Leaving it an open question whether it is possible to arrange the contents of this book (as Kcister and Vaihinger have done) in a carefully balanced series of strophes and antistrophes, it is tolerably clear that the recurring burden of "Vanity of vanities" and the teaching which recommends a life of calm enjoy- ment, mark, whenever thejf occur, a kind of halting- place in the succession of thoughts. It is the sum- ming up of one cj-cle of experience ; the sentence passed upon one phase of life. Taking this, accord- ingly, as our guide, we may look upon the whole liook as falling into four divisions, each, to a certain extent, running parallel with the others in its order and re- sults, and dosing with that which, in its position no less than its substance, is " the conclusion of the whole matter."
(I.) Ch. i and ii. This portion of the book, more than anj' other, has the character of a personal con- fession. The Preacher starts with reproducing the phase of despair and weariness into which his experi- ence had led him (i, 2, 'A). To the man who is thus sa- tiated with life, the order and regularit_y of nature are oppressive (i, 4-7) ; nor is he led, as in the 00th Psalm, from the things that are transitory to the thought of One whose j'ears are from eternity. In the midst of the evcr-rocuiTing changes he finds no progress. That which seems to be new is Iiut the repetition of t^e old (i, 8-11). Then, having laid bare tlie depth to which he had' fallen, he retraces the path by which he had
travelled thitherward. First he had sought after -vris* dom as that to which God seemed to call him (i, 13), but the pursuit of it was a sore travail, and there was no satisfaction in its possession. It could not remedy the least real evil, nor make the crooked straight (i, 15). The first experiment in the search after h.nppi- ness had failed, and he tried another. It was one to which men of great intellectual gifts and high fortunes are continuallj' tempted- — to surround himself with all the appliances of sensual enjoj-ment, and yet in thought to hold himself above it (ii, 1-9), making his very vo- luptuousness part of the experience which was to en- large his store of wisdom. Tliis— which one mar per- haps call the Goethean idea of life — was what now pos- sessed him. But this ^Iso failed to give him peace (ii, 11). Had he not then exhausted all human experi- ence and found it profitless.' (ii, 12). If for a moment he found comfort in the thought that wisdom excelleth foil}', and that he was wise (ii, 13, 14), it was soon dark- ened again by the thought of deatli (ii, 15). The wise man dies as the fool (ii, 16). This is enough to make even him who has wisdom hate all his labor and sink into the outer darkness of despair (ii, 20). Yet this verj' despair leads to the remedj'. The first section closes with that which, in different forms, is the main lesson of the book — to make the best of what is actual- Ij' around one (ii, 24) — to substitute for the reckless, feverish pursuit of pleasure the calm enjo3-ment which men may yet find both for the senses and the intellect. This, so far as it goes, is the secret of a true life ; this is from the hand of God. On everj-thing else there is written, as before, the sentence that it is vanit}- and vexation of spirit.
(II.) Ch. iii, 1-vi, 9. The order of thought in this section has a different starting-point. One who locked out upon the infinitely varied phenomena of man's life might yet discern, in the midst of that variety-, traces of an order. There are times, and seasons for each of them, in their turn, even as there are for the vicis- situdes of the world of nature (iii, 1-8). The heart of man, with its changes, is the mirror of the universe (iii, 11), and is, like that, inscrutable. And from this tliere comes the same conclusion as from the personal expe- rience. Calmly to accept the changes and chances of life, entering into whatever joj' they bring, as one ac- cepts the order of nature, this is the way of peace (iii, 13). The thought of the ever-recurring cycle of na- ture, which before had been irritating and disturbing, now whispers the same lesson. If we suffer, others have suffered before us (iii, 15). God is seeking out the past and reproducing it. If men repeat injustice and oppression, God also in the ajipoirited season re- peats his judgments (iii, IG, 17). It i^ true that this thought has a dark as well as a bright side, and this cannot be ignored. If men come and pass away, sub- ject to laws and changes like those of the natural world, then, it would seem, man has no pre-eminence above the beast (iii, 10). One end happens to all. All are of the dust and return to dust again (iii, 20). Tliere is no immediate denial of this conclusion. It was to this that the Preacher's experience and reflection had led him. But even on the Iwpothesis that the ))erson- al being of man terminates with his death, he has still the same counsel to give. Admit that all is darkness beyond the grave, and still there is nothing better on this side of it than the temper of a tranquil enjoj'ment (iii, 22).