Of King Hiram we may justly write, that he was the original upon whom the Athenian Pericles (in after ages) founded his own splendid public character. For the love of the Fine-Arts, in all their branches, seems to have been Hiram's dream by night, his reality by day. He gathered around him the wise and the good, the gifted and the talented, to illustrate his own conceptions,--for his brain was the casket, where, for his Nation's service and that of his Allies, were gathered those inestimable jewels of the mind, that wealth cannot purchase, and Death itself cannot destroy,--for corroding Time has hallowed them to the present day, and will to all posterity! The Temple of Jerusalem, erected to The One living GOD, claims not _Solomon_ for its Founder, with a greater certainty than it does _Hiram_ for its Builder. In following the above course, from the direction of a superior and elegant mind, Hiram but consulted the true glory of his People,--for he encouraged not only Poetry, Music, and the Scientific Arts, but enlarged his Commerce, enabling his kingdom thereby to pursue the accomplishments and the intellectual adornments of life,--for the Fine-Arts and Commerce are as essentially the instruments of Peace, as swords and spears are the weapons of war! The country, guarded by her feudal Towers and Banners, may be _physically_ secure in _parts_ of the kingdom; but the Nation that points to the Walls of Artistical and Scientific Galleries, to the Temples of the Muses, Literature, and Education, and to _free_ swelling sails--for her Bulwarks and Standards,--is _intellectually_ defended in _every_ quarter of her domain,--for Peace is the Citadel, and the several branches of Prosperity, her moated outworks! Through the long life of Hiram (whom we have ventured to style "The Great"), he continued the firm ally of David and Solomon,--was the friend and promoter of peace, humanity, the arts and sciences,--was the uncompromising enemy, as a consequence, to all warfare depending upon, or emanating from, the bloody path of Conquest: and to these high points of character may be justly added, that he was "the sworn and covenanted foe" to Religious bigotry or intolerance! The reader will not then wonder that, during his reign, that Tyrus reached the highest point of intellectual grandeur in the estimation of antiquity; and from united acclamation, her triumphant Statue was placed upon the chief pedestal in the Temple of History. While Hiram lived, his mind was as a Pharos, whose revolving light illumined every point to guard his fellow-man from the rocks of danger, and to ensure a peaceful haven--true Nature's harbour; but, at his death [about 990 B. C.], the shade remained upon the Tyrian quarter, and threw its shadow over the People; while other Nations took advantage of the forecast gleams, and found for themselves a brilliant track to power and safety.