hard and cheerfully at his profession, and in his leisure moments made a few extra pounds by writing for the periodicals of the day. The income derived from these sources served to make them independent of the world, as they lived economically, eschewed all company, as it is called, and contented themselves with visiting, and being visited by, a few intimate friends.

The bright blue sky of their worldly destiny was at length obscured by the dark cloud of adversity. It appeared at first, like the mist which proclaimed to Elijah the cessation of drought that had parched up the land of Israel, no bigger than a man's hand.

Bouverie was "a little out of sorts," as old women and fools call the first symptoms of any serious ailment. He was nervous and irritable; his appetite failed him; his nights were sleepless, or if sleep did visit him, it relieved him not, for he was constantly engaged in his dreams in pleading the cause of some client, or writing an article for the press. Thus instead of proving a relief to him—a balm, as Shakspeare calls it, his sleep was the repetition of his daily tasks.

Many who have not experienced the painful state of existence which I have been endeavouring to describe, may smile and think the picture surcharged; but it is not so; it is not sufficiently coloured. No one can tell the agony of being compelled to write for the daily bread of those who are most dear to them, when the hand and the brain are all unfitted for the task-when the pen is thrown aside in hopeless despondency, and the bed sought as a refuge from despair in sleep. Then the imagination, which in one's waking moments refused to do her office, seems suddenly to start into activity, and the brain works out pages and pages of matter that would be valuable if they could but be Daugerreotyped, but which leave not a trace behind them so soon as our waking senses are restored to us. Many a page which has convulsed its reader with laughter, has been dragged, as it were, from the writer when his pen has trembled in his hand, and his brain been racked with thoughts overshadowed by the darkness of despair.

But this is a digression; excuse it, reader.

"You must give up business for a time, and try change of air and scene," said the physician, whom Mrs. Bouverie Cooper had called in against the express wish of her husband.

"I cannot take your advice; if I do, I must sacrifice my business.” "If you do not, you will sacrifice your life."

"Bouverie, my dear, you must and shall take Dr.'s advice. Think of me—think of your children. A few weeks' absence cannot cost you the loss of your business, especially when the cause of it is known."

Bouverie yielded to the joint entreaties of his wife and his physician. He threw aside his books and papers, and paid a round of visits to his friends in various parts of the country. The experiment succeeded. He returned a new man-stronger and more vigorous than ever he had been. But what availed his strength and vigour? A report had gone abroad that his mind had failed him, and he found that, as he had apprehended, he had lost his business. It was gone-never to return to him.

A year has passed away-the house in Harley-street is again let, and Bouverie Cooper and his wife are in a small cottage near Kentish Town. Every superfluous article has been sold to support the life of the invalid

and his family, and but a few pounds remain to be expended. Friends have been liberal, but Bouverie is unwilling to tax their liberality further. His only wish is to die, and make no sign to them of the miserable state of poverty in which he wears out the few days left to him.

"There is one friend to whom you have not applied," said Mrs. Bouverie; "he is wealthy beyond belief, I am told-I mean Sir Richardson Byshe."

Apply to him, dearest, if you please, but your application will be vain-he is as avaricious and greedy of his gold as a wolf is of his food," said Bouverie.

Mrs. Bouverie wrote to the man of millions-wrote most touchingly. She received an answer by the first post, in which the baronet expressed his heartfelt sorrow for his friend's misfortunes, and wished to know how with his talents and friends he could possibly have come into so miserable a condition, and to show his sympathy for his sorrows, enclosed the note of hand for twenty pounds, money lent, duly cancelled.

"It is but cold comfort to be excused the payment of a paltry sum, when I am dying for want of a few pounds," said Bouverie; "but when I am gone he will subscribe liberally for you and the children, if you advertise largely in the papers."

And so it proved. Bouverie Cooper died-the circumstances of his death were laid before the public. Amidst the names of those who subscribed towards the support of the widow and orphans was that of Sir Richardson Byshe-10007.

THE RIVERS AND CITIES OF BABYLONIA.

BY W. FRANCIS AINSWORTH, ESQ.

PART I.

Identity of the Land of Shinar aud Plain of Babylonia-Character of Monuments-Obscurity of the Subject-Rivers of Babylonia--The Royal River -City of Kutha, or Cush-Primeval City of Accad-Objects and Character of Babylonian Mounds-Chalne-River Sur.

