presented an unmitigated scene of guilty greatness and splendid atrocity, and this was the cause of Jonah's mission to its gates. The flight of the prophet, upon being summoned to denounce its crimes his subsequent adventures the voyage to Tarshish-the storm

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at sea-the conduct of the marinerstheir natural fears, and superstitious recourse to the lot-the overruled detection of the recreant by it-his casting overboard, and miraculous preservation-are topics extraneous to the history of the "great city," which presents the messenger reclaimed, boldly proclaiming his message within its walls-one portending a sudden and speedy destruction :- "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!'

The arrest of cities by calamitysudden, unexpected, and awful threatening their extinction, and in some instances completely and irreparably accomplishing it, has marked alike the ancient and modern era of the world. Such facts are regarded wisely and well, when viewed as parts of the mysterious economy of Providence, abjuring that presumption of self-complacency exhibited by some of the Jews in relation to their countrymen involved in the meshes of disaster, which our Lord rebuked-"Those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell you, nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The catastrophe of the cities of the plain, is an example of the sudden overthrow of cities, with reference to which, the "secret of the Lord" is with us. The morale of the event is authoritatively declared; and to a limited circle, the impending calamity was made known, with a view to the preservation of its members. So, be the disaster what it might, involved in the announcement, "Nineveh shall be overthrown," it is expressly recorded, as a specific visitation for specific iniquity. Clouds

and darkness are round about the nature of the stroke contemplated; and the warning acquires an attribute of terror from the veil of concealment thrown over its particular import. Emphatically some tremendous transition is stamped upon its general tenor; and both history and philosophy teach us how slight is the partition wall between the weal and woe of nations, and how multiplied the natural contingencies to which their welfare is subject. An unfavourable season has only to occur --one of cold, and storm, and rain-to cut off from a land its regular supply of food; or a trifling change in the properties of the atmosphere, will make all the difference between health and sickness, life and death, to its inhabitants. Historic annals are rife with the reverses of communities proceeding from various instrumentalities. War has unfurled his sanguinary banner, and "made of a city an heap, of a defenced city a ruin.' To the eye of sense, a human agent alone appears acting in the tragedy, but the mighty victor becomes a dependent of ficial, where the full explanation of the event is given :—

"Who raised him up from the east,
And sent victory on his path?
Who gave him nations for a prize,
And made him rule over kings?

Who caused that before his sword they were dust,
Before his bow as driven stubble?

He pursued them, and went on safely,
Even by the way that his feet had never trode.
Who hath done this, and accomplished it?

I, who call up generations from the beginning-
I Jehovah, the first and the last-I am He.
Lands saw it, and feared!

The ends of the earth trembled." Is. xli. 2-5. Often has famine appeared, like the irruption of a northern tempest, freezing up the streams of life in its way; or the pestilence has stalked forth, scattering dismay throughout an empire; or the earthquake has loosened the foundations, and smitten a nation with fears and "shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it ?"-is not more a truth of religion than of inductive philosophy. Such phenomena are commonly referred to the laws of nature, and with perfect propriety, as proximate to the events; yet, upon rational principles, thought cannot end here, for laws are not accidents, neither are they selfexecutive, but proclaim, by their play

and efficiency, the existence and administration of a Lawgiver.

The prophet's mission to Nineveh-the most interesting episode in its annals-opens up a chapter of human history without a parallel in the chronicle of nations-a city summoned to hear of a righteous judgment pronounced upon its evil works-an alarmed and penitent people reforming their ways, and pleading for a respite from the stroke. The account is brief and general. The message given as the entire proclamation-a grave, pithy, and tremendous sentence-harmonizes with the majesty of the Divine judicature, though it doubtless formed the subject-matter upon which the messenger dwelt at large. Yet whatever the "preaching of Jonah" might involve, he was, under restriction to ap pear simply as the herald of evil tidings, speaking only of a "judgment to come. Hence his avowed reason for recoiling from the enterprise, and subsequent dissatisfaction at the issue; selfishly apprehending some loss of personal honour at the event not answering to the letter of the announcement; for it was the secret conviction of his mind from the first, that an altered attitude on the part of the people would avail to avert their peril. But while the terms of the ambassador were confined to a denunciation of wrath, the spirit of his office went farther. If a cloud of retribution darkly lowered in the horizon of the Assyrian capital, while the sky overhead was bright, the very circumstance of a special embassy being appointed by Him who " changeth the times and the seasons," to announce the gathering storm-to declare its moral conneetions, and alarm the public mind to a sense of danger, was in itself the opening of a door of hope. Warning was given, and time allowed to take heed to it, affording room for the presumption, that the execution of the sentence was yet contingent, and that a right improvement of the interval. might not be in vain. Such was the interpretation put upon the threat of visitation; and, besides the “manifestation of the truth," commending the messenger "to every man's con

