Page:Poems Mitford.djvu/169

 Sheba; in each hand she held a wreath of flowers, the one composed of natural, the other of artificial flowers. Art, in the labor of the mimic wreath, had exquisitely emulated the lively hues, and the variegated beauties 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 natural, and which the artificial. The sagacious Solomon seemed posed; 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 honor 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, it must be confessed, worthy of the natural philosopher. Observing a cluster of bees hovering