The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the fir-trees were not like his boughs; and the chestnut-trees were not like his branches; _nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty_." In one respect, however, Assyria, it is to be feared, had made but little advance beyond the spirit of a comparatively barbarous time.

The "lion" still "tore in pieces for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin." Advancing civilization, more abundant literature, improved art, had not softened the tempers of the Assyrians, nor rendered them more tender and compassionate in their treatment of captured enemies.

Sennacherib and Esar-haddon show, indeed, in this respect, some superiority to former kings.

They frequently spared their prisoners, even when rebels, and seem seldom to have had recourse to extreme punishments.

But Asshur-bani-pal reverted to the antique system of executions, mutilations, and tortures.