whilst the majesty and power contained in the form of the springing lion is worthy of a very high order of art. In the other bas-relief the king in his chariot was seen piercing a wild bull with a short sword; a second bull wounded by arrows being beneath the horses. A horseman following the chariot led a second horse, apparently for the use of the king. The animal represented in this sculpture was probably a wild ox, once inhabiting the Assyrian plains, and long since extinct, as neither tradition nor history records its existence in this part of Asia. It may have roved through Assyria at a very early period, and may have been exterminated when an increasing populating covered the face of the country with cities and villages. * It is distinguished from the domestic ox by a number of small marks covering the body, and apparently intended to denote long and shaggy hair, and is represented with one horn, horses are frequently with only two legs or one ear, because the Assyrian sculptor did not attempt to give both in a side view of the animal. Beneath these bas-reliefs was represented the king on his return from the chase, pouring a libation or drinking out of the sacred cup above the fallen lion and bull. His attendants stood around him, and musicians celebrated, on stringed instruments, his victories over the wild beasts of the desert.+ "The Scriptural Nimrod, who laid the foundation of the *The wild ox is mentioned in Deut. xiv. 5, amongst the animals whose flesh may be eaten by the Jews. The "wild bull in a net" is also alluded to in Isaiah, li. 20. The Hebrew word is rendered "wild bull" in the Targums, and "oryx" in the Vulgate; some, however, believe the animal meant, to be a kind of antelope. + All the bas-reliefs described are now in the British Museum. Assyrian monarchy, was 'a mighty hunter before the Lord;' and the Ninus of history and tradition, the builder of Nineveh, and the greatest of the Assyrian kings, was as renowned for his encounters with the lion and the leopard, as for his triumphs over warlike nations. The Babylonians, as well as the Assyrians, ornamented the walls of their temples and palaces with pictures and sculptures representing the chase: and similar subjects were introduced even in the embroideries of garments. The Assyrians were probably also the inventors of the parks, or paradises, which were afterwards maintained at so vast a cost by the Persian kings. In these spacious preserves wild animals of various kinds were continually kept for the diversion of the king and of those who were privileged to join with him in the chase. They contained lions, tigers, wild boars, antelopes, and many varieties of birds. The sculptures just described may represent the king hunting in one of these royal paradises. The Assyrian, like the Persian youths were probably trained to the chase at an early age.”—Layard's Nineveh. THE END.* A CANDLE in its socket lying, An autumn leaf fast rustling by, A strain of music's latest sigh, A summer wind's fast fleeting breath, A mournful tone that tells of death, A fire whose embers scarce are burning, * The following striking lines have been extracted by a kind correspondent from an American publication, for our readers. We trust they will admire them, as much as we do. A spirit to its God returning, A sun extinguished from its place, Thus all things end!-ah, said we so ? Save madness in the monstrous thought? We boldy say a thing is ending, Yet mean some change is o'er it pending, Where goes the candle when it dies ? And what becomes of summer sighs? SICKNESS is one of God's kindest messengers, to put us in mind of our folly, and incogitance, and excess, in health: and how discomposed and disconsolate soever it renders our thoughts, it awakens those that have long slept, and presents many things to our clearest view, which we had laid aside, never to be thought of more.-Clarendon. THE BEER SHOP EVIL,-No. II. (Continued from page 96,-No. 4.) IT HAS been our lot in life to have had no limited experience of the ways and necessities of the criminal part of our agricultural population. There is scarce a shade of moral degradation, of criminal atrocity, which we have not studied from the 'life. The training of the man of crime, and of those whose duty it is to detect his deeds. The result of crime, as seen in the solitary cell, nay in the condemned cell; at the hulks, and on board the convict ship, has all been often exposed to our view. Step by step have we followed the criminal in the various stages of his nefarious education. The vegetable stolen from a neighbour's garden, and received from the mere child by a conniving parent; the robbery of a neighbour's fuel-stack, or a farmer's fence: the first snare, and the triumph of success—the rabbit sold at 'the corner for twopence; from these, the alphabet of criminal learning, through all the grades of criminal education, we have traced our fellow-creatures, until we have known them to be the companions of burglars, ripe for any deed of evil or violence. At length comes a heavy detection, and now, the last sentence of the law is barely escaped, and their lot is fixed-that of of transportation in its most aggravated form. "We are prepared to go a great way with those who say, a love of drink' is the root of two-thirds of English crime; but we look deeper still, and would try and trace the birth of this said love of drink.' "Let us look for a moment at the 'beer-shop,' the school for drinkers. What is called the public-house,' that is, the house licensed to sell spirits, has all the attendant evils to which such a place must be inevitably liable. But, as far as our experience goes, the early initiation of the young men of a village, aye, and of our towns likewise-into drinking habits far more generally takes place at the beer-shop. The beer-shop in country villages, even where drinking on the premises is licensed, is usually kept by a person but little, if at all, above the class of common labourers. His presence, or that of any of his family, is no restraint upon the customers who frequent his house. He don't expect any of the respectables' of the parish to spend their evenings with him; if they did, he knows he should lose many a good customer-that is, hard drinking. His object is to sell the largest quantity of beer he can, for he has a commission, or per centage on the quantity consumed. Everything which can encourage drinking, short of compromising his license, or involving him in any overt criminal act, he holds himself at liberty to promote. The skittle-ground in the back garden, cards, or shovel-boards within the house, though illegal, are so connived at, that they are a part of a beer-shop-keeper's regular stock. He knows the value of a good fire and highbacked bench; he knows how drink makes talk, talk begets desire for more drink. He knows when to hear and when to be deaf; he is no eaves-dropper, not he.' 'Perhaps,' as the policeman says,' they talk the business over in his kitchen; he has nothing to do with their talk, so as they don't talk to him."-MELIORA. No man is so insignificant as that he can be sure his example can do no hurt.-Clarendon. |