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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
the youth sought not silver and gold , nor renown , nor power , nor long life ; but he sought the daughter of God * —celestial Wisdom , and received with her whatsoever he could desire . To her he consecrated his fairest lays , and celebrated her to mortals as the sole blessedness on earth . As long as he loved her , he possessed the heart of God and the love of men ; and through her alone has he lived , after death , on this side the grave .
SOLOMON IN AGE . Luxury , riches , and honour , had so ensnared Solomon in the years of his manhood , that he forgot Wisdom , the bride of his youth , and inclined his heart to many delusions . Once , as he walked in his stately gardens , he heard the plants and animals speaking among themselves ( for he understood their speech ) , and bent his ear to hear what they said . " Behold the king ! " said the lily . " How proudly he passes me by ! yet , however meek , I am more glorious than he . "
And the palm-tree waved its boughs and said , " Here he comes , the oppressor of his realm ; and yet is he told that he is like a palm-tree . Where are his fruits , and the boughs wherewith he refreshes those beneath him ?" He went farther and heard the nightingale sing to her mate , " Solomon loves not as we love ; nor is he thus beloved by any among his concubines . " And the turtle-dove cooed to her companion , " Of his thousand wives , not one will grieve for him as I would mourn thee , mine only one !"
Full of wrath , the king quickened his steps , and came to the nest of the stork who led forth his ^ oung , and bore them up with his wings , that they might learn to fly . " King Solomon , " said the stork to his young , " does not thus with his son Rehoboam . Therefore shall his son not prosper ; and strangers shall rule in the house which he hath built . " Then the king hastened to his inner chamber , and was still and melancholy . —And as he sat in meditation , behold ! the bride of his youth ,
Wisdom , the daughter of God , drew near invisibly and touched his eyes . He fell into a deep sleep , and saw a mournful vision of a future day . He saw his kingdom divided through the answer of his foolish son . A stranger ruled over ten oppressed tribes which had fallen from under the sceptre of his house . His palaces were fallen ; his pleasure-gardens swallowed up by an earthquake ; the city laid waste ; the plains made desolate ; and the
temp le of God on hre ! He started up affrighted from his sleep ; and behold , the friend of his youth , with tearful eyes , stood revealed before him , and said : " Thou hast seen what shall happen , and of all this hast thou laid the foundation . It is no longer in thy power to change the past . Thou canst not command the stream to re-enter its fount , nor thy youth to turn back its course . Thy spirit is exhausted , thy heart is wearied , and I , the forsaken of other days , may no longer be thy companion in the region of thine earthly life . "
With a compassionate gaze , she vanished : and Solomon , who had crowned his youth with roses , wrote in his old age a mournful book on the vanity of all human things that are upon the earth .
Untitled Article
388 Translations from Herder .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 388, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/28/
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