The vanity of all temporal things.
Al temporal thinges (in comparison of true felicitie) are vaine, 4. because they are mutable, 8. neither can anie man attaine perfect knowlege, to his satisfaction: 12. as appeareth by Salomons owne experience.
1The words of Ecclesiastes, the son of David, king of Jerusalem.Parole dell'Ecclesiaste figliuolo di David, re di Gerusalemme.THE wordes of Ecclesiastes, the sonne of Dauid, king of Ierusalem.Verba Ecclesiastæ, filii David, regis Jerusalem. 2Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes: vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.Vanità delle vanità, disse l'Ecclesiaste: vanità delle vanità, e tutte le cose sono vanità.Vanitie of vanities, sayd Ecclesiastes: vanitie of vanities, & al thinges vanitie.Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes; / vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas. 3What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun?Che resta all'uomo di tutte quante le fatiche, ond'ei si carica sotto del sole?What hath a man more of al his labour, wherby he laboreth vnder the sunne?Quid habet amplius homo / de universo labore suo quo laborat sub sole ? 4One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever.Una generazione passa, un'altra le viene appresso, e la terra sta sempre.Generation passeth, and generation cometh: but the earth standeth for euer.Generatio præterit, et generatio advenit; / terra autem in æternum stat. 5The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again,Il sole nasce, e tramonta, e ritorna al suo primo posto, ed ivi tornando a nascere,The sunne riseth, and goeth downe, and returneth to his place: and there rising againe,Oritur sol et occidit, / et ad locum suum revertitur; / ibique renascens, 6Maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: the spirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth to his circuits.S'avanza verso il mezzodì, e poi piega verso settentrione. Va attorno lo spirito, visitando ogni parte, e torna a ripigliare i suoi giri.compasseth by the South, and bendeth to the North: compassing al thinges, goeth forward in circuite, & returneth vnto his circles.gyrat per meridiem, et flectitur ad aquilonem. / Lustrans universa in circuitu pergit spiritus, / et in circulos suos revertitur. 7All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again.Tutti i fiumi entrano nel mare, e il mare non trabocca: colà donde nacquero tornano i fiumi per ripigliar nuovo corso.Al riuers enter into the sea, and the sea ouerfloweth not: to the place, whence the riuers issueforth, they do returne, that they may flow againe.Omnia flumina intrant in mare, / et mare non redundat; / ad locum unde exeunt flumina / revertuntur ut iterum fluant.
8All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word. The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing.Tutte le cose sono difficili; l'uomo non ha parole per ispiegarle. L'occhio non è sazio giammai di vedere, nell'orecchio si empie di udire.Al thinges are hard: man can not explicate them in word. The eye is not filled with seing, neither is the eare filled with hearing.Cunctæ res difficiles; / non potest eas homo explicare sermone. / Non saturatur oculus visu, / nec auris auditu impletur. 9What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done.Che è quello, che fu? quello, che sarà. Che è quello, che avvenne? quello, che accade.What is that hath bene? the same thing that shal be. What is that hath bene done? the same that is to be done.Quid est quod fuit ? Ipsum quod futurum est. / Quid est quod factum est ? Ipsum quod faciendum est. 10Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us.Nulla cosa o nuova sotto del sole, e nessuno può dire: Guarda che novità; perocché ciò fa già ne' secoli, che ci precedettero.Nothing vnder the sunne is new, neither is anie man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages, that were before vs.Nihil sub sole novum, / nec valet quisquam dicere: Ecce hoc recens est: / jam enim præcessit in sæculis quæ fuerunt ante nos. 11There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end.Non si tien memoria delle cose passate; ma neppur delle cose che sono per l'avvenire si farà ricordanza da quei, che saranno in appresso.There is no memorie of former thinges: but neither of those thinges verily, which hereafter are to come, shal there be remenbrance with them, that shal be in the later end.Non est priorum memoria; / sed nec eorum quidem quæ postea futura sunt / erit recordatio apud eos qui futuri sunt in novissimo. 12I Ecclesiastes was king over Israel in Jerusalem,Io l'Ecclesiaste fui re di'Israel in Gerusalemme.I Ecclesiastes haue bene king of Israel in Ierusalem,Ego Ecclesiastes fui rex Israël in Jerusalem; 13And I proposed in my mind to seek and search out wisely concerning all things that are done under the sun. This painful occupation hath God given to the children of men, to be exercised therein.E mi messi in cuore di fare per mezzo della sapienza studio, e ricerca sopra tutte le cose, che si fanno sotto del sole. Questa penosissima occupazione la ha data Iddio a figliuoli degli uomini, perché vi si impieghino.and haue proposed in my mind, to seke and search wisely of al thinges, that are done vnder the sunne. This very euil occupation hath God geuen to the children of men, that they might be occupied in it.et proposui in animo meo quærere et investigare sapienter / de omnibus quæ fiunt sub sole. / Hanc occupationem pessimam / dedit Deus filiis hominum, ut occuparentur in ea.
