"That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered."

Further to verify his principles, he had descended to a profound study of the laws of his own being, and of the tendency of wisdom and knowledge to meet the demands of those laws. He had come to a great estate, and had attained far more wisdom and knowledge than all his predecessors. He had also had great experience of the tendency and results of such attainments. He had further made it a special object to understand the intrinsic tendency of wisdom, as compared with that of "madness and folly." "The conclusion of the whole matter" was, that the study itself tended to but one result, "vexation of spirit." The more wisdom a man has also, the greater his misery. To add to present attainments was only to increase present wretchedness.

"I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem; yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

"And I gave my heart to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

"For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth know. ledge increaseth sorrow.”

The principles of our author, are, as we have seen, the necessary result of the attitude of his mind relatively to the subject under consideration, of his doubts in respect to the truths of religion, the alienation of his heart from God, and the pursuit of the finite and temporary as the supreme good. The necessary result of his principles is the very conclusion to which he comes in the last verse above cited. If all things really tend to consummate human wretchedness, the more perfectly we know our condition and relations, the more perfect, of course, that wretchedness must be. With the true believer

"Hope looks beyond the bounds of time,
When what we now deplore,

Shall rise in full immortal prime,

And bloom to fade no more."

Unbelief, on the other hand, clothes the present and future alike in darkness and terror, gloom and despair. When the necessary results of its principles are consummated in the soul, then

"Hope withering dies, and mercy sighs farewell."

66

CHAPTER II.

In

In further confirmation of his principles, our author proceeds, Chap. 2, to adduce the results of certain important experiments which he had made, that he might, as he affirms, verse 3, see what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under the heaven, all the days of their life." A very important fact here presents itself, a fact to which we would direct a moment's attention before proceeding to an elucidation of the topics presented in this chapter. Men of reflection, such as Solomon was, do not turn aside from the paths of purity and wisdom, to those of folly and sin, without presenting to their own minds some reasons for the course they pursue. With a heart burning with love to God and a ruined world, a young man, for example, commences a course of preparation for the ministry of the everlasting gospel. all his plans and purposes, one principle actuates him, the sweetly constraining love of Christ. At length, however, "the gold becomes dim, and the most fine gold changed." Pride has supplanted, in his heart, the place of meekness, and ambition that of universal benevolence. To attain the end which the heart now proposes to itself, a change of prospective profession is demanded. Yet the real motive for the change must not be avowed, but quite another and a different onc assigned; else "treacherous conscience" would be a very troublesome inmate of the "inner man." Accordingly, the grand discovery is made, that the profession of law needs to be reformed, an end which can be attained only by good men entering it, and by their example, sanctifying it in public estimation. If he should once attain to great eminence in that profession, and especially, if he should rise to fill the chief offices of state, what a widely extended influence he could then exert to bring about so desirable a result. And now, while in his subsequent course, no man, in the nation perhaps, more readily, sets up his conscience for sale, or barters it at a less price, everything is done under the avowed intention above named. How often, also, is the whole being surrendered to the pursuit of wealth, under the avowed motive of obtaining means of usefulness, and of exerting, in consequence of the respect which wealth secures, a more widely extended influence for goodness and truth. We have seen women, too, "whose adorning was not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel," but "the hidden man of the heart, in that which: is incorruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet

spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price," we have seen such walking for a season "in the beauty of holiness," and then, in an evil hour, receiving the world again into their hearts, till the desire and purpose were generated to conform the outer to the state of the "inner man," in other words, to put off "the Lord Jesus Christ," and again to put on the world. A reason, however, must be assigned for the change, a reason, of course, the entire opposite of the real one. The discovery is accordingly made, that conformity to custom will remove prejudice, secure admission to the higher and more refined circles, and thus prepare the way for a more extended influence. Religion, how many follies, not to say abominations, are perpetrated in thy name in this deluded world!

