Chapters from the Biblical Law. tions and requirements of a later stage of civilization. When the king cried out "Fetch me a sword," he was probably eyeing the two wo men and noting the effect of his order. At this point, one might suppose that the false woman would have shown signs of terror and could easily by a question or two have been made to confess her fault. But no, the leg end is not satisfied with such proof of Solo mon's wisdom; as yet there is no climax to the wrought-up feeling of the popular mind. And now comes the climax in all its magnifi cence. Imagine the Eastern professional story teller telling this tale and gradually working up to the words, " Cut the living child in two and give one half to the one, and one half to the other." The death of the child is to be the touchstone by which to dis cover the mother. Josephus, .in his account of this scene, makes the king order both the living and the dead child to be divided so that absolute equity shall be observed in the di vision. However pleasing this sensational climax may be to the popular mind, the criti cism of Rabbi Judah is to be applauded as being both humane and just. I am afraid that the story would have had a sad ending if the mother had fainted when the sword was produced, and the sentence had been carried out. However, the story teller will not leave us in the lurch. It is his purpose to show that Solomon was wise, and we may safely trust him to get us over the difficult places. The king's threat had the desired effect for the mother of the living child cried out, " Oh my lord, give her the living child and do not kill it," but the other woman said, "Let it be neither mine nor thine; divide it." Now what in the world possessed the woman to make such a statement? What reason was there for her demand that the child should be killed? How lame and im potent a conclusion to her case, which up to this time she had conducted with so much pertinacity, boldness and skill. She had stolen the living child from its mother, pre
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sumably because she wanted it; she had re sisted the mother's demands for it, presum ably because she wanted to keep it; she had even compelled the mother to go before the king himself to get her child, and there in the royal presence she had thus far under great stress maintained her right of posses sion, and now at the very moment of her triumph, when the mother publicly relin quished her rights and acquiesced in her pos session, she not only declines to take it, but insists upon its destruction. What can be the reason for such unreasonableness? Sup pose that after the mother had said, " Give her the living child but do not kill it,", the false woman had said nothing. Solomon would have been compelled to give the child to the wrong woman and a good story would have been spoiled, because there would have been no way of determining whether the true mother or the false claimant was the one who said, " Give her the living child but do not kill it." This might as well have been said by the mother who was in terror lest her child be killed, as by the false voman who was seized with remorse at the last moment and prayed that the child might not be killed. Now we see the reason for the remarkable statement of the false woman. The legend had to add these words in order to make it clear to the popular mind that the woman who wanted to save the child was indeed the true mother, by contrasting with her words those of the false woman who was thus made base even to fiendishness. And thus the fa mous words of Solomon, " Fetch me a sword," are justified and virtue is triumphant, for the king said, " Give her the living child, and do not kill it; she is its mother." The story of the judgment of Solomon is not the record of an actual occurrence, but a legend such as the people love to tell about their great men. Here the king sits in all the pomp and glory of royalty, exercising the most important office, that of the judge, and doing justice, not according to the methods of the tiresome lawyers, who talk and reason