14I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit.Io osservai tutto quello, che si fa sotto del sole: e vidi, che tutto è vanità, e afflizione di spirito.I haue sene al thinges, that are done vnder the sunne, and behold al are vanitie, & affliction of spirit.Vidi cuncta quæ fiunt sub sole, / et ecce universa vanitas et afflictio spiritus. 15The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite.I malvagi difficilmente si emendano; e degli stolti il numero è infinito.The peruerse are hardly corrected, and the number of fooles is infinite.Perversi difficile corriguntur, / et stultorum infinitus est numerus. 16I have spoken in my heart, saying: Behold I am become great, and have gone beyond all in wisdom, that were before me in Jerusalem: and my mind hath contemplated many things wisely, and I have learned.Io dissi in cuor mio: Ecco ch'io son diventato grande, ed ho sorpassato in sapienza tutti quelli che furono avanti a me in Gerusalemme, e la mente mia molte cose ha contemplate sapientemente, e ne ho apparate.I haue spoken in my hart, saying: Loe I haue bene made great, and haue gone beyond al in wisdom, that were before me in Ierusalem: and my minde hath contemplated manie thinges wisely, and I haue lerned.Locutus sum in corde meo, dicens: / Ecce magnus effectus sum, et præcessi omnes sapientia / qui fuerunt ante me in Jerusalem; / et mens mea contemplata est multa sapienter, et didici. 17And I have given my heart to know prudence, and learning, and errors, and folly: and I have perceived that in these also there was labour, and vexation of spirit,Ed ho applicato il mio cuore ad apprendere la prudenza, e la dottrina, e gli errori, e le follie; ed ho riconosciuto, che questo stesso è affanno, e tormento dello spirito:And I haue geuen my hart to know prudence, and doctrine, and errors and follie: and I haue perceiued that in these also there was labour, and affliction of spirite,Dedique cor meum ut scirem prudentiam atque doctrinam, / erroresque et stultitiam; / et agnovi quod in his quoque esset labor et afflictio spiritus: 18Because in much wisdom there is much indignation: and he that addeth knowledge, addeth also labour.Perocché la molta sapienza ha molto onde disgustarsi, e chi moltiplica il sapere, l'affanno moltiplica.for that in much wisdom there is much indignation: and he that addeth knowlege, addeth also labour.eo quod in multa sapientia multa sit indignatio; / et qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem.
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Jerusalem. This clearly designates Solomon. See ver. 12., and Ecclesiastes 12:8.
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Menochius
Vanities. Most vain and despicable, (Calmet) and frustrating the expectations of men. (Menochius)
St. Augustine reads vanitantium, and infers that this vanity of sublunary things is an effect of man's sin. Yet he afterwards discovered that he had read incorrectly. (Retractions 1:7.)
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Calmet
Ever. Its substance remains, though the form be changed. (Calmet)
Worthington
At the end of time, it will be purified to continue for ever. (Worthington)
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Calmet
Place daily. Its annual motion is then mentioned. (Calmet)
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Again. The sea furnishes vapours, etc. Homer (Iliad Ph.) expresses himself in the same manner.
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Hearing. In all sciences there are many difficulties. If a man had arrived at perfect knowledge, his researches would cease.
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Calmet
New. Such vicissitudes have occurred before, though we must not infer that the world is eternal; or that there have been many others before this, as Origen would suppose. (Prin. 3:5., etc.) (Calmet)
Worthington
Men's souls, which are created daily, are nevertheless of the same sort as Adam's was; and creatures proceed from others of the same species, which have been from the beginning. (St. Thomas Aquinas p. 1. q. 73.) (Worthington)
Menochius
Natural and moral things continue much the same. (Menochius)
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Things. Otherwise we should read of similar events to those which we behold. The same cause naturally produces the same effect.
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Calmet
Israel. This was the case with none of Solomon's descendants. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Vexation. Hebrew also, "food of wind;" (Symmachus) or "choice of the spirit." (Septuagint) People are eager to become learned, and yet find no satisfaction. (Haydock)
Persius
All natural things are insufficient to procure felicity. (Worthington) O Curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane! (Persius.)
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Calmet
Perverse. Habitual and obstinate sinners. (Calmet)
Haydock
Fools, who follow the broad road. (Haydock)
Hebrew and Septuagint, "the defect cannot be numbered." We know not to what a height the soul of man might have risen, if he had continued faithful.
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Learned. Solomon was blessed both with a natural genius, which he improved by study, and also he had the gift of supernatural wisdom. Yet he declares that all is vanity and pain.
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Montanus
Errors. Septuagint, "parables and science." But to discern the mistakes of men is a part of wisdom, (Calmet) and Grabe substitutes "wanderings," instead of "parables," after Theodotion, as Hebrew ealluth (Haydock) means "errors," (Calmet) or "follies." (Montanus)
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Worthington
Labour. He is bound to do more for heaven, as he is convinced of his own defects, and of the strict judgments of God. Wisdom is not true happiness, but the means to obtain it. (Worthington)
St. Jerome
The more a person knows, the more he is convinced of his own ignorance, (Calmet) and filled with grief, that wisdom should be so much concealed. (St. Jerome)
Menochius
Those who are learned, feel indignant that their disciples should be so dull. (Menochius)
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In the end of this world the earth shal be purified, & so remaine for euer.
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Mens soules dayly created are of the same kind as Adams soule: other creatures either were in their kindes from the beginning of the vvorld, or are procreated of diuers kindes preexisting. S. Tho. pa. 1. q. 73. a. 1. ad. 3
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Al natural thinges are insufficient meanes to attaine felicitie.
