Here far-sighted engineers and stronghanded rulers turned the waters of Babylon into waters of life, and the Sawâd became a great heart of civilisation, breathing in man-powerSumerians and Amorites and Kassites and Aramaeans and Chaldeans and Persians and Greeks and Arabsand breathing out the works of mangrain and wool and Babylonish garments, inventions still used in our machine-shops, and emotions still felt in our religion.

Still less was it the result of any lack of tenacity and idiosyncrasy of national feeling; on the contrary the Aramaeans defended their nationality with the weapons of intellect as well as with their blood against all the allurements of Greek civilization and all the coercive measures of eastern and western despots, and