there are significant hints of the dangers underlying all the * magnificence, and the fatal tendency of the introduction of foreign habits, with insistence on the fact that national prosperity was conditional on fidelity to the national religion. The section closes with a plain intimation that the seeds of evil sown in Solomon's reign were already germinating, and an enumeration of the 'adversaries' who were already raised up to destroy the fair fabric of the empire of all Israel.

IV. Second Period: The Two Kingdoms. This period, of somewhat more than two centuries, from the disruption of the kingdom after the death of Solomon, about B.C. 933 to the fall of Samaria in B.C. 722, is the subject of the greater part of the book, the narrative extending from the beginning of 1 Kings xii. to the end of 2 Kings xvii. Here the treatment of the materials is more systematic, and a literary plan, simple, though somewhat artificial, is followed. After describing, at some length and in the style of the foregoing section, the circumstances that led to the breaking away of the ten tribes from Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and the setting up of an independent kingdom under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the historian concludes his narrative of the reign of Jeroboam. He then takes up the account of the reign of Rehoboam in the Southern Kingdom, and continues the history of that kingdom so long as Jeroboam is still reigning over the ten tribes. But at the conclusion of the reign that follows Jeroboam's death, he returns to the history of the Northern Kingdom, and thus, alternating in a simple and formal manner, carries on his narrative of the fortunes of the two kingdoms. This, of course, involves at times an overlapping in the recital; under the reign, for example, of Asa, King of Judah,

mention is made of Baasha, King of Israel, whose reign can only be taken up when the narrative of Asa's reign, which is in hand for the moment, is completed. Not only so, but we find occasionally the repetition of the same incidents, in almost identical words, under two reigns, where these incidents concern both kingdoms. It is to be observed, however, that the writer strives to maintain a synchronism in the history; for when he returns alternately to a new reign in the Northern or Southern Kingdom, he mentions that it was in such and such a year of the reign of a king in the sister state that so and so began to reign in the other. In the laying out of the particulars of the successive reigns there is to be observed a recurrence of set phrases which give a certain monotony to the narrative but indicate the point of view from which the history is regarded. Thus, when a king ascends the throne, it is generally stated how old he was at his accession, and how many years he reigned. In the case of the kings of Judah the name of the queen-mother is generally also given. There is then an estimate of his character in the stereotyped expression that 'he did that which was right' or 'did that which was evil' in the eyes of the Lord; and when the events of the reign have been succinctly narrated, the place of the king's burial is mentioned, the name of his successor is given, and a reference is made to another written document in which the rest of the acts' of the king are recorded.

Notwithstanding the rigidity of framework and the stereotyped diction, this part of the book is far from being a mere State chronicle of political events. As in the former section, so in this, the writer regards the whole as a sacred history. These brief estimates of the characters of the successive kings, expanded frequently by the mention of high places and heathen

rites, or of the good or bad example followed in the particular case, indicate that the historian is tacitly applying a standard of judgment as he proceeds, and according to that standard the whole course of the history is, in his opinion, to be estimated. Moreover, we have, at critical moments, the intervention of prophets or prophetical men in public affairs, speaking with a tone of authority which neither king nor people dared to disregard. In particular, we have in this section several whole chapters in which the prominent figures are Elijah, Elisha, and the 'sons of the prophets' who cluster round them; and the writer makes it quite plain that, from his point of view, the sayings and doings of such men are more important factors in the history than the movements of armies and the councils of kings.

V. Third Period: The Surviving Kingdom of Judah. In this style and in this vein the writer brings the history down to the time when the Northern Kingdom was brought to an end by the capture of Samaria in B.C. 722, devoting a whole chapter to the causes which led to the catastrophe, and the subsequent fate of that part of the country. The remainder of the book is devoted to the history of the surviving kingdom of Judah, the latest point to which the narrative is brought down being the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, viz., B.C. 562. This section, accordingly, embraces a period of sixty years, and extends to eight chapters. As the author is not now hampered by synchronism, his treatment of his material is more free, and there is a striking want of proportion in the different parts. At greatest length is given the account of the reign of Hezekiah, and it is to be remarked that a great part of this narrative is