to Babylon, not to revive her greatness, but himself to die. Indeed, he may be said to have been her final destroyer; for it was he who broke down the innermost, or sole surviving wall of the city, which Darius had spared. So unchangeable are the purposes of Jehovah! So vain is it for foolish man to try to thwart them! By Alexander the remaining prophecies were completely accomplished, and Babylon the Great, the lady of kingdoms, was finally ruined and destroyed.

When Demetrius Poliorcetes took possession of Babylon, two fortresses were its sole defence; and before his arrival its inhabitants had been driven into the desert by Patroclus, a general of Seleucus. Seleucus Nicator, Alexander's successor in this portion of his empire, abandoned Babylon, and built Seleucia, where he and his successors fixed their court. A succession of misfor

tunes, of which the plague was the last, befel the devoted city, till at length, in the striking words quoted by the historian Strabo, "The great city (became) a great desert." Thenceforth Babylon is only mentioned as a destroyed and ruined spot. Its canals being filled up, the soil was again but a marsh, infested by serpents and scorpions, and doleful creatures. The remains of Babylon are situated above the modern village of Hillah, and with difficulty the traveller now arrives at them; the whole territory is a desert, caravans pass through it no longer, commerce is carried on by means of the Tigris, from Bagdad to Bassora, and the words of the prophet are fulfilled to the letter, "Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness; a land where no man dwelleth, neither doth any man pass thereby."-See RICH's Memoir.

PRESENT APPEARANCE OF BABYLON.

"THE road was covered on every side with irregular hillocks and mounds, formed over masses of ruin, pre

senting at every step memorials of the past. In fact, our way lay through the great mass of ruined heaps on the site of shrunken Babylon,' and I am perfectly incapable of conveying an adequate idea of the dreary, lonely nakedness that appeared around me on entering the gates of the once mighty metropolis, where the queen of nations sat enthroned: nor can I portray the overpowering sensation of reverential awe that possessed my mind while contemplating the extent and magnitude of ruin and devastation on every side.”MIGNAN'S Travels.

"The whole country between Bagdad and Hillah is perfectly flat, and (with the exception of a few spots as you approach the latter place) uncultivated waste. That it was at some former period in a far different state, is evident from the number of canals by which it is traversed, now dry and neglected, and the quantity of heaps of earth, covered with fragments of brick and broken tiles, which are seen in every direction—the indisputable traces of former population. At present, the only inhabitants of this tract are the Zobeide Arabs."-RICH. A visitor to these ruins thus writes :

"On pacing over the loose stones and fragments of brickwork . . . I naturally recurred to the time when these walls stood proudly in their original splendourwhen the halls were the scenes of festive magnificence; and when they resounded to the voices of those whom death hath long since swept from the earth."

RUINS OF BABYLON.

THE present remains of Babel, as the natives' call these ruins, consist chiefly of, 1st, a great range of mounds, called Amran (from Amran Ibn Ali, said to have been killed here, and to whom a small mosque is here erected).

1 The Arabs call the ruins by a name which signifies "overturned," or "turned topsy-turvy."

2dly, Another eminence to the west, on the bank of the river, where funeral urns and bones have been found. 3dly, A still greater range to the north, where is the ruin called Kasr, or the Palace, and also the remains of a canal and street. 4thly, The grand mound called Babel, or Mujelibè; and 5thly, on the opposite side of the Euphrates, the wonderful ruin called Birs Nimrod, Tower of Nimrod, and which is now generally supposed to be the remains of the Tower of Belus.

THE parts of this which are still remaining are as clean and perfect as if just built. All about it are walls, which appear as if overthrown by an earthquake. About a hundred yards from it is an old tree, believed by the people to have been there ever since the time of ancient

Babylon. One half of the trunk is standing, and is about five feet in circumference. Though the body is decayed, the branches are still green and healthy, and droop like those of the willow. With the exception of one at Bussorah, there is no tree like it throughout Irak Arabia. The Arabs call it Athelè. "This tree," observes Captain Mignan, "is of the greatest antiquity, and

has been a superb tree; its trunk has been of great circumference: though now rugged and rifled, it still stands proudly up; and although nearly worn away, has still sufficient strength to bear the burthen of its evergreen branches... The fluttering and rustling sound produced by the wind sweeping through (them) has an indescribably melancholy effect, and seems as if entreating the traveller to remain, and unite in mourning over fallen grandeur."

"Not far from this tree, we saw indications of a statue, which had been imperfectly seen by Beauchamp and Rich. We set our men to work, and in two hours found a colossal piece of sculpture, in marble, representing a lion standing over a man. When Rich was here, the figure was entire ; but when we saw it, the head was gone. I would venture to suggest that this statue might have reference to Daniel in the lion's den. It is natural to suppose that so extraordinary a miracle would have been celebrated by the Babylonians, particularly as Daniel was afterwards governor of their city."-See KEPPEL'S Travels.

"The Kásr, or palace, is a mound of about 700 yards in length and breadth. Its moulded bricks, ornamented with inscriptions, and its glazed and coloured tiles, added to the sculptures that have been found there, speak of its importance, and have led to its being generally looked upon as the eastern, and the largest of the palaces of the Babylonian monarchs, renowned for its sloping gardens." -AINSWORTH.