work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.” 1

Perhaps in this chapter I have laid too much stress on the cynical and satirical view of life which pervades this poem. It is truly a poem of two voices; in it the two spirits speak. Through it are scattered nuggets of practical wisdom which are not cynical nor satirical; such are those which commend the cultivation of the cheerful spirit, the joyous life, the real and right use of the world and what it brings to man: "Go thy way, eat thy bread with a joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart; "Live joyfully with thy wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity;" "Rejoice, O young man in thy youth; such are those which counsel to moderation and self-restraint, to selfrespect and the cultivation of a sound mind: "A good name is better than precious ointment; "The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit ; "Wisdom is as good as an inheritance; such are some of the proverbs which seem not to belong to the poem, but to be attached to it, much as in a journal the writer incorporates apothegms which have impressed him as specially worthy of preservation: "He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; "If the serpent bite before it is charmed there is

1 Eccles. xi. 9-xii. 7, xii. 13, 14. Some critics think that this conclusion of the whole matter was written by another pen. I cannot understand their point of view. It seems clear to me that from the beginning to the end that was the result constantly kept in mind by the writer of this gnomic monodrama.

no advantage in the charmer;" "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." But these are incidental rather than essential to the poem. Its theme is indicated by its opening and its closing lines: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity;" what then? "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die"? No! "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

Is

I do not know, and cannot easily imagine, what he makes out of the Book of Ecclesiastes who believes that every sentence in the Bible is equally authoritative with every other sentence. "Be not righteous overmuch." Is that a divinely inspired counsel ? 66 Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." that a divine interpretation of life? If so, how shall we reconcile it with the declaration of Paul: "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come," or that other declaration that "God giveth us all things richly to enjoy"? The truth of Ecclesiastes is the truth of human experience, larger and deeper than the truth of any text. Let the self-seeker try how he may to get satisfaction out of life, he is sure to fail—that is the lesson of Ecclesiastes and a lesson the more eloquent because wrought out of a living experience. Try to get satisfaction out of things; warehouses ten, twelve, fourteen stories high; railroads binding together the borders of a continent; great palaces; hundred thousand dollar balls: what is

the end? "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." We are as children who build their houses on the sand

and the tide comes and sweeps them away. Try to get satisfaction out of philosophy; we do not need God, nor conscience, nor churches, nor religion; these are for women and children; we will have a public school system; great universities; knowledge; culture. What comes of that experiment? The end is the same. Cultivate the brain and leave the heart to be atrophied; cultivate the intellect and leave the conscience to die; teach men how to be shrewd, but not how to be honest, just, true, pure, and the end of that Mr. Huxley thus describes : "Undoubtedly your gutter child may be converted by mere intellectual drill into 'the subtlest of all the beasts of the field;' but we know what has become of the original of that description, and there is no need to increase the number of those who imitate him successfully without being aided by the rates." 1 This also is "vanity of vanities." Try, then, to accomplish great achievements; but still for ourselves, not for others; not great service of love, but great service of self; not great houses, not great wisdom, but great ambitions shall be our aim; shall we find our soul satisfied in this? The end of this, too, is "vanity of vanities." Self-indulgent pleasure ends in pessimism; self-indulgent ambition in fatalism: "That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing

1 Science and Education Essays: The School Boards, p. 396.

under the sun." That is, nothing can be done, why make the endeavor? This fatalism of Ecclesiastes is not more mournful than that of modern times, that to be found, for example, in John Cotter Morison's "Service of Man." Even self-sacrificing service of man is in his estimate of but little value: "A man with a criminal nature and education, under given circumstances of temptation can no more help committing crime than he can help having a headache under certain conditions of brain and stomach." "No merit or demerit attaches to the saint or the sinner in the metaphysical and mystic sense of the word. Their good or evil qualities are none of their making." "The sooner the idea of moral responsibility is got rid of the better it will be for society and moral education." "Bad men will be bad, do what we will; the most we can do is to make them "less bad." This, the necessarianism of its latest apostle, is as dismal and depressing as that of Ecclesiastes. Let us then try opportunism; take life as it comes; have a good time, but not with abandon; coöperate with others, but to serve ourselves; keep the golden mean; be a trimmer in politics and vote with the winning party; be a "safe man" in the church, and teach not what we believe, but what others think we ought to believe. And though the party may give political rewards and the church ecclesiastical rewards, when old age comes and death impends, and the disgrace of a prosperous and useless life is about to be bequeathed to our sons and our sons'

sons, posterity will write our biography in this single phrase of this ancient poet, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

What then? If there be no satisfaction in pleasure, in wisdom, in ambition, in the golden mean, where can it be found? In duty. In doing right because it is right. Not for reward here, nor for reward hereafter, not for happiness on earth, not for crowns in heaven, not for immortality of fame, not for immortality of personal existence; but because duty is duty, and right is right, and God is God. This seems to me the meaning of the confessedly enigmatical Book of Ecclesiastes.