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18. In much vvisdom is much indignation.] How much more anie man profiteth in wisdom, so much more he is angrie with himself, for the euils which VVisdom maketh men to be angrie with sinne, to feare God, and to proceede in vertue. he hath done: so much better he knovveth the strict iudgement of God, which he must passe: so much more he vnderstandeth the vvant of perfect vvisdom: so much more he seeth that labour is required to procede in vertue: and to conserue that smal portion vvhich he hath gotten. Neither is anie man ordinarily assured that he hath gotte anie part of true vvisdom; for he knovveth not, vvhether he be vvorthie of loue or hate. Eccle. 9.
VVisdom is the best thing in this vvorld, yet is not perfect selicitie, but the meanes to attaine it.
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Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 1.7.5
… Whence also Solomon appears to characterize the whole of corporeal nature as a kind of burden which enfeebles the vigour of the soul in the following language: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity. I have looked, and seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity.”
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.1
Ver . 1 . “ The words of the son of David, king of Israel in Jerusalem.”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.50
… thus, “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that subjected the same in hope;” at other times as vanity of vanities, “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 13.4
… and grovelling at the feet of every one, beseeching him to lend help by any means in his power to those who were undergoing examination, and that there might be a kind of general contribution of mercy from all; I exclaimed, in those words of Solomon, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 15.4
… Giving utterance, though in different words, to that very sentiment of Solomon—that sentiment which is so marvellous and pregnant with Divine wisdom—“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 19.3
… and have become superior to all worldly show, instructed as they have been by the sacred Scriptures, that “all is vanity, yea, vanity of vanities,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 73
Hath not every art an end? It is surely plain to every one. Do thou also show the end of thy worldly eagerness. But thou canst not; for, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 11
… Thus, if any one says, “I count money as nothing, but all things here are to me as a shadow, and a dream, and child’s play;” we are not at all to charge him as arrogant; since in this way we shall have to accuse Solomon himself of arrogance, for speaking austerely ( φιλοσοφοῦντα ) on these things, saying “Vanity of vanities (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 12
What is vanity of mind? It is the being busied about vain things. And what are those vain things, but all things in the present life? Of which the Preacher saith, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 15
Serve God with tears, that thou mayest be able to wash away your sins. I know that many mock us, saying, “Tears directly.” Therefore it is a time for tears. I know also that they are disgusted, who say, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” ( 1 Cor. xv. 32 .) “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.14
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.3
Solomon, the wisest king of Israel, who reigned in Jerusalem, thus commences the book called Ecclesiastes, which the Jews number among their canonical Scriptures: “Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he hath taken under the sun?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Morals of the Catholic Church 21
… but there is one book of Solomon, called Ecclesiastes, which at great length brings all earthly things into utter contempt. The book begins thus: "Vanity of the vain, saith the Preacher, vanity of the vain; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.50
… nay, every man living is altogether vanity;” or how the apostle says, “every creature was made subject to vanity;” or how it is written in the book of Ecclesiastes, “vanity of vanities; all is vanity: what profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 11.11
… “Let them lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may hold on the true life.” The present then is a false life; let them lay hold on the true life. “For it is vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What so great abundance hath man in all his labour, wherewith he laboureth under the sun?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 4.3
… why then any longer are ye heavy in heart? When will ye make an end of crafty wiles, if now when the truth is present ye make it not? “Why do ye love vanity, and seek a lie?” Why would ye be blessed by the lowest things? Truth alone, from which all things are true, maketh blessed. For, “vanity is of deceivers, and all is vanity.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.5
… …Moreover, if it be a vain thing to do good works for the sake of men’s praises, how much more vain for the sake of getting money, or increasing it, or retaining it, and any other temporal advantage, which cometh unto us from without? Since “all things are vanity: what is man’s abundance, with all his toil, wherein he laboureth under the sun?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 142.8
… A man’s deserts make a prison. For in one dwelling place one man finds a house, another a prison.…To some then it has seemed that the “cave” and “prison” are this world; and this the Church prayeth, that it may be brought out of prison, that is, from this world, from under the sun, where all is vanity.
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.1
3 . “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?”
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Three Homilies 2.7
7. Narrow is the way of life, and broad the way of torment; prayer is able to bring a man to the house of the kingdom. This is the perfect work; prayer that is pure from iniquity. The righteousness of man is as nothing accounted. The work of men, what is it? His labour is altogether vanity.
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.1
4 . “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever” (unto the age).
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On Virginity 4
… “The earth,” says the wise Preacher, “abideth for ever
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.35
… “The wind goeth in a circle of circles, and returneth again upon its circles.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Hexæmeron 4.3
In all the story of the waters remember this first order, “let the waters be gathered together.” To take their assigned places they were obliged to flow, and, once arrived there, to remain in their place and not to go farther. Thus in the language of Ecclesiastes, “All the waters run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.”
