neither refined nor intelligent, who now, as dispensers of the substantial rewards of literature, occupy the place formerly held by the Court, the patron, and the university. Hence a serious apprehension of a general lowering of the standard of literature, far more pernicious than any temporary aberration of taste. The evil may be combated in many ways, and not least effectively by anthologies, which, if skilfully adapted to meet the needs of the general reader, and not themselves unduly tolerant of inferior work, may do much good by familiarising the reader with what is excellent in the present, and reminding the writer of the conditions on which alone fame may be won in the future.

A. Gamett.

THE ASSYRIAN STORY OF THE CREATION.

BY REV. A. H. SAYCE.

(From "Records of the Past.")

[ARCHIBALD HENRY SAYCE, the foremost living Assyriologist and authority on Hebrew origins, and a philologist of great attainments, was born near Bristol, England, September 25, 1846. Graduated at Oxford, and ordained 1871. His early repute was so great that at twenty-seven he was made one of the Old Testament Revision Committee. He has published among other works a comparative Assyrian Grammar (1872); "Principles of Comparative Philology" (1874); "Lectures on the Assyrian Language' (1877); "Babylonian Literature (1877); “Introduction to the Science of Language" (1880); "Monuments of the Hittites" (1881), revised 1888; "First Light from the Monuments" (1884); "Ancient Empires of the East" (1884); "Assyria” (1885); "Hibbert Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion" (1887); "Records of the Past, New Series" (1889-1892); "Life and Times of Isaiah" (1889); "Races of the Old Testament" (1891); "Social Life among the Assyrians and Babylonians" (1891); "Primer of Assyriology" (1894); "The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments" (1894); "The Egypt of the Hebrews" (1895); “Early History of the Hebrews” (1897).

FRAGMENTS of a long epic poem, describing the creation of the world in a series of tablets or books, were discovered by Mr. George Smith among the cuneiform treasures of the British Museum which had come from the royal library of Kouyunjik or Nineveh. The tablets appear to be seven in number; and since the creation was described as consisting of a series of successive acts, it presented a curious similarity to the account of the creation recorded in the first chapter of Genesis.

The first tablet or book opens before the beginning of time, the expression "at that time" answering to the expression "in the beginning" of Genesis. The heavens and earth had not yet been created; and since the name was supposed to be the same as the thing named, their names had not as yet been pronounced. A watery chaos alone existed, Mummu Tiamat, "the chaos of the deep." Out of the bosom of this chaos

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proceeded the gods as well as the created world. First came the primeval divinities Lakhmu and Lakhamu, words of unknown meaning, and then An-sar [Uranus, Saturn] and Kisar, "the upper" and "lower firmament." Last of all were born the three supreme gods of the Babylonian faith, Anu the sky god, Bel or Illil the lord of the ghost world, and Ea the god of the river and sea [Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune].

But before the younger gods could find a suitable habitation for themselves and their creation, it was necessary to destroy "the dragon" of chaos with all her monstrous offspring. The task was undertaken by the Babylonian sun god Merodach. Light was introduced into the world, and it only remained to destroy Tiamat herself. Tiamat was slain and her allies put in bondage, while the books of destiny which had hitherto been possessed by the older race of gods were now transferred to the younger deities of the new world. The visible heaven

was formed out of the skin of Tiamat, and became the outward symbol of An-sar and the habitation of Anu, Bel, and Ea, while the chaotic waters of the dragon became the law-bound sea ruled over by Ea.

The heavens having been thus made, they were furnished with mansions for the sun and moon and stars, and the heavenly bodies were bound down by fixed laws that they might regulate the calendar and determine the year.

It will be seen from this that in its main outlines the Assyrian epic of the creation bears a striking resemblance to the account of it given in the first chapter of Genesis. In each case the history of the creation is divided into seven successive acts; in each case the present world has been preceded by a watery chaos. In fact, the selfsame word is used of this chaos in both the Biblical and Assyrian accounts - tehôm, Tiamat; the only difference being that in the Assyrian story "the deep" has become a mythological personage, the mother of a chaotic brood. The order of the creation, moreover, agrees in the two accounts; first the light, then the creation of the firmament of heaven, subsequently the appointment of the celestial bodies "for signs and for seasons and for days and years," and next, the creation of beasts and "creeping things."

But the two accounts also differ in some important particulars. In the Assyrian epic the earth seems not to have been made until after the appointment of the heavenly bodies, instead of before it as in Genesis ; and the seventh day is a day of work

instead of rest; while there is nothing corresponding to the statement of Genesis that "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." But the most important difference consists in the interpolation of the struggle between Merodach and the powers of evil, as a consequence of which light was introduced into the universe and the firmament of the heavens was formed.

It has long since been noted that the conception of this struggle stands in curious parallelism to the verses of the Apocalypse (Rev. xii. 7-9): "And there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." We are also reminded of the words of Isaiah xxiv. 21, 22: "The Lord shall visit the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in prison." It may be added that an Assyrian bas-relief now in the British Museum represents Tiamat with horns and claws, tail and wings.

There is no need of drawing attention to the profound difference of spiritual conception that exists between the Assyrian epic and the first chapter of Genesis. The one is mythological and polytheistic, with an introduction savoring of the later materialism of the schools; the other is sternly monotheistic. Between Bel-Merodach and the Hebrew God there is an

impassable gulf.

It is unfortunate that the last lines of the epic, in which the creation of man would have been recorded, have not yet been recovered. A passage in one of the early magical texts of Babylonia, however, goes to show that the Babylonians believed that the woman was produced from the man, conformably to the statement in Gen. ii. 22, 23. We there read of the seven evil spirits, that "the woman from the man do they bring forth."

FIRST TABLET.

At that time the heaven above had not yet announced,

or the earth beneath recorded, a name;

the unopened deep was their generator,