The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-27
SOLOMON and HIRAIT
PATRONS OF ART
Indifferent to the Cost of
the Required In
fluenceS.
HISTORY OF MUSIC.
The Effect of Idealism and
the Influence of
Degeneracy..
OF MUSIC.
ARTICLE TX.

q Drlet narrative of King David and
his work This article will deal most
ly with his son, Solomon, the King of
Israel, who lived about $40 or $50 be-
.fere Christ. AS David's successor, he
was heir to great wealth. He needed
.onyl to preserve what David had Gre
|ated and to confirm himself in its pos
session. We have nothing to do with
solomon's force of character AS rul-
Ter, though, It may be Judged from his
tory that he lacked much of the force
of his great father in that direction AT
ANY rate, Solomon did not attain to his
fathers greatness. He had grown up
as kings son, without occasion and
necessity to steel his will in the hard
school Of danger and privation, and he
did not possess his fathers energy and
initiative. He thought more of the
rights and pleasures of kingship than
Of its high duties and tasks. The faith
er's despotie tendencies in him only
showing at intervals and Immediately
restrained and overcome, are in the son
the groundwork of his character. His
favorite amusements were costly build
ings, strange women and rich display.
He insisted on the execution of JUS
tice and his chief strength lay in the
orderly administration Of his country.
Solomon required a great deal of
money and labor for his costly build
ings. His subjects must supply them.
He made no distinction among the pop
ulation and no one escaped the COM
mon burdens. These burdens were un-
known to the simple courts of David
and Saul Freedom as a possession Of
the subject was little regarded,
Tradition represents Solomon as a
king rich in wisdom and justice and
in gold and treasures, That he was so
is shown by his measures for safe
guarding his frontier and for regulat-
ing the administration, as well as by
the famous and certainly historical
| Judgment Of Solomon, respecting which
posterity may indeed ask itself, for
which did the great king deserve the
palm-wisdom or justice? 1t is certain
that many savings of practical worldly
wisdom have also come down from
him. 1t is also probably credible that
at the very beginning of his reign, a
vision indicated to him the path he
was to follow and Jehovah's will as
well. That rich treasures should have
passed through his hands need not
seem strange when we consider the
heavy taxes he exacted and how
many profitable enterprises he con-
ducted besides.
1t Is beyond doubt that Solomon was
the first to import the horse into Is
rael at least to any great extent and
especially. for the purposes of war. If
Egypt was, as it appears the country
from which Syria obtained its horses
and Solomon the son-in-law of the
ruling Pharaoh, we can find little OBJ
lection to the statement that Solomon
managed to derive considerable profit
from the import of Egyptian horses.
The visit to Solomon of the queen Of
1.-THE ancient kingdom Of Sheba, may
probably have been due in the first in
stance to commercial relations, This
may be relegated into the domain of
fable. For even if later stories have
considerably exaggerated solomon's
splendor, they would not have arisen
without some foundation In fact. The
Voyages of Solomons ships to the Ara
bian gold country of Ophir seem to be
pretty we'll authenticated. The ac-
count speaks of a single ship which
Hiram Of Tyre managed with his
skilled seamen and which is said to
have brought the products and arti-
lcles Of merchandise of the favored
Arabia direct to Israel and Tyre. That,
in spite of all this, Solomon's Golfers
were often empty, finally to such an
extent that he was Obliged to pledge
twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram,
Icannot be denied in the face of the last
named fact The marriage with a
daughter of Pharaoh made his house
IhoId costly and the castles and fortif-
cations must have swallowed enormous
sums.
In connection with this, Biblical his
tory records the marriage of Solomon
with the daghter Of an Egyptian king
and also mentions the Jewish kings
large harem in which were also Sidoni
an women, for whom Solomon estab-
lished a racial cult of the Sidonians,
| the worship Of Astarte. This would
indicate for the Sidonians an unusually
high position in the harem. Astarte
was the chief goddess Of the Phoenioi-
Pans of Zidon where was temple in her
lhonor. In Tyre she also had a temple
and from this her worship was trans
lported to Carthage. At what time it
was introduced among the Jews Is not
known.
The position that is occupied by Solo
mon is one of the most important
Iepochs in the history of the world. 1t
is conceded that he was the author of
the Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and Song Of
lSongs or Canticles. So he is really the
pivot of the Jewish gada Chat is the
Legendary element Of the Talmud). In
the gospels he is the embodiment of
Iall human splendor. A luxuriant gar
den of myths grew up around him.
] Then on the wings of Islamism this
shower Of fables, variegated with a
Thousand hues, spread through the
whole world the magic name of Solely
man. The historic fact concealed be-
hind these marvellous stories was
lroughly this: A thousand years be-
fore Christ there reigned in a pretty
acropolic in Syria, a petty sovereign,
Intelligent unencumbered by national
Ipre1udices and understanding of the
vocation of his race and wise accord
ling to the ideas of that time, though it
lcannnt he said that he was superior in