calamity. Do the work you have to do without waiting for the exact circumstances you woulil like. The laws of nature are above you, and the attempt to attain too close conformity with them is likely to paralyze industry (1 !'■«). Life is sweet, but let man remember also the days of darkness that await him after death. And, remembering these, let him enjoy life to the full in his youth, befoie the evil days of old age come on him, when all his physical powers will fail, and all appetite for
Pleasure be gone; before his life be shattered, and e pass away. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity (ll'-12'').
So end the meditations of K. ; for the Epilogue, whether in whole or part authentic or not, lies outside the work itself. There can be little question as to the fundamental thought of the book. All is vanity, life yields no real satisfaction. If we had unlimited means at our disposal to secure happiness, it is quite unattainable. The best thing is to seek for enjoyment, to eat, drink, and be merry. Yet we should do the author an injustice if we regarded him as a mere sensualist. From gross indulgence he would have turned with disgust. It was madness, and no man who valued his peace of mind would be enticed by it (cf. his words on ' the woman whose heart is snares and nets,' 7"). He urges rather a moderate enjoyment of the good things of life : ' Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry lieart; . . . Let thy garments always be white ; and let not thy head lack ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity.' Life is a bad business at the best, but it lies within our power to palliate its misery by prudence and the du" enjoyment of what little pleasure we can get. And we should be all the more eager to make the most of our opportunities for pleasure that in the dreary darkness of Sheol no possibility of enjoyment will be found. His motto is Cnrpe diem ; and if in the abstract it be not a high motto, we must remember the misery of his time, and the absence of anj hope of iiuprovement in this world or immortality in the next. If we a.sk the cause of this misery, and of the general vanity of life and uselessness of all endeavour, it lies in the conditions of human life. God has a plan of the world, everything has its time and season. But man cannot find out what this plan is, and hence rarely orders his life in accordance with it. He may think that a certain line of conduct will produce a certain result ; but it may be quite ditl'erent, so that life may seem ruled by chance, not by law. And he is not master of his own fate. God has ordained this, and he helplessly struggles against it. He is caught in an evil snare and cannot escape. But when Iv. speaks of God, we may easily read more into his language than he meant. J", the national name of the God of Israel, nowhere occurs. I^. is certainly a theist, and the name of God frequently occurs. But God is withdrawn from the life of men (' God is in heaven, and thou upon earth,' 5'). God is to be regarded with fear, and man must be very circumspect in his approaches to Him (5'-'). Man should be very careful in his utterances, and especi- ally avoid a hasty vow. If he vows he should not defer to pay, for God ' hath no pleasure in fools,' and if provoked to anger may destroy the work of his hands (5-"°). l;C.'s conception of God has nothing attractive or winnin". He is rather set before us as the omnijiotent Kuler who has ordained all the course of liistory, which man vainly seeks to com- prehend, and OS the austere Deity on who.se favour or forbearance none may venture to presume. Such enjoyment as may be gained from life in harmony with His laws is legitimate, hence the gratification of appetite in a legitimate manner ha.8 His approval, it is His gift (2" 3" 5"- " »' etc.l.
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His view of the future is equally gloomy, but in this he stands upon the old ways of thought. Men are beasts. ' l-'or that which befalloth the sons of men befalleth beasts ; even one thing be- falleth them : as tlie one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea they have all one spirit ; and man hath no pre-eminence above the beasts : for all is vanity. All go unto one place j all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again ' (3"-™). On this follows the question : ' Who knoweth the sitirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth ? ' (3-'). This has been interpreted as if the writer meant to say that such a distinction really existed. But in face of the plain statements just quoted, it is hard to see how such a view can be maintained. The state of the dead is described in the most cheerless lan- guage. ' The dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward ; for the memory of them is forgotten. As well their love as their hatred and envy is now perished ; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun ' {Q'- '). ' There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, whither thou goest ' (9'"). ' Let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many' (11'). Sometunos he speaks as though life were worse than death, and as if it had been best never to have been bom at all (4"- ' 7') ; sometimes as if death were worse than life (&*• '), though for the