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St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 10.2
… for the latter is always uttering something, while the ear, as Solomon somewhere says, is not filled with continual hearing
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Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 3.5.3
… “What is that which hath been? Even that which shall be. And what is that which has been created? Even this which is to be created: and there is nothing altogether new under the sun. Who shall speak and declare, Lo, this is new? It hath already been in the ages which have been before us.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 4.12
Whether, then, there are cycles of time, and floods, or conflagrations which occur periodically or not, and whether the Scripture is aware of this, not only in many passages, but especially where Solomon says, “What is the thing which hath been? Even that which shall be. And what is the thing which hath been done? Even that which shall be done,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 6.8
… For if we do not wish to live so as to please God, it is better to die. For what is the gain? What have we the more? Do we not every day see the same sun, and the same moon, the same winter, the same summer, the same course of things? “The thing that hath been, shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 124.9
… Listen to the Preacher who says: ‘the thing which hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.’
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 133.2
… They do not, they say, profess that men are or have been without sin; all that they maintain is that it is possible for them to be so. Remarkable teachers truly, who maintain that a thing may be which on their own shewing, never has been; whereas the scripture says:—“The thing which shall be, it is that which hath been already of old time.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 12.13
… “What is that which hath been? It is that which shall be. And what is that which is done? It is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Who can speak and say, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 8.21
… “What is it that hath been? The same that is. And what is it that hath been done? The same that is done. And there is nothing new that can be said under the sun, so that a man can say: Behold this is new; for it hath already been in the ages which were before us.”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 2.21
… For behold he who confirms the thunder, creates the Spirit, and announces his Christ unto men”: …has not used the word “he who creates” in the sense of makes out of nothing. For God did not then create the Spirit, when he declared his Christ to all men, since
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St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 3.1
… that is to say, He humbled without humiliation His lofty station which yet could not be humbled, and condescends to His servants , with a condescension ineffable and incomprehensible: (for that is what the descent signifies). And God being perfect becomes perfect man, and brings to perfection the newest of all new things
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.7
… We are to be like alert and armed soldiers, who immediately execute the orders given to them and perform them without that travail of mind which, according to the preacher, is given to the men of this world ‘to be exercised therewith.’”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.12
… But when He hath come near unto you, let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him be turned unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy, because He will plentifully pardon your sins.” Of this same thing in Solomon: “I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; and, lo, all are vanity.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 7.19
… Well hath inspired David discoursed of our frailty, and again in these words, “Let me know the short ness of my days;” and he defines the days of man as “of a span long.” And what wouldst thou say to Jeremiah, who complains of his mother in sorrow for his birth, and that on account of others’ faults? I have seen all things,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.1.3
3. What, then, does He say? “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We read in Scripture concerning the striving after temporal things, “All is vanity and presumption of spirit;”
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Baptism 15
… And therefore their baptism is not one with ours either, because it is not the same; a baptism which, since they have it not duly, doubtless they have not at all ; nor is that capable of being counted which is not had .
St Peter of Alexandria † AD 311 The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras 4
… and it presently withered away.” For in them is fulfilled what was spoken by the Preacher: “That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.”
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.1
16 . “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.
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.1
17 . I knew parables and science: that this indeed is also the spirit’s choice.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 18.15
… for this is the law of spiritual sequence. And when he had been entrusted with it, the grace was the more glorified, being really the grace of God, and not of men, and not, as the preacher
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.1
18 . For in multitude of wisdom is multitude of knowledge: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth grief.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.75
… I said, I will be wise, says Solomon, but she (i.e. Wisdom) was far from me beyond what is: and, Verily, he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 77.7
… In her eagerness to satisfy what was a veritable craving she would run through Prophets, Gospels, and Psalms: she would suggest questions and treasure up the answers in the desk of her own bosom. And yet this eager ness to hear did not bring with it any feeling of satiety: increasing her knowledge she also increased her sorrow,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 26
It is evident, then, that the oldness of the letter, in the absence of the newness of the spirit, instead of freeing us from sin, rather makes us guilty by the knowledge of sin. Whence it is written in another part of Scripture, “He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.20
… “Hear my prayer, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not Thy peace at my tears.” For do I now no longer weep, because I have already “passed by,” have “left behind” so great things as these? “Do I not weep much the more?” For, “He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.”