science," probably causes, not known to us now, contributed to procure for him -a solitary stranger-a Jew-a man of another country and religion-that regard as the bearer of no empty menace, which led to the visible and general humiliation. Impressions of the character and power of the God of Israel of the might of his " high hand and stretched-out arm"--had certainly gone forth beyond the bounds of Judaism, according as the Psalmist speaks of His glory being declared among the heathen. In far remote times, hostile invasion and commercial intercourse connected the Jews with many of the neighbouring nations; and, through the ordinary channels of communication, a knowledge of their marvellous history must have become widely diffused. Such events as the plagues inflicted upon Egypt-the miracles of the Canaanitish war-and the judgments executed upon the Philistines, would inevitably travel far from the scene of their occurrence, so that, strange entirely as the prophet might be to the inhabitants of Nineveh, yet, known to be a Jew, and announcing himself as charged with a special message from Jehovah, it might come to them in the name of One whose high authority and mighty power were, to some extent, known and respected. Whatever force there may be in these considerations, the story of the city exhibits monarch and vassal receiving with reverence the rebuke of the Most High, humbling themselves in sackcloth and ashes, and obtaining a reprieve from the scourge that "maketh desolate."

The successful Divine ambassador, retiring to the plain on the east side of the city, to see what would become of it, irritated at the idea of any deliverance being commanded-putting up a booth as a shadow in the day-time from the heat-a shelter probably constructed of the vigorous vegetation of the district, large parasitical plants abounding along the banks of the Tigris -and there moodily clinging to the hope that the falling towers, the burning palaces, and wailing population of Nineveh, would at length sensibly demonstrate the truthfulness of his message-exhibits a melancholy spec

tacle of human infirmity, through im moderate selfism. But a well-known element of the Jewish character is here apparent. Constituted a distinct people-forbidden to form alliances of blood with other nations-employed also during the early periods of their history as instruments of chastisement to idolatrous tribes, and favoured with many special Divine interpositions, the spirit of fierce intolerance sprung out of a perverted view of this system of peculiarity, which led its members to hold cheaply the very life of other people, and regard them as legitimate victims for fire and sword, when opportunity served, and passion or interest stimulated the atrocity. The disciples of Christ displayed this unscrupulous temperament of the nation, when he, a Jew, had received a slight from a Samaritan city, upon which the appeal was grafted, that fire might come down from heaven and destroy it; and plainly to the Jewish prophet, the desolation of the heathen capital was no costly sacrifice, with a view to the upholding of his own credit. Admirable was the schooling given to bring him to a better mindthe gourd rising by miraculous interposition in the night, to increase the shelter afforded by his rude erection from the scorching sun-the gourd, smitten by a worm, and withering away-then the vehement east wind, with the noon-tide heat oppressing his frame, and inducing regret for the perished plant-and the argumentative rebuke founded upon the value put upon the life of a vegetable, compared with that of his fellow-men"Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city?" The natural agencies here are still common to the locality. A hot, stormy, easterly wind, the sherki, singularly relaxing and dispiriting, is the dread of the natives; and the resemblance between the Hebrew name for the gourd, and the Greek name of the castor-oil tree, points to that being the night-produced plant, which grows plentifully on the plains of the Tigris, its smooth, deep green, and ample foliage, affording to the traveller an agreeable retreat from the sun's heat and glare. *.

The unnamed king, who heard the voice of the rod, may be inferred from the date of the prophet, to have immediately preceded the first Assyrian sovereign mentioned in the historical books of Scripture, the only sure lights we have upon the story of the ancient world. Hitherto the tribes beyond the eastern desert had not directly come into offensive collision with the Jews, but under the three first monarchs of Assyria, of whom we have any certain knowledge, its armies poured westward across the Euphrates, and rapidly advanced to universal conquest, favoured by the dissensions of the Hebrew kingdoms. Pul appeared upon the frontiers of Israel, and compelled the king to purchase forbearance and protection, by an annual tribute; Tiglath-pilesir (Diglath-pul-assur, great lord of the Tigris) received Judah as a stipendiary, sweeping the Transjordanic tribes into captivity; and Shalmanesar, provoked by a breach of faith, terminated the independent existence of Israel, and following the policy of his predecessors, transferred the people to his own territories, planting his native subjects in their place. Enquiry has largely followed the ten tribes to the scene of their deportation, and imagination has clung to the idea, that they have not been fused in the mass of mankind, but been perpetuated as a distinct body, in some remote region of central Asia, where they await, with their brethren, a final restoration to their native land. With more probability, from traces and traditions of the Jewish features, language, and religion, the descendants of the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" have been identified in the Affghans, so memorable recently in our own history. This was the opinion of the lamented Sir A. Burnes, and Carey and Marshman favoured it on philological grounds. "The Affghans," says Burnes, “look like Jews; they say they are descended from Jews; and the younger brother marries the widow of the elder, according to the law of Moses. The Affghans entertain

