An object found at Nimrud, in close connection with several glass vessels, is of a character sufficiently similar to render its introduction in this place not inappropriate.  This is a lens composed of rock crystal, about an inch and a half in diameter, and nearly an inch thick, having one plain and one convex surface, and somewhat rudely shaped and polished which, however gives a tolerably distinct focus at the distance of 4 1/2 inches from the plane side, and which may have been used either as a magnifying glass or to concentrate the rays of the sun.  The form is slightly oval, the longest diameter being one and six-tenths inch, the shortest one and four-tenths inch.  The thickness is not uniform, but greater on one side than on the other.  The plane surface is ill-polished and scratched, the convex one, not polished on a concave spherical disk, but fashioned on a lapidary’s wheel, or by some method equally rude.  As a burn, glass the lens has no great power; but it magnifies fairly, and may have been of great use to those who inscribed, or to those who sought to decipher, the royal memoirs.  It is the only object of the kind that has been found among the remains of antiquity, though it cannot he doubled that lenses were known and were used as burning glasses by the Greeks.

Some examples have been already given illustrating the tasteful ornamentation of Assyrian furniture.  It consisted, so far as we know, of tables, chairs, couches, high stools, foot-stools, and stands with shelves to hold the articles needed for domestic purposes.  As the objects themselves have in all cases ceased to exist, leaving behind them only a few fragments, it is necessary to have recourse to the bas-reliefs for such notices as may be thence derived of their construction and character.  In these representations the most ordinary form of table is one in which the principal of our camp-stools seems to be adopted, the legs crossing each other as in the illustrations [PLATE LXXXIV.]. only two legs are represented, but we must undoubtedly regard these two as concealing two others of the same kind at the opposite end of the table.  The legs ordinarily terminate in the feet of animals, sometimes of bulls, but more commonly of horses.  Sometimes between the two legs we see a species of central pillar, which, however, is not traceable below the point where the legs cross one another.  The pillar itself is either twisted or plain (see No.  III., [PLATE LXXXIV.]).  Another form of table, less often met with, but simpler, closely resembles the common table of the moderns.  It has merely the necessary flat top, with perpendicular legs at the corners.  The skill of the cabinet-makers enabled them to dispense in most instances with cross-bars (see No.  I.), which are, however, sometimes seen (see No.  II., No.  III., and No.  IV.), uniting the legs of this kind of tables.  The corners are often ornamented with lions’ or rams’ heads, and the feet are frequently in imitation of some animal form (see No.  III. and No.  IV.).  Occasionally we find a representation of a three-legged table, as the specimen [PLATE LXXXIV., Fig. 4], which is from a relief at Koyunjik.  The height of tables appears to have been greater than with ourselves; the lowest reach easily to a man’s middle; the highest are level with the upper part of the chest.