ficant interpretation. So he went to the king and said that the secret which the king had demanded could not be given by any wiseman, astrologer or magician ; "But there is a God in Heaven who reveals secrets and makes known what shall be in the latter days. Now the majesty would hear what this poor soul would relate the dream and its interpretation."
"O king, you saw a great image in your dream. This great image was exceedingly brilliant and its form was very terrible. The head of this image was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass, its legs of iron and its feet part of iron and part of clay. Then a stone which was cut out without hands, solid and hard, came hurled head- long down from above and fell upon the image and smote its feet made of iron and clay and broke it to pieces. Soon after the stone broke the other parts of the image and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors which was carried away to distant places by a terrible wind and no one knew what became of the great image. Then the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."
"This is the dream O king, and right now I will tell you its interpre- tation.”
"Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory. And wheresoever the chil- dren of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold."
This is called the first world-empire of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar during the time when Daniel was present. No doubt Nebuchadnezzar was much pleased to hear that he was the golden head of the image. As a matter of fact, at that time the kingdom of Babylon was a world-wide empire, It was unconquerable, guarded on all sides by impenetrable forts and for-tresses. The proud king and citizens of Babylon always thought that there would be no fall or destruction of this empire. The great wall of the city was three hundred feet high and sixty feet broad. Again the city, having surrounded by big trench full of water was taken to be always safe from the attack of enemies. Again there was an inner trench which was encircling the city proper. The size of the city was square. Its each boundary was fifteen miles in length. Twenty five broad and beautiful roads ran from east to west and the equal number of roads ran from north to south intersec-
