CHAPTER IV 



THE GREAT MIRROR 



Solomon's 

 Brazen Sea. 



Out of Judaea, seated back from the coast 

 on its Syrian hills, — Judsea that had more fear 

 than knowledge of the great waters — came the 

 earliest suggestion of the sea in art. This was 

 nothing more nor less than a huge round reser- 

 voir of brass that occupied a place in the court- 

 yard of Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem. It 

 was fifteen feet in width, a hand's breadth in 

 thickness, weighed over twenty tons, and held 

 nearly five thousand gallons of water. The 

 backs of twelve brazen oxen supported it, the 

 sides of it were of beaten design, and its lip 

 was wrought, as the Hebrew Scriptures tell us, 

 like " the brim of a cup with flowers of lilies." 

 The name given to it, and by which it was 

 usually known, was " The Sea " — sometimes 

 " The Brazen Sea." 



What representative character was expressed 

 in this massive basin, what if any likeness it 

 was supposed to have to the actual sea, we shall 

 not now know. Perhaps it was called the sea 

 because of its great water-holding capacity and 



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