"The fifth light shining with a beauty pure Breathes from such love that all the world below Craves to have tidings of him true and sure. Within it is the lofty mind, where so Deep knowledge dwelt, that, if the truth be true, Such insight ne'er a second rose to know." _Parad._, x. 109-114, and Dean Plumtre's notes. [440] Qur'an, xxxiv. 10; Chapter of Sebâ (Palmer's translation, p. 151). [441] Sale's Koran, ii. 287; Palmer's Qur'an, ii. 152. [442] The Earl of Lytton. BOOK III. _THE DIVIDED KINGDOM._ B.C. 937-889. CHAPTER XXIV. _A NEW REIGN._ 1 KINGS xii. 1-5. "A foolish son is the calamity of his father."--PROV. xix. 13. "He left behind him Roboam, even the foolishness of the people, and one that had no understanding."--ECCLUS. xlvii. 23. Rehoboam, who was Solomon's only son, succeeded in Jerusalem without opposition, B.C. 937.[443] But the northern tribes were in no mood to regard as final the prerogative acceptance of the son of Solomon by the rival tribe of Judah. David had won them by his vivid personality; Solomon had dazzled them by his royal magnificence. It did not follow that they were blindly to accept a king who emerged for the first time from the shadow of the harem, and was the son of an Ammonitess, who worshipped Chemosh. Instead of going to Rehoboam at Jerusalem as the tribes had gone to David at Hebron, they summoned an assembly at their ancient city of Shechem, on the site of the modern Nablus, between Mount Ebal and Gerizim. In this fortress-sanctuary they determined, as "men of Israel," to bring their grievances under the notice of the new sovereign before they formally ratified his succession. According to one view they summoned Jeroboam, who had already returned to Zeredah, to be their spokesman.[444] When the assembly met they told the king that they would accept him if he would lighten the grievous service which his father had put upon them.[445] Rehoboam, taken by surprise, said that they should receive his answer in "three days." In the interval he consulted the aged counsellors of his father. Their answer was astute in its insight into human nature. It resembled the "long promises, short performance" which Guido da Montefeltro recommended to Pope Boniface VIII. in the case of the town of Penestrino.[446] They well understood the maxim of "_omnia serviliter pro imperio_," which has paved the way to power of many a usurper from Otho to Bolingbroke. "Give the people a civil answer," they said; "tell them that _you_ are _their_ servant. Content with this they will be scattered to their homes, and you will bind them to your yoke for ever." In an answer so deceptive, but so immoral, the corrupting influence of the