THERE was not, probably, any result obtained by the Euphrates expedition, of a more comprehensive character, both in its application to science and to history, than the deductions arrived at by the study of the geological structure of the bed of the river along a course of upwards of one thousand miles, and a comparison of the actual condition of the plains of Babylonia and Chaldea, with ancient sites; and which established the evidences of Anti as well as of Post Babylonian alluvia.

Had the rate of the progress of these alluvia, or in other words, the gain of land upon sea, from the amount of deposits brought down by the rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Kuran, and their tributaries; been so rapid as to indicate that the supposed sites of the great primeval cities of Accad, Chalne, Babel, and Erech, were at the time of the first emigration of the fathers of men after the deluge, still under water; a certain countenance would have been lent to the identification established by St. Jerome and Abu-l-faraj, of the land of Shinar with Sinjar in Mesopotamia

-we say a certain countenance only-for Sinjar is a hilly and rocky territory, while the first migration on record of the post-diluvian races, is expressly described as being towards "the plain" in the land of Shinar.

But the evidences derived from a comparison of the distance from the sea, of sites of antiquity, and of mediaval times, as Ampe, Spasinus, Charax, Abadan, and Al Shasíyabat; (which distances are, in old times, more or less authenticated,) with their distances in actual times, establishes satisfactorily, that if the same rate of progress of the alluvia since the days of Alexander the Great, be applied in a retrospective manner to the progress of the alluvia in times anterior, we should find that at the earliest post-diluvian periods, or about four thousand two hundred years ago, these alluvia were only about seventy miles further removed from the sea than in the present day; which leaves the whole of the plains of Babylonia and Chaldea dry at that period.

It appears also from a careful investigation of the geology of the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, as compared with the positioning of certain sites of antiquity, that no distinct evidences can be traced of any great cataclysm having occurred since historical times; and that therefore the matters carried down by the Noachian deluge, must form part of the anti-Babylonian alluvia; while the existence of such a plain, but lately emerged from the sea, with its still existing peculiar hydrographic features, and the vast mounds with which the first families of men diversified its surface, and marked the sites of their earliest congregations; constitute altogether a body of evidence, where historical records are rare, and traditions but few; which attains from its cumulative character, all the force of a logical demonstration.

Mr. J. Baillie Fraser in his excellent work on Mesopotamia and Assyria, has admitted the satisfactory character of these researches. "Many learned disquisitions," he says, page 3, "have been promulgated upon this subject, and various results embraced by their authors. The opinion most commonly received is, that the plains of Babylonia do really represent the land of Shinar. Some writers, however, are disposed to deny this proposition; and among these, Mr. Beke has endeavoured to prove not only that the territory of Babylonia is not identical with the land of Shinar, but that we must look for that land in Upper Mesopotamia; and is inclined to fix it in the plains about Ur or Urfah. But there are better data on which to proceed in examining this question; and Mr. Ainsworth, in his Geological Researches,' has furnished proof, first that the country indicated by Mr. Beke, as answering to the Shinar of the post-diluvians, agrees in no particular with the description of that land in Scripture; and secondly, that the alluvial formations of Babylonia did not, at the period when the Tower of Babel was built, differ greatly in extent, consistence, or natural appearance from their condition at the present day."

The character of the relics of antiquity which are presented to us after quitting the rocky and more stable portion of the valley of the Euphrates, to enter upon its ancient and modern delta, is no longer the same. We have hitherto, from the presence of some monument of antiquity or other, been able to follow, almost step by step, Greek, Arabian, Roman, Persian, and Byzantine conquerors, as well as others from more

remote regions, as Timur the Tatar and Yinghiz Khan, when they approached this much sought for, and often ambitioned valley; but when we arrive at the great plains of Babylonia and Chaldea, where the character of all monuments is at the best fragmentary, where number creates confusion, where the very writing has not yet been decyphered, and where names and fixed traditions are rarely perpetuated; we often find ourselves baffled in the most simple inquiries, as evidenced in Julian's progress from Macepracta, a place satisfactorily determined, to Ctesiphon, also a well-known site; but between which, were many populous cities, and fortified towns, the sites of which cannot, in the present day, be even proximately determined. Nor is this to be wondered at, for in whatsoever direction the plain is traversed, from the wall of Media to Babylon on the one side, or to Ctesiphon on the other, or across from Anbar to Baghdad, there is an almost continuous succession of long lines of rampart, isolated mounds of ruin, or vast accumulations of small heaps or monticules, profusely scattered over with fragments of building or pottery, and intersected by canals of irrigation; and most of these former seats of congregations of men and centres of human industry, have not now even a name or a tradition attached to them.

