] or collection of Idyls,
the Song of Solomon.[32] The splendid works of Solomon were not confined
to royal magnificence and display; they condescended to usefulness. To
Solomon are traced at least the first channels and courses of the
natural and artificial water supply which has always enabled Jerusalem
to maintain its thousands of worshippers at different periods, and to
endure long and obstinate sieges.[33]

[Footnote 31: I here assume that the Song of Solomon was an
epithalamium. I enter not into the interminable controversy as to the
literal or allegorical or spiritual meaning of this poem, nor into that
of its age. A very particular though succinct account of all these
theories, ancient and modern, may be found in a work by Dr. Ginsberg. I
confess that Dr. Ginsberg's theory, which is rather tinged with the
virtuous sentimentality of the modern novel, seems to me singularly out
of harmony with the Oriental and ancient character of the poem. It is
adopted, however, though modified, by M. Renan.]

[Footnote 32: According to Ewald, the ivory tower in this poem was
raised in one of these beautiful "pleasances," in the Anti-Libanus,
looking toward Hamath.]

[Footnote 33: Ewald: _Geschichte_, iii., pp. 62-68; a very remarkable
and valuable passage.]

The descriptions in the Greek writers of the Persian courts in Susa and
Ecbatana; the tales of the early travellers in the East about the kings
of Samarcand or Cathay; and even the imagination of the Oriental
romancers and poets, have scarcely conceived a more splendid pageant
than Solomon, seated on his throne of ivory, receiving the homage of
distant princes who came to admire his magnificence, and put to the test
his noted wisdom.[34] This throne was of pure ivory, covered with gold;
six steps led up to the seat, and on each side of the steps stood twelve
lions.

[Footnote 34: Compare the great Mogul's throne, in Tavernier; that of
the King of Persia, in Morier.]

All the vessels of his palace were of pure gold, silver was thought too
mean: his armory was furnished with gold; two hundred targets and three
hundred shields of beaten gold were suspended in the house of Lebanon.
Josephus mentions a body of archers who escorted him from the city to
his country palace, clad in dresses of Tyrian purple, and their hair
powdered with gold dust. But enormous as this wealth appears, the
statement of his expenditure on the Temple, and of his annual revenue,
so passes all cre