were partly in full, and partly in relief. The head and forepart, facing the chambers, were in full; but only one {116} side of the rest of the slab was sculptured, the back being placed against the wall of sun-dried bricks” (_Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. i. p. 75). The following engraving will give an idea of one of these human-headed animals, and will serve to illustrate the passage before us――alike in reference to the _head_, indicating intelligence, and the _wings_, denoting rapidity. Illustration: Human-headed Winged Lion. On the use of these figures, found in the ruins of Nineveh, Mr. Layard makes the following sensible remarks――remarks admirably illustrating the view which I take of the symbols before us:――“I used to contemplate for hours these mysterious emblems, and muse over their intent and history. What more noble forms could have ushered the people into the temple of their gods? What more subblime images could have been borrowed from nature by men who sought, unaided by the light of revealed religion, to embody their conceptions of the wisdom, power, and ubiquity of a Supreme Being? They could find no better type of intellect and knowledge than the head of a man; of strength, than the body of the lion; of rapidity of motion, than the wings of a bird. These winged, human-headed lions were not idle creations, the offspring of mere fancy; their meaning was written upon them. They had awed and instructed races which flourished 3000 years ago. Through the portals which they guarded, kings, priests, and warriors had borne sacrifices to their altars, long before the wisdom of the East had penetrated into Greece, and had furnished its mythology with symbols long recognized by the Assyrian votaries” (_Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. i. p. 75, 76). ¶ _And the fourth beast |was| like a flying eagle._ All birds, indeed, fly; but the epithet _flying_ is here employed to add intensity to the description. The eagle is distinguished, among the feathered race, for the rapidity, the power, and the elevation of its flight. No other bird is supposed to fly so high; none ascends with so much power; none is so majestic and grand in his ascent towards the sun. That which would be properly symbolized by this would be the rapidity with which the commands of God are executed; or this characteristic of the divine government, that the purposes of God are carried into prompt execution. There is, as it were, a vigorous, powerful, and rapid flight towards the accomplishment of the designs of God――as the eagle ascends unmolested towards the sun. Or, it _may_ be that this symbolizes protecting care, or is an emblem of that protection which God, by his providence, extends over those who put their trust in him. Thus in Ex. xix. 4, “Ye have seen how I bare you on eagles’ wings.” “Hide me under the shadow of thy wings,” Ps. xvii. 8. “In the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice,” Ps. lxiii. 7. “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth