SOLOMON

the son of David and Bathsheba, succeeded David on the throne of Ieracl. During his peaceful forty years’ reign the country reached its greatest territorial limits and its highest abaya He built the Templo at Jerusalem, and etill honoured in tho mysteries of Freemasonry. His reputation for wisdom was not confined to the Jews, but is recognised throughout Mohammedan countries. The Books of “* Proverbs " and “* Ecclesiastes” are almost certainly not the work of Solomon, although tradition has a igned them to him; and the “ Wisdom of Solomon ” in the Apocrypha is of a much later date. SOLON, %. about 638, d. 559 B.c., one of the greatest law givers of the world, gave to Athens its wonderful constitution. A poet, merchant, and traveller, his first great deed for his oa, was to a for it the neighbouring isle of ‘‘Sca-girt Salamis.” The lower cla es in Athens were suffering from the oppre ions of the rich gee and Solon, as chicf magistrate, in at it a a democratic form of constitution which retained the “* rye Sef or council of the old nobles, but Shp up many channels of influence for the lower cla es in the administration of 8 bates and in public offices. He divided the A then i ans into four cla es, according to their income, and gave both si and ——— to these cla es. e forbade acquirement of much land, reformed the coinage, ee to ve oaeie lities. aA ‘© days e year the occurrence of solstices, the Sommer Solstice, on Juno ode and tho Winter Solstice, on December 21st, On these days the sun is vertically above the tropics of, Cancer and Capricorn respectively, and: | these positions mark the turning points of >| the sun when it bas reached its extreme > | mits north and south of the equator. The | former is our mid-summer day, and the; latter our mid-winter of [s. 283]