Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/269

 Furniture and Ornament about the Temple. 243 veniently be carried on, leaving accessories to take care of them- selves, content that they should be as of yore ? The altars, how- ever, were too important a detail to be passed over in this summary manner ; hence their dimensions and the place they are to occupy are clearly defined. In order to complete the image that we have ventured to call forth, we shall have to turn to the Solomonian temple and pass in review the whole series of art-objects which the lavish hand of its founder had bestowed upon it. The purpose for which the temple was raised must not be confounded with that of our modern churches or mosques. It was not a place where the faithful or devout met to unite in prayer. The priests alone entered the naos to attend to the various requirements of the place ; but to penetrate into the holy of holies, where Jehovah was supposed to have his seat, was reserved for the high priest alone, who once a year passed into the "penetralia" where Solomon and Ezekiel had seen His presence in the semblance of a cloud, duly heralded by rolling thunder and lightning. 1 If this was small as compared with its monumental surroundings, it was compensated by wealth of orna- mentation not to be found in the domestic dwellings of the priests, in the halls for initiation, for oracular utterance, and the thousand and one purposes of a great religious centre. On the walls, floors, and ceilings of these, precious cedar nor the still more costly metals were displayed. A just balance was observed between apartments destined for noble as against those for baser uses ; between the adytum and the porter's lodge. Great care and thought had been reserved for objects intimately connected with the service of the temple, such as altars, tables, candelabra, and vessels to hold perfume or water for ablutionary purposes. Scattered in and about the sanctuary, they were well calculated to attract the attention of the multitude, causing the name of the cunning artificer of so many exquisite art-objects to be passed from mouth to mouth, and thus to have travelled down to us. For it should be borne in mind that in the domain of industrial arts the Phoenicians, who at the outset had been mere imitators, soon rose to compete, albeit not to excel their models. In the nobler walk of architecture, however, they never attained to the brilliant perfection of Thebes or Nineveh, who infused life into 1 1 Kings viii. 10-12 ; Ezek. xliii. i, 2.