it is, perhaps, fair to suppose that they turned to the practice of the arts those intellects which they had cultivated above their fellows. Architecture especially requires something more than manual skill, practice, and natural genius. When it is carried so far as it was in Chaldaea it demands a certain amount of science, and the priests who by right of their intellectual superiority held such an important place in the state, may well have contrived to gain a monopoly as architects to the king. In their persons alone would the scientific knowledge required for such work be combined with the power to accomplish those sacred rites which gave to the commencement of a new building the character of a contract between man and his deity. NOTES: [397] LOFTUS, _Travels and Researches_, p. 171. [398] _Les Fouilles de Chaldee, communication d'une Lettre de M. de Sarzec par M. Leon Heuzey_, Sec. 2 (_Revue archeologique_, November, 1881). [399] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 17, 18. BOTTA had previously made the same observation (_Monument de Ninive_, vol. v. p. 25). [400] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, plan 2, p. 123. [401] OPPERT, _Expedition scientifique de Mesopotamie_, vol. i. p. 273. [402] _Les Fouilles de Chaldee, communication d'une Lettre de M. de Sarzec_, by M. Leon HEUZEY (_Revue archeologique_, November, 1881). [403] As to the notions attached to these cones, whether sprinkled about the foundations of a building, set up in certain sanctuaries, or carried upon the person, an article published by M. LEDRAIN, _a propos_ of an agate cone recently added to the collections of the Louvre, may be read with advantage. Its full title is _Une Page de Mythologie semitique_ (_la Philosophie positive, Revue_, 14th year, 1882, pp. 209-213). [404] Taylor, _Notes on the Ruins of Mugheir_ (_Journal_, &c. vol. xv., pp. 263, 264). LOFTUS, _Travels_, &c. p. 247.