much easier for a queen to summon a train, make a State journey, and ask questions and accept the answers, than it is to stir up the gray matter at the base of the skull and work out vexatious problems for herself. As to how satisfactory the result is when one accepts the brainwork of another, that all depends. The queen was contented with the wisdom of Solomon, and we who have read his history, his maxims, and his wonderful songs are not surprised. Granting all that may be lost in editing and translation from another language, enough remains of the work of Solomon to prove him as wise as any man who ever has lived, both in thought and business transactions, and his maxims and poems never have been surpassed and probably never will be. After all the questions were answered, Solomon politely and unostentatiously—for he was a gentleman— showed the queen how he operated a court, managed retainers, commanded an army, amassed wealth, and provided pleasure. She saw his stores of linen yarn for fine cloth, tapestry, and embroideries. She gazed upon uncounted precious stones, and much gold from Ophir, which is a small island lying to the southeast of India. Solomon had so much almug, or red sandal-wood, that it was used for the pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the frames of harps, and musical instruments for the singers of the temple, and the palace of Solomon. He showed the queen that he received six hundred three score and six talents of gold each year, and spices from the merchants of all the kings of Arabia. He took her to that house in Lebanon built of fine cedars and filled with two hundred targets of beaten gold, containing six hundred sheckels each, and three hundred shields of gold, of three pounds' weight to the shield, and all the vessels of it pure gold. He showed her a throne of ivory overlaid with the purest gold, and surrounded by fourteen carved lions, and the like of it was nowhere else on the earth. She examined presents sent him by all the rulers of the known world; vessels of silver, gold, jewels, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules. He showed her one thousand four hundred chariots, twelve thousand horsemen, how he made silver common as stones, and rare cedars of Lebanon common as sycamores in Jerusalem. He paraded before her hundreds of slaves, retainers, and secretaries, all robed in linen and fine cloth, and wearing bracelets and ornaments of gold, silver, and precious stones. He took her to such service, in such a temple as she did not know existed. He opened for her inspection the produce of those ships of his which came once in three years from Tharshish, bringing "gold, and silver, and ivory, and apes, and peacocks." "And when the queen had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cup-bearers, and his ascent by which he went into the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, 'It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.'" So she presented her great gift of spices, one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and precious stones; and the king returned her courtesy by allowing her to select from his possessions anything that pleased her fancy. I am very sure that she took some peacocks among her selections, for most women love to own a peacock if they can, and be like one if they have an opportunity. |