* Divide.
   This was apparently a very strange decision; but Solomon saw
   that the only way to discover the real mother was by the
   affection and tenderness should would necessarily shew to her
   offspring.  The plan was tried, and succeeded; and it was a
   proof of his sound judgment, penetration, and acquaintance
   with the human heart, or rather, of his extraordinary and
   supernatural wisdom.  See ver. 28.  The two following
   instances are in some faint manner to be compared to Solomon's
   decision, inasmuch as they also work upon the human
   sympathies.  Suetonius, in his Life of the emperor Claudian,
   tells us, that this emperor discovered a woman to be the real
   mother of a young man, whom she refused to acknowledge, by
   commanding her to marry him, the proofs being doubtful on both
   sides; for, rather than commit incest, she confessed the
   truth.  Diodorus Siculus also informs us, that Ariopharnes,
   king of Thrace, being appointed to decided between three young
   men, each of whom professed to be the son of the deceased king
   of the Cimmerians, and claimed the succession, discovered the
   real son by ordering each to shoot an arrow into the dead body
   of the king:  two of them did this without hesitation; but the
   real son of the deceased monarch refused.

  Pr 25:8