A Rabbin once told me an ingenious invention, which in the Talmud is
attributed to Solomon.
The power of the monarch had spread his wisdom to the remotest parts of
the known world. Queen Sheba, attracted by the splendour of his
reputation, visited this poetical king at his own court; there, one day
to exercise the sagacity of the monarch, Sheba presented herself at the
foot of the throne: in each hand she held a wreath; the one was composed
of natural, and the other of artificial, flowers. Art, in the labour of
the mimetic wreath, had exquisitely emulated the lively hues of nature;
so that, at the distance it was held by the queen for the inspection of
the king, it was deemed impossible for him to decide, as her question
imported, which wreath was the production of nature, and which the work
of art. The sagacious Solomon seemed perplexed; yet to be vanquished,
though in a trifle, by a trifling woman, irritated his pride. The son of
David, he who had written treatises on the vegetable productions "from
the cedar to the hyssop," to acknowledge himself outwitted by a woman,
with shreds of paper and glazed paintings! The honour of the monarch's
reputation for divine sagacity seemed diminished, and the whole Jewish
court looked solemn and melancholy. At length an expedient presented
itself to the king; and one it must be confessed worthy of the
naturalist. Observing a cluster of bees hovering about a window, he
commanded that it should be opened: it was opened; the bees rushed into
the court, and alighted immediately on one of the wreaths, while not a
single one fixed on the other. The baffled Sheba had one more reason to
be astonished at the wisdom of Solomon.
This would make a pretty poetical tale. It would yield an elegant
description, and a pleasing moral; that _the bee_ only _rests_ on the
natural beauties, and never _fixes_ on the _painted flowers_, however
inimitably the colours may be laid on. Applied to the _ladies_, this
would give it pungency. In the "Practical Education" of the Edgeworths,
the reader will find a very ingenious conversation founded on this
story.