curiosity of modern ages, still how many interesting occurrences may it in all probability be conceived, have been buried in oblivion through the successive catastrophes, which have swept away so much of the labour of past ages from the knowledge of the world. How many facts and historical traditions, carefully recorded by these Fathers of old, connected with the downfall of the ancient Assyrian dynasties, and the fortunes of the successive kingdoms which rose upon their ruins, and respecting which our information is so very scanty, might have been transmitted to our day, and have solved several of those difficult points in the history of that period, which still continue to baffle the skill and research of the most learned men of Europe. What a clue might not these traditions have afforded us to the real history of those astonishing relics of antiquity, which are being dug up out of the grave of many centuries from the mounds of Nineveh and Nimrood. It is by no means beyond the limits of probability, that such records, had they been preserved, would not only have thrown light upon the origin of these monuments, but would also have supplied us with a key to their long forgotten language. The study of the numerous cuneiform inscriptions which have been discovered within the last three years is still in its infancy; but there is some ground for believing that the fragments of ancient Nestorian literature still extant, will, when once these remote annals are truly decyphered, tend to confirm and to illustrate their at present hidden import. This remark is not intended in the least degree to detract from the merit of those enterprising and learned men, who are assiduously pursuing this new science, and whose researches have already been crowned with some degree of success; but the most partial estimate of the progress hitherto made will leave a conviction upon the mind, that much has yet to be done before accuracy and certainty can be predicated of the result of their labours.
All the Syriac MSS., Nestorian as well as Jacobite, up to about the twelfth century, are written in the Estrangheli alphabet, consisting of uncial characters which are now used only for the heading of chapters, ornamental caligraphy, and monumental inscriptions. About that period a change seems to have taken place gradually, and the characters now in use became generally adopted. These are in form a modification of the
