The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-05-05


half brother and such other men as had
joined in the recent conspiracy. In
these capital punishments began and
ended the violence of Solomon's reign.
Solomon's taste did not lead him to-
ward war. He inherited literary in
clinations from his father, and he had
heard much also from his royal parent,
about the need of great temple and
palace, and his peculiar mind absorbed
what it heard of poetry, literature,
wealth, and splendor, and rejected
what it saw and heard about conquest
and war.
There is no doubt that some minds
are born with peculiar and inexplica-
BILE drift. Some affirm that if our ages
demanded Homer, or an Angelo, or
Shakespeare, these forms of request
would be granted. But such affirma-
tion is probably false. There was a
great demand for telescopes and transit
instruments when Joshua stopped the
sun, but they did not respect the de-
mand; there was a demand for rail-
ways and telegraphs in and around Well
ington and Napoleon in the days of
Waterloo. In the world of mind there
was always demand for an Angelo, a
Dante, Shakespeare, but that demand
could not make all the peculiarities of
those natures which we see standing
up in the midst of the human family.
For Thomas Carlyle there was perhaps
no demand at all, but this did not in
duce him not to appear. The law of
demand and supply performs a great
Office in our world, but it will not ex-
plain all these phenomena of good.
There can be no philosophy of history
and the man is simply in error who
pretends to tell us why Angelo took up
chisel, Achilles sword, Shakespeare
drama, and Napoleon war. We may
learn by chemistry why the soil may
grow flowers, but why one plant should
become sunhower and another rose,
this enigma is beyond our reach.
In such an inexplicable world Solo
mon arose loving war the least and
splendor the most. He combined the
magnifcence of Louis XIV, the bus
mess habits of Wall street trader, the
literary taste of an Oxford graduate,
and the artistic feelings of London
painter or musician. He let fall the
battle-fag of Joshua and took up the
banner of splendor and luxury. He in
herited vast wealth. He rapidly added
to his revenues. To build the temple
and the palaces he increased the taxes
on his subjects, and his army, set free
from war, was used as far as needed in
the collecting of the royal dues. There
being no adequate amount of money to
stand for goods, the King was paid in
goods, and soon the King had great
warerooms for storing his property,
great houses for holding and selling his
puppies, and fine linens, and jewels,
and all articles of luxury and need.
The Kings ships were in all ports, his
slaves we're in every mine of metal and
quarry of marble. He is said to have
had 10000 men at work for him among
the timber and rock at Lebanon. He
| imported much skilled labor from Tyre,
| and also the machines which could
move stone fifty feet in length. The
outlay of money would even in our age
seem extravagant. Where the wood in
the temple was visible it was carved
in elegant manner, but when it was
too near the eye to make carving ele-
CANT enough it was plated with gold.
1t is doubtful whether ever man
reared a more costly structure; and
from what is known of the taste of
that period, the temple was probably
as grand as it was costly. This temple
coming as was assumed, by the express
order of Jehovah, had the power to
make the citizens pay willingly the
most exhausting taxes, and had the
effect to make Solomon desire to go on
in building and in assessing taxes long
after the order of God had been per-
fectly filled and had expired. Rapidly
the Empire tended toward the central
man. Palaces sprang up at different
points, and upon one of the hills of
Jerusalem his private home or homes
arose, roof above roof and terrace above
terrace, until the whole seemed noun
tain of marble fabrics. Solomon was
Judea.
These interminable buildings came
not only from Solomon's love of archi-
lecture, but also from his political phil
osophy. He ruled and pacified all the
surrounding nations and tribes, not by
war, but by marriage. His greatness
made him an acceptable sutton for the
daughter of any Prince, King, or mon
arch, and hence when he wished to
avoid conflict with some neighbor he
offered himself in marriage to some dis
tinguished woman in the rival district.
The idea that a man should possess
only one wife had not yet come into the
Hebrew world. A wife was like an
other piece of property. A man could
add to the number of wives as long as