PREFACE.

THE first of the two Sections, of which the following work consists, was printed a short time since as a rapid critique on Mr. Rich's Memoir, in a respectable REVIEW of the day. More profound and continued reflection on the interesting subjects discussed in his volume gave birth to the extended astronomical and mythological investigations in the subsequent Section. Their intimate connection with the history of the first ages of the post-diluvian world, and the earliest dawn of the

arts and sciences in Asia, will, I trust, secure them a favourable reception among those readers who are in the habit of cultivating this kind of antiquarian research, especially in its abstrusest path, ORIENTAL ASTRONOMY.

On the old disputed question, whether the Assyrians or Egyptians were the elder race of astronomers, although I have not presumed to give a decided opinion, yet, in the course of these Observations, there will, I fear, be found an evident leaning towards the well-known assertion of Cicero in favour of the former, expressed in his treatise De Divinatione, and founded on the very reason assigned by that great orator and philosopher, viz. the almost boundless extent of the plain of Shinar, and the uninterrupted view of the nocturnal heavens, which its inhabitants must have enjoyed in

that clear atmosphere and beautiful climate. The passage is as follows: "Principio ASSYRII, propter planitiem magnitudinemque regionum quos incolebant, cum cœlum ex omni parte patens et apertum intuerentur, trajectiones motusque stellarum observarunt*."

Whatever concerns the geography of this celebrated region of Asia has been so nearly exhausted by Major Rennel in his elaborate work on Herodotus, that little can be expected to be added to its instructive details. We must wait with patience the result of farther inquiries by Mr. Rich and other Asiatic travellers, although for reasons hereafter submitted to the reader there is no great probability of success attending them, at least ac

* De Divin. lib. i. p. 3. edit. Cantab. 1730.

cording to the present generally received notions of the site and enceinte of ancient Babylon. For, vast as was the circumference of its mighty WALLS, and indelible as one would imagine were the lines of their demarcation, yet in the following pages it will be read with astonishment, that Mr. Rich, after the minutest investigation, could find no traces of them. I shall cite on this subject his own decisive expressions.

"I have not been fortunate enough to discover the least trace of them (the walls) in any part of the ruins at Hellah, which is rather an unaccountable circumstance, considering that they survived the final ruin of the town, long after which they served as an inclosure for a park; in which comparatively perfect state, St. Jerome informs us, they remained in his time. Nor can the depredations sub