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"Ecclesiastes," that is, of Solomon. This is evident from the very tenor of the words and the meaning, that this is not so much the title of the book, as some thought—St. Gregory of Nyssa, homily 1, Hugh of St. Victor and Cardinal Hugh, Dionysius and others—but rather the very beginning of the book itself. For this book begins here, and at the margin the first verse of the first chapter is noted. From this, however, the title and name of the book was derived, so that it is called Ecclesiastes, which name Luther foolishly disapproves of in his Table Talk, saying that this book ought not to be called Ecclesiastes, but rather the Politics or Economics of Solomon: in which matter he contradicts the entire Church and all the Fathers, who called it Ecclesiastes, and convicts them of ignorance with arrogant superciliousness. Words.—A word is said to be derived from "struck," because when the tongue is struck against the palate with air, all speech is produced, as Father Consentius and St. Augustine say. Varro, however, derives "word" from "truth," as if "true": because we ought to speak what is true. Such are the words of Holy Scripture, or the words of God, namely, most true, most weighty, most salutary oracles. Whence Aben-Ezra: "The words of Ecclesiastes," that is, he says, not common, but ascending from the heart to the mind, inasmuch as they distinguish vanity from truth, and point out to all with finger directed to the fountain the way to true happiness. Ecclesiastes.—In Hebrew קהלת Coheleth, that is, of one who gathers together, a collector, a preacher. For the root קהל cahal signifies to gather together a multitude, and to speak words to it. Whence קהלה kehilla is called a gathering, an assembly, a church, a congregation. For a congregation signifies both an assembly of people and a speech to the people. You will ask first, why Solomon is here called in Hebrew Coheleth, in Greek and thence in Latin Ecclesiastes? First, James Christopol answers in his Preface to the Song of Songs, that he is called Coheleth, that is, a collector, because he gathered together in this book the wise sayings and clever words of his father David and of the other Patriarchs and Prophets, and collected them into one. But this is scarcely probable. For Solomon, since he was the wisest of mortals, had no need to scrape together wisdom from elsewhere, by which he himself was endowed and filled by God: therefore he brings forth his own here, and not another's. Second, Cajetan thinks that Solomon is called Coheleth, that is, a collector, because he gathered together in this book all the modes and kinds of the world's vanity, and laid them bare before the eyes, and, as Arias Montanus adds, because enumerating individual things of the world, he immediately subjoins the cipher 0, saying and repeating: "Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity." For the cipher 0, if placed alone, even if multiplied, is worth nothing, and indicates no number, and therefore is the index and mark of vanity and nothingness. But this is more narrow and frigid. Third, others, because, they say, the soul of Solomon (for Coheleth is feminine) had gathered together in itself all sciences, or rather God had gathered them together and poured them collected into one into Solomon's bosom. Or, as Nyssa says, because the Ecclesiastes gathers together all things that pertain to the proper administration of the Church, that is, by which one might properly and virtuously institute his life. Or, as David of Pomis, because he briefly touches upon and refutes all the opinions of philosophers concerning the highest good, in which happiness is situated (which Varro, book XIX, enumerates as two hundred). Or, as others, because he gathers together all the pleasures of all things which he experienced, and shows their vanity. Fourth, others better think that Solomon is called Ecclesiastes because from the confused multitude of men and tumultuous crowd he made an ordered, peaceful and pious church by preaching and persuading it to abandon vain hopes and things and to love and worship the true God. Thus St. Gregory, IV Dialogues, chapter IV: "This book," he says, "is called a preacher. In a sermon, however, a judgment is proposed, by which the judgment of a tumultuous crowd is restrained. But a true preacher, as it were with an outstretched hand, calms the tumult of all, and recalls them to one judgment, when at the end of the same book he says: Let us all hear the conclusion of the discourse: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is all man." Wherefore Solomon here represents Christ, who as the true Ecclesiastes formed, instituted, and taught the holy Church both by word and by example. Thus Nyssa and Olympiodorus: "Ecclesiastes," he says, "was called, as one calling all mortals into the assembly of the Church, and binding them together in harmony." Fifth and genuinely, Solomon is called Coheleth and Ecclesiastes, that is, gatherer and preacher, because, convening the assembly of the people, he preached to them concerning the vanity of worldly things, and concerning the truth of virtue and the fear of God. Thus St. Athanasius in the Synopsis, Salonius, St. Gregory, book IV of the Dialogues, chapter IV, Bonaventure and others; and because, committing that same sermon to writing, he transmitted it to the universal Church of all ages. For every church and commonwealth in every age and time has had its assemblies, its gatherings of the people, its sermons, in which princes, senators or orators spoke concerning those matters which pertained to the commonwealth or to the causes and disputes of certain citizens. Thus the Greeks did; the Athenians under Solon, who permitted all things established by him to be subject to the judgment of the assembly; the Spartans under Lycurgus; the Romans under Romulus, and more so under the Consuls; the Hebrews under Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon and others. Moreover, the chair from which Solomon preached was the royal throne, which he himself constructed for this purpose, III Kings vii, 7: "And he made also a porch for the throne, wherein was the seat of judgment, and he covered it with cedar wood from the