Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/151

 History of the Israelites and their Religion. 133 government which remained in the family of David for three hundred and fifty years, was too a factor of no small importance in the attitude of strict neutrality and reserve observed by her rulers, many of which died peacefully and full of years. Thus precedents and traditional rules were handed down from one generation to another ; alliances thoughtfully prepared by the father were adhered to by his successors ; whilst their outward policy never aspired beyond trying to repossess themselves of Idumsea and of its harbours on the Red Sea. 1 Not so with the kingdom of Israel, which under Omri, his sons, grandsons, and Jeroboam II., won back, for the most part, the position it had enjoyed under David and Solomon. The san- guinary tragedies which for two hundred years followed on every new accession to the throne, frustrated the action of Omri and Jehu, the only rulers of Israel who founded dynasties, and whose sons succeeded them for four or five generations respectively. The sudden changes and wholesale murders of kings and their chief officials created fierce enmities, fresh massacres, and internal convulsions, that must have been among the main causes that hastened the dissolution and the downfall of an empire under- mined by enemies from within and from without. The puny kingdom of Judah had doubtless its hours of peril and anguish ; on the whole, however, and as compared with Israel, peace and tranquillity were found within its borders. Its loyalty and passionate devotion to the race of David were its best pre- servative ; for secure in its existence, the mind was free to soar to the highest regions of pure fancy. Even in the days when gloom and distress seemed greatest, Judah was not left comfortless. The promise made to David and his people, that their posterity should possess the uttermost parts of the world, buoyed them up to bear present evils, aided too by the sublime and exquisite accents of' native bards, revealed in the older psalms and frequent passages of the prophets. To Jerusalem must be ascribed the perfection to which the Hebrew language attained, and the creation of the masterpieces of its literature, not only because she was older in date and had a longer existence than .Samaria, as that the master- brain of her spiritual leaders was reflected in that of her inhabi- tants ; Jerusalem was a head centre in the highest and best sense of the word. The very exiguity of the kingdom was favourable 1 1 Kings xxii. 48-50 ; 2 Kings xiv 7,22.