Hence it probably is, that while there are no regions in the world which possess more powerful claims on our regard than those in which the first families of men assembled after the deluge, which witnessed the defeat of their presumptuous enterprises, the triumphs of the "mighty hunter" in establishing the first monarchy recorded by either sacred or profane writers, and the scattering abroad of the human race upon the face of the earth; still no writer has, that I know of, attempted to give a comprehensive summary of what is recorded by antiquity, as compared with what exists in the present day upon that remarkable plain.

Travellers have indeed confined themselves almost solely to Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms," which, raised by the proud Nebuchadnezzar to the height of splendour, listened to his impious boastings, and saw his deep humiliation, and by the capture of which superb metropolis, the word of prophecy was fulfilled; but various and important events invest the whole extent of this vast plain; great towns arose around, and coequal with the city of a hundred gates, others succeeded to these under various successive dominating powers, and the same plains witnessed the gallant bearing of the indomitable ten thousand, the death of Alexander the Great, and the rise and fall of the Seleucian, Arsacide, Sasanian, Mundar, and Abasside dynasties.

The plain of Babylonia presents itself to us thus, in a variety of phases. According to what can be gathered of its aspect, during various dominating powers, or epochs of its history, according to the various character of its monuments, and according to its present aspect and condition, and each of these presents a certain number of precise and authenticated data, which assist materially in such a labour as we propose to ourselves, viz., the determination of as many points as possible in the past, as compared with the present condition of that plain.

In the first place, that remarkable feature in the captivity of the Jews, which is so touchingly expressed in the thirty-seventh psalm, has passed into the domain of poetry generally speaking, with an incorrect meaning. Thus Milman versifies it,

'Neath the mute midnight we steal forth to weep,
Where the pale willows shade Euphrates' waves.

and the late Lord Wellesley,

Down by Euphrates' side they sat and wept
In sorrow mute, but not to memory dead;

Milton is more accurate,

Our Hebrew songs and harps in Babylon.

"By

Now, the passage in Scripture is exceedingly simple and precise. the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof."

It appears then from this passage that the rivers of Babylon were several in number, and that the children of Israel wept not solely on the banks of the Euphrates but by the rivers of Babylon, and this view of the subject is supported by all history whether sacred or profane.

The river Euphrates does not appear to have had even a recognised existence in remote antiquity, after it entered the plain of Babylonia, and even in the present day it flows into the Babylonian marshes as a diminutive, slow flowing stream. The great body of the waters were carried off in those early periods by an artificial canal, which is attributed by common tradition to Nimrod, but by Tabari to Cush, and by Abydenus to Nebuchadnezzar; all of which, however, attest that its origin dated from the earliest periods of Babylonian history. This canal, was from its magnitude and importance, designated as the "Royal River" by Herodotus, Polybius, and others, and the father of history describes it as of sufficient breadth and depth to be navigable for merchant-vessels-the ships in which Scripture relates the Chaldeans to have taken so much pride.

The Persians having encumbered the bed of this canal on the approach of the Romans, probably with the view to inundate the surrounding country, or to impede the navigation; Trajan, and after him, Severus and Julian, had to reopen, at a vast expense of labour, portions of its course. In the time of the latter emperor, the point of departure of the canal, was said to be marked by a tower like a Pharos. According to Pliny, this was at a village designated on Massice, whence the canal flowed onwards to Seleucia. The towns of Bithra and Besuchin appear also, in the time of Julian, to have been situated on the same canal.

This river being designated Naarmalcha by the Chaldeans, and Nahr Malik, or Malikah, by the Arabians, became very variously corrupted by the Romans, and the writers of the middle ages, but Milman mistakes the river altogether when he gives this name to the main stream of Euphrates.

Where the unobserved

Yet toiling Persian breaks the ruining mound,
I see thee gather thy tumultuous strength;
And through the deep and rolling Naharmalcha,
Roll on, as proudly conscious of fulfilling

The omnipotent command.

Ibn Haukal describes the Nahr al Malik as being two farsakhs from