strong prejudices against the Jewish nation, which would at least show that they had no desire to claim descent from them, without a just cause." But, waiving this labyrinthine theme, the historic event of the Assyrian triumph, if Sir R. K. Porter's interpretation be correct, is memorialized in sculpture on the remarkable rock of Basitoon, a high and naturally scarped precipice on the ancient road from Babylon to Echatana. Ten captives are represented, nine in a row, united by a cord tied round their necks, their hands bound behind their backs, the tenth and foremost lying prostrate. They appear approaching a personage of much larger stature than any other in the group, a usual eastern distinction of royalty, who is lifting up his hand authoritatively, and trampling on the prostrate body. The sculpture, beautifully executed, is evidently commemorative of a triumph over enemies, and the stern conqueror, with ten captive foes before him, has suggested, and that naturally, the idea of Shalmaneser being the subject, and the ten tribes of Israel carried into captivity. The arrow-head inscriptions over the figures, could they be deciphered, would confirm or disprove this opinion, which at present depends upon the Jewish cast of the countenances, the design of the monument, and its existence in the country to which the tribes were transferred.

The empire of Nineveh was at the height of its prosperity and power when the next monarch came to the throne, the bold and impious Sennacherib, who, treading in the steps of his warlike predecessors, suddenly appeared in the territories of Hezekiah at the head of an immense army, threatening Judah with the terrible fate of Israel. The prophet Isaiah, an eye-witness of the transactions, when

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold,

forcibly paints the discordant scenes in Jerusalem at the tidings of his approach; the general terror and confusion, the city "full of stirs, a tumultuous city," a day of trouble, and of treading

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down, and of perplexity "the natural conduct of the thoughtful, "gone up to the housetops," commanding a view of the adjacent country to catch the first sight of the enemy, and communicate with each other by signals, as occasion might require the wild revelry of the despairing and reckless, so like the voluptuousness of the desperate among the Athenian populace, during the terrible plague described by Thucydides; "and in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die." (Isa. xxii. 12, 13.) Pacified by a present of the gold of the temple, the invader passed on to the conquest of Egypt, but subsequently deeming military possession of Jerusalem as an important stronghold in his rear, essential to the success of his enterprise, the monarch returned with his host upon the seemingly doomed city, insolently defying the God that spared Nineveh to save it from his arms. The dead corpses of a hundred and fourscore and five thousand of Sennacherib's army, slain in the night -the dispersion of the survivors when the morning revealed the fate of their companions-the flight of their leader to his own capital-was the first grand blow struck at the Assyrian power, and it shook the empire, when its might

green,

was most colossal, to its foundations. Likethe leaves of the forest when summer is That host with their banners at sunset were seen. Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

And breath'd in the face of the foe as he pass'd;

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his
mail,

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

If we interpret the "Angel of the Lord" spoken of as the instrument of this dread catastrophe by the prediction of it, "I will send a blast upon him," and refer, as the agent of it, to the simoon, or hot, southerly, stifling wind of the desert, fatal to many a caravan exposed to its influence, the special nature of the transaction is equally conspicuous, the "destruction wasting at noonday," being generated by the meridian heat, and the "pestilence walking in darkness," by which the army was cut off. A corrupted account of the event appears in the page of Herodotus, who mentions Sennacherib by name, but places the

scene of his sudden discomfiture before

Pelusium. Sethos, the Egyptian ruler alarmed at the formidable invasion, retired to the shrine of his god, to lament his danger and misfortunes, imploring aid, as Hezekiah had recourse to the temple, where in an artless and sublime prayer, he cast himself upon the protection of the God of his fathers. The Egyptian, sinking into sleep, received from the god an assurance of sustaining no injury in marching against the enemy. Accordingly, an immense number of field-mice assailed the camp in the night, gnawed asunder the bow-strings, quivers, and shieldstraps of the soldiers, leaving them defenceless, upon which the troops disbanded in confusion. This is the real incident expressed in the language of hieroglyphics-the bow, the quiver, the shield, the mouse, symbolising a

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride;

far inferior force, or by secret and inexplicable means.

"Who hath hardened himself against me, and prospered?" From the date of the haughty defiance thrown at the God of Jerusalem, the doom of the Assyrian Empire seems to have been sealed. Misfortune followed the baffled king in his retreat to Nineveh,

where he was slain in the house of his god, and calamity came again upon the empire. The tributary nations of the eastern provinces seized the opportunity afforded by the reverse to throw off the yoke; and though the reins of government fell to no feeble