SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading ice notice such Books of the each as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] Voices of the Post. By Henry S. Roberton. (G. Bell and Sons. 43. 6d.)—This is an attempt, and on the whole, as it seems to us, a successful attempt, to popularise what has been discovered or conjectured about Assyrian and Babylonian history and litera- ture, especially es these things are related to the Hebrew people. The first chapter is devoted to what may be described as the main source of our knowledge, the " Library of Nineveh." Assburpanipal, who seems to have had tastes which were cer- tainly not common among Oriental Kings, collected what is called a " reference library," in which copies of some very ancient books were included. It has been Mr. Roberton's object to give an outline of what has been learnt in this way. There are two languages to be dealt with, one Semitic and obviously related to the Hebrew, the other of a wholly different family. There are four kinds of writing, the oldest being non-cuneiform, the latest Neo-Assyrian of the time of the establishment of the library. After this follows the subject-matter of the books, and here it is that we come to the highly interesting, and, it must be added, some- what controversial, topic of the relation between these Assyrian and Babylonian documents; and the Hebrew records. Mr. Roberton takes a moderate view. He is certainly not a literalist, and has no idea of looking for a scientific cosmogony in Genesis, or regarding such narratives as that of the Deluge or Babel as authoritative history. He is inclined, we see, to accept in its main outlines as a substantially accurate account of facts the story of Abraham and Chedorlaomer and his allies. We cannot, however, feel so confident as he seems to be about the date of Abraham. Besides the sections already mentioned we have " Abraham's Early Home," and " Asshur and Israel," the latter being an account of the later Assyrian Monarchy and its relation to Israel.
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