floor to the ceiling." A similar sermon of Solomon to the people at the dedication of the temple built by him is recorded in III Kings viii, 14. Hear St. Athanasius: "Ecclesiastes," he says, "was called because he himself preached to the people, and spoke the things that are of the Spirit;" and, as the Wonderworker says, "because with these words he addresses the entire Church of God." Thus Moses, the lawgiver and leader of Israel, frequently preached to the people, when he promulgated and impressed upon them the law of God, as is evident from Exodus chapter xx and following. Indeed, Deuteronomy is nothing other than a fervent and sustained sermon, by which Moses, about to die, exhorts Israel to the study of the law and the worship of God. A similar sermon on the same matter to the people was delivered by Joshua, the successor of Moses, now about to die, in the last chapter; and Job, chapter xxix; Samuel, I Kings xii, 7; Matthathias, I Maccabees ii, 49; and David, Psalm xlviii, 2: "Hear these things, all ye nations: give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, etc. My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding." A similar sermon of David is Psalm lxxvii, 1. Thus also did Hezekiah, sending heralds throughout all Israel, that they might turn him to the worship of God and the solemn Passover, II Paralipomenon xxx; indeed the king himself preached to the priests and Levites themselves, exhorting them to the purification of the temple and zeal for the law, II Paralipomenon xxix, 5. Josiah the king imitated his grandfather Hezekiah in his zeal and sermon, IV Kings xxiii, 1, and II Paralipomenon xxxiv, 31: "Standing," he says, "in his tribunal, he made a covenant between Israel and God. A similar exhortation to the Fathers of the Council of Nicaea was delivered by Constantine the Great, as Eusebius relates in his Life; and Theodosius by letters to the Fathers of the Council of Ephesus; Charles the Great to the Saxons, etc.; and within the memory of our ancestors Jagello, king of Poland, who by great zeal in preaching and by inviting with rewards converted the Lithuanians from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ in the year of the Lord 1387; from which time thereafter the kings of Poland descended, and namely the modern Sigismund III, heir of his ancestral kingdom and equally of piety, is called Jagiellonian. Thus Cromerus, book XV. Such therefore was Ecclesiastes, King Solomon: for his fame for wisdom being aroused, nations and princes flocked together eagerly to him teaching from the whole world, and among them the queen of Sheba, III Kings iv. Therefore he preaches not to the Jews alone, but to the whole church, that is, to the assembly or congregation gathered from all mortals, and teaches wherein true wisdom consists, namely in the contempt of vain things and in the study of truth and the true worship of God, that he may draw them away from the love of transitory things and transfer them to the desire of eternal things. Wherefore, as Titelmannus notes, Solomon here diligently performs the duties of a true preacher, while immediately from the beginning he proposes the theme: "Vanity of vanities," etc., repeating and impressing the same thing subsequently in the progress of the discourse, and weaving the whole sermon around it; and although (as an experienced preacher does) he sometimes digresses to other matters, he nevertheless returns to the same, carefully and in detail demonstrating the truth of the first proposition, which he so fully proves that he places the conclusion at the very end and close. Furthermore, he refutes the false things which obstruct the proposed argument, confirms the truth, condemns vices, praises virtues, preaches, finally insists opportunely and inopportunely, reproves, beseeches, rebukes, as Paul beseeches Timothy, the Ephesian Ecclesiastes, to do, II Timothy iv, 2. You ask secondly, why Solomon is called in Hebrew Coheleth in the feminine? For Coheleth is Benoni, that is an active participle feminine in the Qal conjugation, signifying a female gatherer or a female preacher. Some Novations answer, such as Avenarius and Forsterus in the Hebrew Lexicon, that Coheleth is called not Solomon, but the Church or the Synagogue; for that one is introduced here preaching by Solomon. But they err: for that Coheleth is the name not of the Church, but of Solomon, is evident from what follows: "The son of David, king of Jerusalem;" whence the Chaldean clearly translates, the words of Coheleth, he himself is Solomon. Thus St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, St. Jerome, Nyssenus, Olympiodorus and all the others. I say therefore first, that Coheleth is a masculine name, not feminine. It is evident first, because it is the name of Solomon, who is a man, not a woman; secondly, because throughout this whole book masculine words and epithets are attributed to Coheleth, not feminine, except in one place cap. vii, 29: which place some suspect to be corrupted. Hence it follows that Coheleth is not in this place Benoni, that is a feminine participle in Qal, but is Toar, that is a masculine verbal noun; just as among the Latins these words: doctus, eruditus, auditus, visus, are often not participles, but nouns. Thus Marinus, Mercerus and others judge in the Lexicons, and they confirm it from the fact that the Hebrew קהל Cahal is not used in Qal, but in Niphal and Piel. Coheleth therefore cannot be Benoni Qal: it must therefore be a noun. Indeed some have suspected that Coheleth is said as it were קהל עת Cohel et, that is a collector or measurer of time, because Solomon measures, counts and estimates in this book both his own and others' ages, and temporal goods and pleasures, saying all things are vain. Or as it were קהל תלמוד Cohel Talmud, that is a collector of doctrine, and the final letter Tau stands for Talmud, as the Hebrews in abbreviations by one initial letter signify the whole word. I say secondly: The name Coheleth, although it is masculine, nevertheless has the points, form and termination feminine, namely Benoni, or of a feminine participle in Qal. Thus all those skilled in Hebrew judge. Moreover the cause of this matter is variously given by various ones. First, many give this reason, that