the same animals engraven that were engraven on the sides. The whole work was elevated and stood upon four wheels, which were also cast, which had also naves and felloes and were a foot and a half in diameter. Any one who saw the spokes of the wheels-how exactly they were turned and united to the sides of the bases, and with what harmony they agreed to the felloes -would wonder at them. However, their structure was this: Certain shoulders of hands stretched out held the corners above, upon which rested a short spiral pillar, that lay under the hollow part of the laver, resting upon the fore part of the eagle and the lion, which were adapted to them, insomuch that those who viewed them would think they were of one piece; between these were engravings of palm trees. This was the conThis was the construction of the ten bases. He also made ten large round brass vessels, which were the lavers themselves, each of which contained forty baths; for it had its height four cubits, and its edges were as much distant from each other. He also placed these lavers upon the ten bases that were called Mechonoth, and he set five of the lavers on the left side of the temple, which was that side toward the north wind, and as many on the right side, toward the south, but looking toward the east; the same [eastern] way he also set the sea. Now, he appointed the sea to be for washing the hands and the feet of the priests when they entered into the temple and were to ascend the altar, but the lavers to cleanse the entrails of the beasts that were to be burnt-offerings, with their feet also. He also made a brazen altar, whose length was twenty cubits, and its breadth the same, and its height ten, for the burnt offerings. He also made all its vessels of brass; the pots and the shovels and the basins, and besides these the snuffers and the tongs, and all its other vessels, he made of brass, and such brass as was in splendor and beauty like gold. The king also dedicated a great number of tables, but one that was large and made of gold, upon which they set the loaves of God; and he made ten thousand more that resembled them, but were done after another manner, upon which lay the vials and the cups. Those of gold were twenty thousand; those of silver were forty thousand. He also made ten thousand candlesticks, according to the command of Moses, one of which he dedicated for the temple, that it might burn in the daytime, according to the law; and one table with loaves upon it, on the north side of the temple, over against the candlestick; for this he set on the south side, but the golden altar stood between them. All these vessels were contained in that part of the holy house which was forty cubits long, and were before the veil of that most secret place wherein the ark was to be set. The king also made pouring-vessels, in number eighty thousand, and a hundred thousand golden vials, and twice as many silver vials; of golden dishes, in order therein to offer kneaded fine flour at the altar, there were eighty thousand, and twice as many of silver. Of large basins also, wherein they mixed fine flour with oil, sixty thousand of gold, and twice as many of silver. Of the measures like those which Moses called the hin and the assaron (a tenth deal) there were twenty thousand of gold and twice as many of silver. The golden censers, in which they carried the incense to the altar, were twenty thousand; the other censers, in which they carried fire from the great altar to the little altar, within the temple, were fifty thousand. The sacerdotal garments which belong to the high priest, with the long robes and the oracle and the precious stones, were a thousand; but the crown upon which Moses wrote [the name of God] was only one, and hath remained to this very day. He also made ten thousand sacerdotal garments of fine linen, with purple girdles, for every priest; and two hundred thousand trumpets, according to the command of Moses; also two hundred thousand garments of fine linen for the singers that were Levites; and he made musical instruments, and such as were invented for singing of hymns, called nable and cinyræ [psalteries and harps], which were made of electrum [the finest brass], forty thousand. of the laws, but he made that temple which was beyond this a wonderful one indeed, and such as exceeds all description in words— nay, if I may so say, is hardly believed upon sight; for when he had filled up great valleys with earth, which on account of their immense depth could not be looked on, when you bended down to see them, without pain. and had elevated the ground four hundred cubits, he made it to be on a level with the top of the mountain on which the temple was built, and by this means the outmost temple, which was exposed to the air, was even with the temple itself. He encompassed this also with a building of a double row of cloisters, which stood on high upon pillars of native stone, while the roofs were of cedar, and were polished in a manner proper for such high roofs; but he made all the doors of this temple of silver. When King Solomon had finished these works, these large and beautiful buildings, and had laid up his donations in the temple, and all this in the interval of seven years, and had given a demonstration of his riches and alacrity therein, insomuch that any one who saw it would have thought it must have been an immense time ere it could have been finished, and [would be surprised] that so much should be finished in so short a time Solomon made all these things for the honor of God, with great variety and magnificence, sparing no cost, but using all possible liberality in adorning the temple; and these things he dedicated to the treasures of God. He also placed a partition round about the temple, which in our tongue we call gison, but it is called thrigcos by the Greeks, and he raised it up to the height of three cubits; and it was for the exclusion of the multitude from coming into the temple, and showing that it was a place that was free and open-short, I mean, if compared with the greatonly for the priests. He also built beyond this court a temple the figure of which was that of a quadrangle, and erected for it great and broad cloisters; this was entered into by very high gates, each of which had its front exposed to one of the [four] winds and were shut by golden doors. Into this temple all the people entered that were distinguished from the rest by being pure and observant ness of the work-he also wrote to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews, and ordered all the people to gather themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see the temple which he had built and to remove the ark of God into it; and when this invitation of the whole body of the people to come to Jerusalem was everywhere carried abroad, it