Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism #271731

Tar: uncountable years that have elapsed since Ninus shared his sceptre with Semiramis, and the first sage watched on the summit of the Tower of Belus, have all but whirled away with them into oblivion the history of the Assyrian realm — the mightiest of the ancient world. From the scanty fragments of Berosus, and the more copious remains of Herodotus, together with the Hebrew scriptures, do we chiefly glean what is known to us of this remarkable people; unless we dare trust the Greek historian who recounts that Semiramis invaded India with an army of two millions of men. The researches of Layard and Smith, indeed, have of late greatly added to our knowledge of this antique race. From disinterred Nineveh come to us the pictures, the picture writings, and the sculptures of the mighty Assyrian warriors — the scourges of all neighbouring nations. We have by their own hands portraits of the men who devastated Egypt, and carried the Ten Tribes of the Hebrews into captivity. And, formidable as was the Assyrian soldiery, the priests wielded a yet more terrible power over their fellow man. Of the most ancient among them we know little save that they were devoted soothsayers, and respected by all men for their gift of looking into the future. With the period of the division of the Assyrian empire our infer mation begins to increase. Pro-eminent is that awful instance of spiritual power recorded in the Hebrew annals, and apparently confirmed by late researches — the passing above the Assyrian camp of an angel who destroyed silently, and in a single night, Sennacherib's army of a hundred and eighty thousand men.