FIRST SISTER. "Sister, tell me your vision strange, If it bode thee ill (which may it not!) SECOND SISTER'S DREAM. "'Twas yesternight, When the stars shone bright, I entered my garden fair, The gentle zephyrs hover'd The snow-drop white, I wept to find them not On the turf beds where they grew, Lovely in the setting sun, Deck'd with pearly dew. Ah! now their very stems Were shrivelled up and dry The storm-blast drave the zephyrs forth From the lowering sky; And I sang a dirge with the weeping hours, Over the gentle lovely flowers, "Narcissus so tall, and convolvulus blue, With myrtles lay strewn where they formerly grew: I went to the spot Where roses grew fair, But found them not, For the blight had been there! And I sighed to think of the happy hours I had spent in the shade, of the queen of flowers. I tried to weep, Had glazed my eye. For a single tear, And they flowed from my eyes in showers. "Sister, this was my vision strange, And my heart is sore, For me thinks that soon I will fade and die, 66 Like the tender flowers, When the sunny hours FIRST SISTER. 'Sister-God, who watcheth o'er Our tender years, Can everything foresce; His wisdom let us then adore- The flowers again will bloom In the coming Spring, Or reappear anew, Shook from the skylark's wing; For 'cease to be' ne'er was the doom, Of God-created thing. Then, Sister, dry thy tears, We'll sing of happier hours In the leafy shade; You know the beauteous hymn About the use of flowers ' On hill and glade, It saith that they were made H. J. NINEVEH ITS REMAINS AND MEMORIES. IV. AMID the obscurity that lies upon the far past, and covers with an impenetrable veil the greater part of the Assyrian history, there are yet a few points with reference to the empire and the capital which stand out clearly in the light. In the passage before referred to from the ethnographical table in the book of Genesis (Gen. x. 11), the foundation of the city is chronicled but in a very incidental manner, and the text of the historian leaves it doubtful to which of two chiefs the title of founder belongs, to Ashur, the son of Shem, or to Nimrod, the grandson of Ham. We are not, however, to suppose that any semblance of the Nineveh of prophecy then arose, or that it became a place of importance, and the centre of a monarchy, until many ages afterwards. Cities, in general, are of slow growth, and arrive at consequence from very humble beginnings. A long series of years is occupied in the process, whether it be one of continuous advance or prosecuted by fits and starts. We have the germ of London in a stationary camp of Britons, seated on the north bank of the Thames, nineteen centuries ago. Paris, rivalling the elegance of Athens and the magnificence of Thebes, has sprung up from a few fishermen's huts of the tribe Parisii, found by Cæsar on one of the islets of the Seine. A band of Phocians, voluntarily expatriating themselves to preserve their independence, reached the mouth of the Rhone before Hebrew prophecy was sealed, and laid the foundations of Marseilles. Rome, according to the common adage, was not built in a day. A village on the Palantine mount, inhabited by a handful of burghers, antedated the seven-hilled city. Bringing, then, the natural course of events to bear upon the interpretation of the sacred record respecting the origin of Nineveh, we can only gather from it, that an enterprising chieftain formed a settlement, which gradually ripened into a site of consequence, became the metropolis of a mighty empire, and the mistress of Western Asia. For the space of thirteen or fourteen centuries, we cease to have the guiding light of the Scriptures respecting the locality, nor does profane history supply any; but in the time of the prophet Jonah, about 800 B.C., Nineveh had reached her high and palmy state, and become the seat of regal power. "That great city" is the emphatic indication of its general pre-eminence in the narrative of the Divine messenger's visit, while an "exceeding great city of three days' journey," particularly defines its extent. Supposing a journey on foot to be intended, or a caravan march, the distance will range from forty-five to sixty miles. It is not stated whether we are to apply this distance to a direct passage through the city from one extremity to the other, or to the compass of its walls; but as the former supposition gives incredible dimensions, and the latter only an extent equal to that assigned by profane authorities, its circuit is no doubt meant. The statement, that the prophet "began to enter into the city a day's journey," and delivered his message, has been thought an objection to this idea, for it has been understood to signify that it took him that time to reach a particular site in the capital, after he had passed the walls, some place of public resort, appropriate for the discharge of his mission. But grant. ing this, the site in question, perhaps the neighbourhood of the imperial residence, for the proclaimed danger of the city was speedily brought under the monarch's notice, may have been at the extremity opposite to that at which he entered, so that he passed through it from end to end in the period specified. It is true that if it had been built as a square like Babylon, then, taking its length at one day's journey, its compass would have been equal to a journey of four; but, as we are expressly informed, the city was oblong in shape, the two sides parallel to the Tigris, being nearly twice the length of the two others, we may clearly consider the one day's journey to describe the length, and the three days' journey the circuit. The walls of Nineveh circumscribed an area equal to that of Babylon. Diodorus Siculus states its dimensions at 150 stadia long, 90 broad, and 480 in circumference. Assuming, as is probable, Olympic stadia to be meant, or the distance