Solomon also, in his abandonment of the path of wisdom, must have present to his mind a reason for so doing, a reason apparently wise and benevolent. Of all the sons of earth, he was held in universal esteem, as the most pre-eminent for wisdom and knowledge. All the world were resorting to him for instruction pertaining to the end of life, to wit, "what is that good for the sons of men, which they should do under heaven, all the days of their life?" How important that he should be able to answer correctly such momentous inquiries? Under the influence of the avowed intention of obtaining such an answer, he set about the experiments detailed in this chapter. The reader will notice that these experiments all run in one direction exclusively, that of the leading propensities of the subject-ambition, pride, and self-indulgence, and not one in that of purity, self-control, and the fear of God. These experiments must also have been to the mass of mankind, even had the great good been discovered in the objects to which they pertain, totally useless; inasmuch as they all lie in the direction of what must be to the millions of the race, an unattainable good. If true happiness is to be found only in mirth and wine, in royal palaces and equipage, and especially in the possession of "seven hundred wives which are princesses, and three hundred concubines," then the mass of mankind may conclude at once that misery is their portion. How important that the king of Israel should weary himself in experiments to demonstrate to the world, that that which is good for man, and which should, in this life, be the end with him, does not lie in the direction of such unattainable objects. But such were the motives which he avowed to himself for the great experiments to which the attention of the reader is now invited.

In the first place, one of the sources of good, in the estimation of men, is mirth and pleasure. These our author tested, (verses 1, 2) and found them, like all other objects of human regard, to be nothing but vanity.

“I said of laughter, it is mad: and of mirth, what doeth it?

The author might well have saved himself the trouble of the above experiment. Every age has presented experiments without number of the same kind, and always with the same result. The poet has most beautifully and affectingly expressed the experience of men of mirth and pleasure, in all time, and in every nation.

"Thus fares it still in our decay :
And yet the wiser mind

Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.

The blackbird in the summer trees,

The lark upon the hill,

Let loose their carols when they please;

Are quiet when they will.

With nature never do they wage

A foolish strife; they see

A happy youth, and their old age
Is beautiful and free!

But we are pressed by heavy laws;
And often, glad no more,
We wear a face of joy, because

We have been glad of yore.

If there is one who need bemoan

His kindred laid in earth,

The household hearts that were his own,

It is the man of mirth."

The next experiment of our author powerfully reminds us of the reason assigned by the Mormon prophet to his followers for his own acts of beastly intoxication. Men, he said, would drink to intoxication. The evil could not be prevented. Hence they needed to be taught, by inspired example, how, when they were intoxicated, to get sober again. To teach this important lesson was his exclusive motive in "drinking himself drunk." The king of Israel, too, (verse 3,) "gave himself unto wine," and in such indulgence, "laid hold on folly," "retaining at the same time his wisdom," his habits of self-reflection, the only form of wisdom that then remained to him, for the purpose of determining whether, in such indul

gence, was to be found the good which all men should pursue during their entire existence on earth.

"I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, (yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom,) and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under the heaven, all the days of their life.”

The experiments next made we quote without remark, as they need no explanation.

"I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit; I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees; I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me; I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces; I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me."

In short he gave himself up to the unrestrained indulgence of his propensities, withholding from himself nothing which became to him an object of desire, his heart at the same time rejoicing in all his labor. The joy he thus found was his portion.

"And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy: for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my portion of all my labor."

This joy, however, was but temporary, ending, as that found in all his other experiments, in subsequent "vexation of spirit."

"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”

From such painful experiments the preacher turned himself (verses 12-17) to the contemplation of wisdom, on the one hand, and of madness and folly on the other, for the purpose of determining their comparative value as the means of true happiness. His observations, as he judges, ought to be regarded as absolutely decisive. "For what can a man do that, cometh after the king? even that which hath been done already." When he penned that sentiment, he had not in his mind a wiser thought, to which he afterwards (chap. 4: 13) gave expression, to wit, that the judgment of a wise child is more to be regarded than that of an "old foolish king who will no more be admonished.”

"Wisdom, in itself, (verse 13,) he found to excel folly "as