the Hebrews often interchange a feminine name with a masculine, and conversely a masculine with a feminine termination, when they wish to denote the excellence and beauty of a thing, such as is this sermon of Solomon, which is therefore called Coheleth, as if to say a female preacher, on account of the elegance of the discourse. For the Hebrews are accustomed to attribute the feminine gender to things of exceptional beauty, because the image and follower of beauty, and its greatest allurement, is woman. A female preacher therefore is the same as a beautiful and excellent preacher. For women are accustomed to be eloquent, gracious, elegant, pathetic, effective in speaking, and therefore they persuade men of whatever they wish. Thus Ps. lxvii, 12: "The Lord will give the word to those evangelizing," in Hebrew it is hammebasseroth, that is to female evangelizers feminine, by which he signifies the most excellent preachers to be constituted by God. And Haggai i, 13: "The messenger of the Lord among the messengers of the Lord", in Hebrew it is bemalachet, that is among the female messengers of the Lord. See the things said there, and Ribera there. Thus Exodus xxii, 18: "Thou shalt not suffer witches (in Hebrew it is mecaphsephoth, that is, female witches feminine) to live." Similar things are in II Kings xiii, 39, in the Hebrew, and elsewhere. Others give a second reason, that wisdom here is as it were a female preacher, and through the mouth of Solomon preaches, so that the force and energy of the sermon might be signified, as if its soul and form were wisdom itself. For this was here as it were the soul of the most wise Solomon. In a similar way Solomon, Proverbs cap. ix, 1, and cap. viii, 1 and seq., and Ecclesiasticus, cap. xxiv, 1 and seq., introduces wisdom itself speaking and preaching for greater weight of the sermon. Others give a third reason, that Solomon was Coheleth, that is a man, but ending in a woman; when he bent his manly strength, which he shows here, to the love of women, and became effeminate and as it were a woman. For the Holy Spirit foresaw that this would happen, and therefore gave him the name Coheleth. Thus Isaiah calls the womanish princes of Israel women, cap. iii, 12: "Women, he says, have ruled over them;" and Nahum cap. iii, 13: "Behold thy people, women in the midst of thee." Thus Homer, Iliad. II: "O melons, he says, evil reproaches of the Achaeans, no longer Achaeans." Homer followed in his custom by Virgil, IX Aeneid.: "O truly Phrygian, he says, and not indeed Phrygians." A fourth reason some give is that Solomon learned this from his mother Bathsheba. For she indeed taught him as a boy to flee the belly and Venus as vanities, as is evident from that passage in Proverbs xxxi, 1: "The word which his mother taught him, etc. Give not thy substance to women, and thy riches to destroy kings. Give not, O Lemuel, give not wine to kings," etc. Sons of David, king of Jerusalem. — The Greeks have, king of Israel in Jerusalem; but wrongly, says St. Jerome. St. Jerome notes that the three books of Solomon, namely Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, lead man gradually to perfection: the first is indeed for beginners; the second, for those making progress; the third, for the perfect. "The title of the first book," says St. Jerome, "calls Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; of the second, son of David, king of Jerusalem. In the third he is not called king or son of David, because many are rude, fewer are metropolitans, rare are those who desire only heavenly things; on account of the first and second, paternal dignity and the authority of his own kingdom are indicated: to the perfect, because the disciple is not instructed by fear, but the son by love, his own name suffices, and the master is equal, and he does not know himself to be king; for which reason also it has been observed that no name of God is expressed in the whole book of the Song of Songs from those which can inspire fear, but all names are of love." St. Ambrose, in the Preface to Luke, and in the book On Isaac cap. iv, whom Hugo of St. Victor follows, adapts this threefold state and degree to three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The first was obedient; the second dug wells; the third saw the ladder, upon which God leaned, and through it ascending and descending angels, Genesis xxviii, 12. Others accommodate the same to the three parts of the ancient tabernacle and temple, namely the court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. For beginners are in the court of paradise, those making progress in the Holy Place, that is in the entrance of the same, the perfect are as it were in heaven itself empyrean. The Chaldeans and some others think that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes after the schism of the ten tribes which Jeroboam made, constituting himself their king, and therefore Solomon calls himself here king of Jerusalem, that is of two tribes, not of Israel; but they err. For this schism happened after the death of Solomon, under his son Rehoboam. He calls himself therefore king of Jerusalem, first, because that was the metropolis of the twelve tribes, and consequently the head of the whole kingdom. Thus Nebuchadnezzar is called by Jeremiah king of Babylon, that is of the Chaldean monarchy, whose head was Babylon. And Sardanapalus is called king of Nineveh, that is of the Assyrians, whose metropolis was Nineveh. Second, because in Jerusalem was an academy, and the study of wisdom flourished, which Solomon here teaches. Third, because in the same was the royal court, in which luxury, avarice, envy, pride, and all the vanity of vices and desires are wont to reign, from which Solomon here turns away his citizens and courtiers. Concerning the etymology and splendor of Jerusalem I have spoken at Hebrews vii, 1; Genesis xiv, 18, and elsewhere. See also Josephus and Adrichomius in the description of Jerusalem. Mystically, Ecclesiastes is Christ, who persuading his elect to contempt of the vanity of the world, and to love of heaven, is king of the Hierosolymites, that is of those seeing and contemplating God, and therefore enjoying peace. For Jerusalem in Hebrew is the same as vision of peace.