was the seventh month before they came together; which IF FROM HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES." F the domestic buildings of the fifteenth century would not seem very spacious or convenient at present, far less would this luxurious generation be content with their internal accommodations. A gentleman's house containing three or four beds was extraordinarily well provided; few probably had more than two. The walls were commonly bare, without wainscot, or even plaster, except that some great houses were furnished with hangings, and that, perhaps, hardly so soon as the reign of Edward IV. It is unnecessary to add that neither libraries of books nor pictures could have found a place among furniture. Silver plate was very rare, and hardly used for the table. A few inventories of furniture that still remain exhibit a miserable deficiency. And this was incomparably greater in private gentlemen's houses than among citizens, and especially foreign merchants. foreign merchants. We have an inventory of the goods belonging to Contarini, a rich Venetian trader, at his house in St. Botolph's Lane, A. D. 1481. There ap pear to have been no less than ten beds, and glass windows are specially noticed as movable furniture. No mention, however, is made of chairs or looking-glasses. If we compare this account, however trifling in our estimation, with a similar inventory of furniture in Skipton Castle, the great honor of the earls of Cumberland, and among the most splendid mansions of the North-not at the same period, for I have not found any inventory of a nobleman's furniture so ancient, but in 1572, after almost a century of continual improvement— we shall be astonished at the inferior provision of the baronial residence. There were not more than seven or eight beds in this great castle, nor had any of the chambers either chairs, glasses or carpets. It is in this sense, probably, that we must understand Eneas Sylvius, if he meant anything more than to express a traveller's discontent when he declares that the kings of Scotland would rejoice to be as well lodged as the second class of citizens at Nuremberg. Few burghers of that town had mansions, I presume, equal to the palaces of Dunfermline or Stirling, but it is not unlikely that they were better furnished. In the construction of farmhouses and cottages, especially the latter, there have probably been fewer changes, and those it would be more difficult to follow. Cottages in England seem to have generally consisted of a single room, without division of stories. Chimneys were unknown in such dwellings till the early part of Elizabeth's reign, when a very rapid and sensible improvement took place in the comforts of our yeomanry and cottagers. HENRY HALLAM. THE LIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE. KNOWLEDGE cannot be stolen from you; it cannot be bought or sold. You may be poor and the sheriff come into your house and sell your furniture at auction, or drive away your cow or take your lamb, and leave you homeless and penniless; but he cannot lay the law's hand upon the jewelry of your mind. This cannot be taken for debt; neither can you give it away, though you give enough of it to fill a million minds. I will tell you what such giving is like. Suppose, now, that there were no sun nor stars in the heavens, nor anything that shone in the black brow of night, and suppose that a lighted lamp were put into your hand, which should burn wasteless and clear amid all the tempests that should brood upon this lower world. Suppose, next, that there were a thousand millions of human The fountain of knowledge is filled by its outlets, not by its inlets. You can learn nothing which you do not teach; you can acquire nothing of intellectual wealth except by giving. In the illustration of the lamps which I have given you was not the light of the thousands of millions which were lighted at yours as much your light as if it all came from your solitary lamp? Did you not dispel darkness by giving away light? Remember this parable; and whenever you fall in with an unlighted mind in your walk of life, drop a kind and glowing thought upon it from yours, and set it a-burning in the world with a light that shall shine in some dark place to beam on the benighted. REQUIEM. ELIHU BURRITT. beings on the earth with you, each hold-LOWLY, shining head, where we lay ing in his hand an unlighted lamp filled with the same oil as yours, and capable of giving as much light. Suppose these millions should come one by one to you and light each his lamp by yours; would they rob you of any light? Would less of it shine on your own path? Would your lamp burn more dimly for lighting a thousand millions? In thee down With the lowly dead, droop thy golden crown! rest! Softly, starry eyes, veil your darkened Nevermore to rise in summer-shine or tears! Even heaven. Thus it is, young friends. In getting rich in the things which perish with the using, men have often obeyed to the letter that first Through your spiral cells weaveth gales of commandment of selfishness: "Keep what you can get, and get what you can.' filling your minds with the wealth of knowledge, you must reverse this rule and obey this law: "Keep what you give, and give what you can." Stilly, slender feet, rest from rosy rhyme, JULIA R. MCMASTERS. THE SOCIETY UPON THE STANISLAUS. He was a most sarcastic man, this quiet Mr. And, if a member don't agree with his pecu- Then Abner Dean of Angel's raised a point liar whim, of order-when To lay for that same member for to "put a A chunk of old red sandstone took him in head" on him. Now, nothing could be finer or more beautiful to see Than the first six months' proceedings of that same society, the abdomen; And he smiled a kind of sickly smile and curled up on the floor, And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more. Till Brown of Calaveras brought a lot of fos- For in less time than I write it every member sil bones did engage That he found within a tunnel near the tene- In a warfare with the remnants of a Palæo ment of Jones. Then Brown he read a paper, and he recon structed there, From those same bones, an animal that was extremely rare; And Jones then asked the Chair for a suspen sion of the rules Till he could prove that those same bones was one of his lost mules. zoic age; And the way they heaved those fossils in their anger was a sin, Till the skull of an old Mammoth caved the head of Thompson in. And this is all I have to say of these improper games, For I live at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James; Then Brown he smiled a bitter smile and And I've told in simple language what I said he was at fault: know about the row It seemed he had been trespassing on Jones's That broke up our society upon the Stanislow. family-vault; BRET HARTE |