of pleasure, riches, and honour, as also its more refined attainments of wisdom and knowledge. And all of them, without exception, are vanity;
1. In their acquisition —
[It is not without great labour and toil that earthly dis- tinctions are obtained. The merchant, the warrior, the phi- losopher will bear record, that in their respective pursuits they have endured much fatigue, and many disappointments ; inso- much that to one whose taste was different from theirs, they would appear to have paid too dear a price for all that they have gained.]
2. In their use —
[Suppose that the labours of any person have been crowned with success ; What, after all, has he gained ? He thought he was following something substantial ; but, to his mortification, he finds that he has grasped a shadow. He has " hewn out cisterns " for himself, indeed, with great labour ; but he finds, after all, that they are " broken cisterns, which can hold no water." At the first moment, whilst the charm of novelty is upon them, the various objects we have attained afford a pleasing gratification to the mind : but scarcely have they been enjoyed a few days, before they lose their sweetness, and descend into the common routine of earthly comforts. The man who rolls in wealth, and he who is dignified with high- sounding titles, is soon brought to a level with his inferiors in point of actual enjoyment : and even he who has acquired know- ledge, finds, that, " in having increased knowledge, he has also increased sorrow^;" because of the envy which his eminence has excited, and the uncertainty of much which he thinks he has attained.]
3. In their continuance —
[What is there of which a man may not be despoiled ? Pleasure may, in a very little time, be turned into pain : ho- nour may speedily be blasted by some unforeseen event : " riches make themselves wings, and fly away :" and through disease or accident, even reason itself, -with all its highest attain- ments, may sink into more than infantine weakness and infirmity. But grant to these things all that the most sanguine imagination can impute, how soon do they vanisli away ! Even life itself is but as a hand-breadth, or as a shadow that de- clineth : and the moment that deatli comes, " all our thoughts perish," and we "go out of the world as naked and as destitute as we came into it."]
4. In their issue-
a ver. 18. y2