Bk. II. Ch. III. ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE. 187 sculpture was another art to which they were specially addicted, and to their passion for this we owe most of our knowledge of their man- ners and customs. To this art also we are indebted for our ability to restore many details of their palaces and buildings, which without its aid would have been altogether unintelligible. Judged by the same rules of criticism which we apply to Classic or 82. Obelisk of l)iv;iiiub;iia. (From Layard's " Kineveli.") Mediaeval art, the architecture of the Assyrians must, it is feared, rank very low. But for gorgeous barbaric splendor of effect it seems difficult to imagine anything that could well have been grander or more imposing than the palaces of Nineveh must have been when entire and filled with the state and magnificence of the monarchs of the Assyrian empire.