between the two ends of the foot race-course at Olympia, the principal Greek measure, the circuit of the city would amount to about fiftyfive miles. Now, Xenophon, in the retreat of the Ten Thousand, twice states the Greeks to have made twenty parasangs in a march of four days, or five daily; and as a parasang is equal to 30 stadia, their day's journey amounted to 150 stadia. Herodotus, also, in measuring the royal road from Sardis to Susa, allows 150 stadia for a day's journey. This is the length ascribed to Nineveh, the distance compassed, according to the view given, in the day's journey of Jonah; and the representation of it, as a city of three days' journey in circuit, and its assigned circumference of 480 stadia, are closely coincident, especially when we remember, that the Greeks, in estimating distances, allowed a certain number of stadia to every day, independent of the casual hindrances or facilities that might arise to progress. In the regions of civilization, no parallel case exists, or what may be deemed an approximation to it, of a city occupying such an extent of ground. But we are not to frame our ideas of the eastern and ancient from the western and modern; and look to our closely packed towns and condensed population, as samples of the arrangement of things three thousand years ago in Central Asia. Not London or Paris, but Ispahan and Pekin, will shape our imaginations rightly. Babylon, we know, was very loosely built. The dwellings were usually detached as a security in case of fire. There were large open spaces for pleasure and cultivation, and a sufficient quantity of ground for tillage to sustain the inhabitants a considerable time if shut up within their walls. Quintus Curtius states respecting it," Nor do the houses join, perhaps from motives of safety; the remainder of the place is cultivated, that, in the event of a sicge, the inhabitants may not be compelled to depend upon supplies from without.” Of the more modern Ispahan, of which the ancient boast that it is "half the world" is still in the mouths of its diminished population, Ispahan nesse jehan ust, its ancient walls embraced orchards, fields, and garden ground, while without their circuit there were 8780 houses in the days of its glory, with 1500 villages contiguous pouring daily supplies into it. We may read then without surprise concerning the extent of Nineveh, enclosing parks, plantations, gardens, lands for pasturage and tillage, as many of the oriental towns now do upon a smaller scale. In the Divine rebuke administered to the prophet dissatisfied at the city being spared, the reference to "much cattle" within its bounds, corroborates the view taken of its structure. In the modern history of Asia, we are presented, on its eastern frontier, with a remarkable counterpart to its ancient capitals on the western side, in extent, and probably in structure. It answers to Babylon in both respects, and certainly to Nineveh in one. The Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, the first European who visited China, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, describes a city, built by Kublai Khan, the successor of Jenghis Khan, the Tartar conqueror of the country, at whose court he was hospitably entertained. During the winter months the Khan resided at Cambalu, the Pekin of the present day; but learning from the astrologers that this city was likely to become rebellious to his authority, he resolved to build a new one on the opposite or southern side of the river. The new city received the name of Taidu, or great court, and all the Chinese were compelled to Fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet in height, crowned the walls of the city, rendering its defences so strong as to be deemed impregnable. The walls themselves were a hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots might be driven upon them abreast. This is the testimony of profane antiquity; and the references of the Jewish prophets to the "rejoicing city that sat in security," the "fenced place," the "stronghold," the "valiant men and chariots," the "silver and gold," the "pleasant furniture," "carved lintels," and "cedar work," convey the idea of great material strength and grándeùr. From these data, the poetical description has "The days of old return ;-I breathe the air Towers-temples-palaces enormous piled- I see her halls sun-bright at midnight shine- I hear the laugh, the whisper, and the sigh. In vesture gorgeous as the clouds of morn- We may accept this product of the imagination as life-like, subtracting from it the " swarming streets,” and the multitude" thronging upheaped,” compared to a sky overcharged with clouds. The population bore no proportion to the area occupied, like that which belongs to our modern cities. Of this we have indisputable evidence. "Six score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand," are mentioned among its inhabitants—a proverbial expression for young children. Following the usual rate of calculation, this will give only 600,000 souls for the entire population, which we may increase to 700,000, as the number of children is said to have exceeded the number specified. This amount of human occupation of such a space would leave ample room for every dwelling to be apart; and corresponds Nineveh to the suburban aspect of one of our towns, rather than to the closely-piled and densely-peopled interior. The condensation of mankind, the diminution of area to population, is one of the tendencies of modern civilization, which requires to be watched, so that it may transpire in connection with proper sanatory and architectural arrangements, or it becomes an unhealthy condition, both in a moral and physical point of view. But hitherto, with us, the formation of "cities to dwell in" has been ordinarily left to the chapter |
