Though Babylon has universally been considered as the largest city that ever existed on the earth, there are some and even very good reasons to believe, that it was never so large as Nineveh. "It was intended, indeed," says one of the historians, "that Babylon should have exceeded Nineveh in every thing; but Nebuchadnezzar did not live long enough, nor the Babylonish empire last long enough, to finish the scheme that had been drawn of it." The houses were not contiguous, but all built with a void space on each side between house and house, so that the larger part was not built upon. The houses of Nineveh, however, were contiguous. Nineveh, also, had a greater population; for, in the time of Jonah, it had one hundred and twenty thousand souls, "who could nor did not know their right hand from their left." That is, one hundred and twenty thousand infants[133]. But though Nineveh was the oldest city and the largest, Babylon has in all subsequent ages enjoyed the greatest celebrity[134]. [Illustration: Balbec.] NO. XVIII.--BALBEC. Those ruined shrines and towers, that seem The relics of a splendid dream; Amid whose fairy loveliness Nought but the lapwing's cry is heard; Nought seen but (when the shadows, flitting Fast from the moon, unsheath its gleam) Some purple-winged SULTANA[135] sitting Upon a column motionless, And glittering like an idol bird. * * * * * But nought can charm the luckless Peri; Her soul is sad--her wings are weary-- Joyless she sees the sun go down On that great temple, once her own[136]; Whose lonely columns stand sublime, Flinging their shadows from on high, Like dials, which the wizard, Time, Had raised to count his ages by. These lines lead us to some beautiful observations by Sir John Malcolm:-- "Among the traces of a great nation's former glory," says he, "there is none upon which the mind dwells with more serious thought than on the magnificent ruins of its ancient palaces. How forcibly are we reminded of our condition, when told that an edifice, in the erection of which a kingdom's wealth had been exhausted; which was adorned with every ornament that the art of the world could supply, and whose history was engraven on the imperishable rocks with which it was constructed, was not only fallen into decay, but that its founder was unknown, and the language in which its history was inscribed was no longer numbered among the tongues of man!" These observations are peculiarly applicable to the present state of Balbec. This city stood in the road between Tyre and Palmyra; its history is, nevertheless, so lost in obscurity, that, considering the splendour and magnificence of its remains, we are astonished! Scarcely any thing of its history is known; and even its existence appears to have been unknown for many centuries to the Romans.