(A) _The Quest in Wealth_ 212-218
(_a_) The Man who makes Riches his Chief Good is haunted by Fears and Perplexities 213, 214
(_b_) Much that he gains only feeds Vanity 214, 215
(_c_) He cannot tell what it will be Good for him to have; 215
(_d_) Nor foresee what will become of his Gains: 215, 216
(_e_) And because God has put Eternity into his heart, he cannot be content with Temporal Gains 216-218
(B) _The Quest in the Golden Mean_ 218-228
(_a_) The Method of the Man who seeks a Competence 220-222
(_b_) The Perils to which it exposes him 222-226
(1) He is likely to compromise Conscience: 222-224
(2) To be indifferent to Censure: 224
(3) To despise Women: 225
(4) And to be indifferent to Public Wrongs 226
(_c_) The Preacher condemns this Theory of Human Life 227, 228
§ 5. THE FOURTH SECTION: or, _The Quest Achieved_ 229-275
(_a_) The Chief Good not to be found in Wisdom: 230-234
(_b_) Nor in Pleasure: 234-237
(_c_) Nor in Devotion to Affairs and its Rewards: 237-246
(_d_) But in a wise Use and a wise Enjoyment of the Present Life, 247-256
(_c_) Combined with a stedfast Faith in the Life to come 256-275
§ 6. THE EPILOGUE: _In which the Problem of the Book is conclusively Solved_ 276-335
Those who raise the question, "Is life worth living?" answer it by--living on; for no man lives simply to proclaim what a worthless and wretched creature he is. But for the most part the question is mooted in a merely academical and not very sincere spirit. And to the dainty and fastidious pessimist who goes about to imply his own superiority by declaring that the world which contents his fellows is not good enough for him, there still seems no better reply than the rough but rousing and wholesome rebuke which Epictetus gave to such as he some nineteen centuries ago, reminding them that there were many exits from the theatre of life, and advising them, if they disliked the "show", to retire from it by the nearest door of escape, and to make room for spectators of a more modest and grateful spirit.
Of the pessimists of his time he demands, "Was it not God who brought you here? And as what did He bring you? Was it not as a mortal? Was it not as one who was to live with a little portion of flesh upon the earth, and to witness his administration--to behold the great spectacle around you for a little while? After you have beheld the solemn and august spectacle as long as is permitted you, will you not depart when He leads you out, adoring and thankful for what you have heard and seen? For you the solemnity is over. Go away, then, like a modest and grateful person. Make room for others."
"But why," urges the pessimist, "did He bring me into the world on these hard terms?"
"Oh!" replies Epictetus, "if you don't like the terms, it is always in your power to leave them. _He_ has no need of a discontented spectator. He will not miss you much, nor we either."
But if any man lift the question into a more sincere and noble form by asking, "_How_ may life be made worth living, or _best_ worth living?"--in other words, "What is the true ideal, and what the chief good, of man?"--he will find no nobler answer to it, and none more convincingly and persuasively put, than that contained in this Scripture, which modern pessimists are apt to quote whenever they want to "approve" their melancholy hypothesis "with a text." From Schopenhauer downward, this Book is constantly cited by them as if it confirmed the conclusion for which they contend, Taubert even going so far as to find "a catechism of pessimism" in it. Their assumption, however, is based on a total misapprehension of the design and drift of Ecclesiastes of which no scholar should have been guilty, and of which it is hard to see how any scholar could have been guilty had he studied it as a whole, instead of carrying away from it only what he wanted. So far from lending any countenance to their conclusion of despair, it frankly traverses it--as I hope to show, and as many have shown before me--and lands us in its very opposite; the conclusion of the whole matter with the Hebrew Preacher being, that whoso cultivates the virtues of charity, diligence, and cheerfulness, because God is in heaven and rules over all, _he_ will not only find life well worth living, but will pursue its loftiest ideal and touch its true blessedness.