“When the queen of Sheba had visited him, she said, ‘It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Yet, I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it—behold the half was not told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom.’[[41]]

“The temple was a monument both of his wisdom and his wealth. Phœnicia excelled at that time all other nations of the earth in skill in the arts, and Solomon made a bargain with Hiram, king of Tyre, both for workmen and for cedar-wood from Lebanon. Solomon had 70,000 men who carried burthens, and 80,000 carpenters, on the mountain, without reckoning the superintendents of the works. Seven years was this multitude employed upon the erection of the temple; the foundation was laid in the fourth year of his reign, and it was completed in the eleventh. When it was finished, he assembled the elders of Israel, and the heads of tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim. And when Solomon had offered his incomparable dedication-prayer, and blessed the people, and had sacrificed 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, he and all Israel held a feast, a great assemblage, from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt, before the Lord for fourteen days. And he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and went away unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.[[42]]

“Thus was the second period of the history of our nation completed. In the first they received the law; in the second they obtained a country, a king, and a temple. Now every man in Judah and in Israel might dwell securely under his own vine and his own figtree, from Dan to Beersheba, and serve Jehovah. We have next to see whether they did so. But I will break off here, that I may preserve unmingled the remembrance of those glorious days.”

“Blessed be the Lord,” exclaimed Helon, “the King of the world, who vouchsafed such a time to his people!”

“It is not to be denied,” said Myron, “that it must have been a joyful time in Jerusalem, and the whole land of Judea under Solomon. And yet your nation seems to me better fitted for a wandering life through the wilderness, such as was yesterday described to us.”

“Why so?” asked Helon.

“Because you knew not how to improve your good fortune.”

Helon was astonished.

“I pity a people, so destitute of all taste and skill in the fine arts as yours. They want to build a temple and a house of the forest of Lebanon—gold and silver they have in abundance, but they are obliged to send for artists from Tyre; they come, execute their works, and leave these behind them, without having communicated to your nation the smallest portion of their dexterity.”

“There have not been wanting amongst us in all ages,” said Helon, “excellent artificers.”