It may not be generally known that beards are singularly connected in history with the progress of civilization. The early Greeks and Romans did not shave. The Greeks began to use the razor about the time of Alexander, who commanded all his soldiers to shave, lest their beards should afford a handle for their enemies. This was little more than three hundred years before the Christian era; and thirty years after Alexander, Ticinius introduced the habit of shaving amongst the Romans. The Gothic invaders of the Western empire revived the habit of wearing the beard. The Anglo-Saxons were a bearded race when William the Conqueror invaded England, and, therefore, the Conqueror and his Normans ever after wore the chin smooth, in order to distinguish them from the vanquished; and thus, even in the Norman invasion, the shaven chin became the emblem of an advanced civilization. In like manner, amidst all the long controversies between the Eastern and Western Churches, the Western Church has invariably espoused the cause of the razor, whilst the Greek or Eastern Church as resolutely defends the cause of the beard. Civilization has marched in the West, and remained stationary in the East, in the land of beards. When Peter the Great determined to civilize his Russian subjects, one of the means which he considered indispensable was the use of the razor, he, therefore, commanded his soldiers to shave every layman who refused to do it himself, and rare sport they had with the stubborn old patriarchs, who persisted in retaining their much-cherished emblems of age and wisdom. BABYLON, NINEVEH, AND MR. LAYARD. (Concluded from page 136.) [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE SMALL TEMPLE AT NIMROUD.] Returning to Konyunjik, Mr. Layard renewed his excavations. Soon afterwards, he discovered what he called the "chamber of records," which was filled with tablets. These are of vast importance in a historical point of view; and, when completely translated, they will add immensely to our knowledge of the ancient Assyrians. Hincks and others, who have devoted much attention to the study of the cuneiform character, have employed themselves in the translation with considerable success. In other apartments were discovered bas-reliefs, containing representations of attendants carrying strings of pomegranates and locusts; musicians playing upon harps, tabors, double-pipes, and an instrument like the modern santour of the East, consisting of a number of strings stretched over a hollow case or sounding-board.