five lines to an inch, which is nearly as close as the type of the present volume.  This degree of closeness is exceeded on a cylinder of Asshur-bani-pal’s (about B.C. 660), where the lines are six to the inch, or as near together as the type of the Edinburgh Review.  If the complexity of the Assyrian characters be taken into account, and if it be remembered that the whole inscription was in every ease impressed by the hand, this minuteness must be allowed to be very surprising.  It is not favorable to legibility; and the patience of cuneiform scholars has been severely tried by a mode of writing which sacrifices everything to the desire of crowding the greatest possible quantity of words into the smallest possible space.  In one respect, however, facility of reading is consulted, for the inscriptions on the cylinders are not carried on in continuous lines round all the sides, but are written in columns, each column occupying a side.  The lines are thus tolerably short; and the whole of a sentence is brought before the eye at once.

[Illustration:  PLATE 39]

Besides slabs and cylinders, the written memorials of Assyria comprise inscribed bulls and lions, stone obelisks, clay tablets, bricks, and engraved seals.  Tin seals generally resemble those of the Chaldaeans, which have been already described:  but are somewhat more elaborate, and more varied in their character. [PLATE XXXIX., Fig. 2.] They do not very often exhibit any writing; but occasionally they are inscribed with the name of their owner, while in a few instances they show an inscription of some length.  The clay tablets are both numerous and curious.  They are of various sizes, ranging from nine inches long by six and a half wide, to an inch and a half long by an inch wide, or even less. [PLATE XL., Fig. 2.] Sometimes they are entirely covered with writing; while sometimes they exhibit on a portion of their surface the impressions of seals, mythological emblems, and the like.  Some thousands of them have been recovered; and they are found to be of the most varied character.  Many are historical, still more mythological; some are linguistic, some geographic, some again astronomical.  It is anticipated that, when they are deciphered, we shall obtain a complete eneyclopaedia of Assyrian science, and shall be able by this means to trace a large portion of the knowledge of the Greeks to an Oriental source.  Here is a mine still very little worked, from which patient and cautious investigators may one day extract the most valuable literary treasures.  The stone obelisks are but few, and are mostly in a fragmentary condition.  One alone is perfect—­the obelisk in black basalt, discovered by Mr. Layard at Nimrud, which has now for many years been in the British Museum. [PLATE XL., Fig. 1.] This monument is sculptured on each of its four sides, in part with writing and in part with bas-reliefs.  It is about seven feet high, and two feet broad at the base, tapering gently