The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 167

of life. "The abortion has the advantage in not having known anything; for it is better to know nothing at all than to know nothing but trouble. It is laid in the grave without having tasted the miseries of human life; in the grave, where, a.mid the silence and solitude of death, the cares and disappointments, the disquietudes and mortifications and distresses of this world are neither felt nor dreamed of" (Wardlaw). Bow~ver gloomy ~hese reflections of our author's may seem at tint sight, when we examrne them a little more closely we find that they are not so sonbre in their character as many of the utterances of pessimistic philosophy. He does not contrast ~ing witl_1 no~-being, and d~clare that the latter is preferable, but he declares a joyless life to be mfen?r to th~t which has been "cut off from the womb." His teaching that the value of existence 1s to be measured by the amount of good that has been enjoyed in it, is so far from being the utterance of a despairing pessimism that most sober-minded persons would accept it as reasonable and true. Specimens of utterances which to a superficial reader, might appear to be closely akin to his, but which really ar~ the expression of a very much darker mood than his, might easily be given. Thus we have in 'l'beognis ( 425-428)- " Best lot for man is never to be born, Nor ever see the bright rays of the mom; Next best, when bom, to haste with quickest tread Where Hades' gates are open for the dead, And rest with mnch earth gathered for our bed." And in Sophodes (' IErl.. Ool.,' 1225)- " Never to be at all Excels all fame ; Quickly, next best, to pas■ From whence we came." And according to the teaching of Schopenhauer, the non-existence of the world is to be preferred to its existence. The world is cursed with four great evils-birth, disease, old age, and death. "Existence is only a punishment," and the feeling of misery which often accompanies it is" repentance" for the great crime of having come into the world by yielding to the" will to live" (Wright,' Ecclesiastes,' p.158). Such despairing utterances, when found in the writings of those who have not known God, move us to compassion, but we can scarcely avoid the feeling of indignation when we find them on the lips of those who have known God, but have not "retained him in their knowleJge." .And we must beware of concluding, after a hasty and superficial reading of the Book of Ecclesiastes, that its author, even in his darkest mood, sank to the depth of atheism and despair which they reveal.-J. W. Vers. 7-9.-The insatiabi1ity of desire. In .these words tbe Preacher la.ye stress upon the little advantage which one man has over another in regard to the attainment of happiness and satisfaction in life. All are tormented by desires and longings which can never be .adequately satisfied. His reference is principally, if Mt entirely, to the cravings of natural appetites to which all are subject, and which cannot by any gratification or exercise of will be wholly silenced. The inotinct of self-preservation, the necessity of sustaining the body with food, inspire labour, and yet no amount of labour is sufficient to put an end, once and for all, to the gnawings of desire. The sensuous element in man's nature is insatiable, and the appetites of which it consists grow in strength as they are indulged. Though the pressure of appetite differs in different cases, none are free from it. 'l'he wise as well a.s the foolish, the man of simple tastes and chastened temper, a~ well as he who gives free rein to all bis impulses, feel it. Gifts of intellect, acquirements in culture, make no difference in this matter. Some little obscurity seems at first to hang over ver. Sb, but a little examination of the words disperses it. The whole verse runs (Revised Version), "For what advantage bath the wise man more than the fool? or what [advantage] bath the poor man [more than the fool], that knoweth to walk before the living?" "To know to walk before the Jiving" is, as is now generally acknowledged, to understand the right n~b of life, to possess the 6«voir vivre, to be experienced in the right a.rt of living  t'H. VI, 1-12.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 153