A CONFESSION [14]
laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? I sought in my
heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, and while my heart was
guided by wisdom, to lay hold on folly, till I might see what it
was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven the
number of the days of their life. 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 fruits: I made me pools
of water, to water therefrom the forest where trees were reared: I
got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house;
also I had great possessions of herds and flocks above all that
were before me in Jerusalem: I gathered me also silver and gold and
the peculiar treasure from kings and from the provinces: I got me
men singers and women singers; and the delights of the sons of men,
as musical instruments and all 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. And whatever mine eyes desired I kept
not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy....Then I
looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the
labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and
vexation of spirit, and there was no profit from them under the
sun. And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and
folly.... But I perceived that one even happeneth to them all.
Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it
happeneth even to me, and why was I then more wise? then I said in
my heart, that this also is vanity. For there is no remembrance of
the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is
in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise
man? as the fool. Therefore I hated life; because the work that is
wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and
vexation of spirit. Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken
under the sun: seeing that I must leave it unto the man that shall
be after me.... For what hath man of all his labour, and of the
vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For
all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, even in the
night his heart taketh no rest. this is also vanity. Man is not
blessed with security that he should eat and drink and cheer his
soul from his own labour.... All things come alike to all: there is
one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to
the evil; to the clean and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth
and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good, so is the sinner;
and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil
in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event unto
all; yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and
madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go
to the dead. For him that is among the living there is hope: for
a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that
they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they
any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. also their
love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither
have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done
under the sun."
So said Solomon, or whoever wrote those words. [Footnote:
tolstoy's version differs slightly in a few places from our own
Authorized or Revised version. I have followed his text, for in a
letter to Fet, quoted on p. 18, vol. ii, of my "Life of Tolstoy,"
he says that "The Authorized English version [of Ecclesiastes] is
bad." -- A.M.]
And this is what the Indian wisdom tells:
Sakya Muni, a young, happy prince, from whom the existence of
sickness, old age, and death had been hidden, went out to drive and
saw a terrible old man, toothless and slobbering. the prince, from
whom till then old age had been concealed, was amazed, and asked
his driver what