abandoned equally to pleasure and study,—­for his inquiring mind sought to master all the knowledge that was known, especially in the realm of natural history, since “he was wiser than all men, and spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is on Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.”  We can get some idea of the expenses of his household, in the fact that it daily consumed sixty measures of flour and meal and thirty oxen and one hundred sheep, besides venison, game, and fatted fowls.  The king never appeared in public except with crown and sceptre, in royal robes redolent of the richest perfumes of India and Arabia, and sparkling with gold and gems.  He lived in a constant blaze of splendor, whether travelling in his gorgeous litter, surrounded with his guards, or seated on his throne to dispense justice and equity, or feasting with his nobles to the sound of joyous music.

To keep up this regal splendor, to support seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines on the fattest of the land, and deck them all in robes of purple and gold; to build magnificent palaces, to dig canals, and construct gigantic reservoirs for parks and gardens; to maintain a large standing army in time of peace; to erect strong fortresses wherever caravans were in danger of pillage; to found cities in the wilderness; to level mountains and fill up valleys,—­to accomplish all this even the resources of Solomon were insufficient.  What were six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, yearly received (thirty-five million dollars), besides the taxes on all merchants and travellers, and the vast gifts which flowed from kings and princes, when that constant drain on the royal treasury is considered!  Even a Louis XIV. was impoverished by his court and palace building, though he controlled the fortunes of twenty-five millions of people.  King Solomon, in all his glory, became embarrassed, and was obliged to make forced contributions,—­to levy a heavy tribute on his own subjects from Dan to Beersheba, and make bondmen of all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizites, Hivites, and Jebusites.  The people were virtually enslaved to aggrandize a single person.  The burdens laid on all classes and the excessive taxation at last alienated the nation.  “The division of the whole country into twelve revenue districts was a serious grievance,—­especially as the high official over each could make large profits from the excess of contributions demanded.”  A poll-tax, from which the nation in the olden times was freed, was levied on Israelite and Canaanite alike.  The virtual slave-labor by which the great public improvements were made, sapped the loyalty of the people and produced discontent.  This forced labor was as fatal as war to the real property of the nation, for wealth is ever based on private industry, on farms and vineyards, rather than on the palaces of kings.  Moreover, the friendly relations which Solomon established with the neighboring heathen nations disgusted the