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St. Augustine, in the book On the Quantity of the Soul, chapter 33, and in On True Religion, chapters 21 and 33, and elsewhere reads: vanity of vanities, that is, serving vanity and grasping at vain things. For these are those who practice vanity and have become vain, just as the things they have loved; or those who practice vanity, that is, those who deceive and beguile with false appearance. "Vanity," says St. Augustine, "is deception, and those who practice vanity are false or deceivers." Yet the same St. Augustine, in book I of the Retractations, chapter 7, says that, although this interpretation is true, the reading is nevertheless faulty, since according to the Greek it should be read: Vanity of vanities. The Chaldean: vanity of vanities this world: vanity of vanities all that I have labored for, all is vanity. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion and the other interpreters, says St. Jerome, translate: ἀτμὸς ἀτμῶν, that is, vapor of vapors, and all vapor; the Syriac: emptiness of emptinesses, and every thing emptiness; the Arabic: vanity of vanities, the totality of things vain. Others: nothingness of nothings, and all nothing. So also Nyssenus. Gregory Thaumaturgus translates it metaphorically: how empty and worthless are all the pursuits and undertakings of men! An anonymous author: all things idle, vile, erroneous, false. "Truly sublime," says St. Chrysostom, in the sermon Against Concubinage, "and a voice worthy of the heavens, which Solomon, having returned to himself, and being able to look back as it were from some shadowy abyss to the light of true wisdom, finally uttered." The same, in the Exhortation to Eutropius: "This verse," he says, "if those who hold power were wise, they would write it on all walls and on their garments, in the forum, in the home, at the entrances; since indeed there are many appearances of things, many false images that deceive the unwary, this ought to be sung daily as a saving song, and at meals and at dinners, and in assembly each one to his neighbor, and from his neighbor willingly heard: Because vanity of vanities is, and all is vanity." Grammatically and etymologically, vanity is emptiness, inanity, lightness, from which a thing is said to be evanescent, since it quickly perishes and vanishes. Hear Nonius Marcellus, book IV: "Vain," he says, "is light, empty. Virgil, Georgics, book I: But that expected harvest deceived them with vain ears. Vain is false. Virgil, Aeneid, I: Unless in vain the augury of vain parents taught me. Sallust, in the Jugurthine War: The Moors a vain race. Marcus Tullius, On Duties, book I: For they accomplish nothing unless they lie exceedingly, and truly there is nothing more shameful than vanity. The same, Tusculan Disputations, book III: Then we are imbued with such various errors, that to vanity truth yields and to confirmed opinion nature itself yields. Vain, insidious, treacherous. Virgil, Aeneid, book II: Nor if fortune made me wretched Sinon, will the wicked make me vain and also a liar. Vain, obscure. Virgil, Aeneid, IV: And far into thin air it vanished from the eyes. Marcus Tullius, On the Republic, book IV: So that our age, having received the republic like an excellent painting, but already fading with age." Donatus and Aruntius indeed distinguish these three things thus, false, vain and fictitious: "False," they say, "is that by which is concealed what has been done; vain, what cannot be done; fictitious, what has not been done and could have been done. False is a fictitious lie similar to truth; vain neither possible nor probable; fictitious entirely without truth, but probable. To speak falsely is the mark of a liar, to feign is the mark of the cunning, to speak vanity is the mark of the foolish. To speak falsely is a fault, to feign is a virtue, to speak vanity is madness. We are deceived by falsehoods, we are delighted by fictions, we despise vanities." "Vain," says Servius, "is said as if empty, as if winnowed with a fan." Ovid, III Amores: Ceres vanishes into barren grass. "Hence vain is called foolish, as if empty of mind, one who places his study in empty things. Vain also is called one who lies and is unfaithful, who craftily composes light and empty things for grave and true ones." Vain therefore is one who speaks vanity, speaks vainly, is light, is false. Hence vanity is called lightness, falsehood, deception. To vanity is opposed truth, faithfulness, constancy. Whence Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods: "Therefore," he says, "there is in heaven neither fortune, nor rashness, nor wandering, nor vanity, but on the contrary all order, truth, reason, constancy." And book II On the Laws: "A stain on the soul neither vanishes with length of time (that is, disappears, is abolished), nor can be washed away by any hands." And to Herennius, book II: "That reasoning is vain which consists of a false cause." Vanity therefore signifies many things: for vanity first is emptiness; secondly, brevity; thirdly, mutability; fourthly, destruction; fifthly, falsehood; sixthly, fraud and deceit: which all are fitting to this place. Whence in like manner you may translate, emptiness of emptinesses, and all emptiness; brevity of brevities, and all brevity; mutability of mutabilities, and all mutability, and so of the rest, as if to say, All things which exist in the world, especially in the sublunary realm, are supremely empty, brief, mutable, corruptible, false and deceptive. On the other hand, above the moon in heaven with God all things are solid, lasting, immutable, incorruptible, true and faithful. For the vanity of earthly things is opposed to the truth of heavenly things, in that in those there is emptiness, in these solidity; in those brevity, in these eternity; in those mutability, in these immutability; in those destruction, in these constancy and constant existence; in those falsehood, in these truth; in those deceit, in these faithfulness. O first and supreme truth, and true solidity, solid charity, dear eternity! My God and my all, grant that no vanity may move us, nor vain emptiness, nor empty carnality, nor carnal transience, but that your truth and true happiness may wholly draw us to itself. Furthermore the Hebrews use abstract nouns for concrete ones to signify the excellence of a thing. Thus the "Holy of Holies" is called by them "Holiness of Holinesses," that is, supremely and most eminently holy and venerable. Thus God says to Abraham, Genesis xii, 2: "And thou shalt be blessed;" in Hebrew, thou shalt be a blessing, that is, abounding in all blessing, so that you may be called not so much blessed as blessing itself. Psalm cx, 3: "Confession and magnificence are his work," that is, God's work is so magnificent that it may be called magnificence itself; and therefore so praiseworthy that it may be called confession itself, that is, praise. Thus in I Corinthians i, 30, it is said of Christ: "Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption," that is, he is made our supreme and most wise justifier, sanctifier, redeemer. Thus therefore any creature whatsoever is said to be "vanity of vanities," that is, most vain, and this for a threefold reason: The first is, because in respect to God the creator, who is an ocean of being and all perfection, every creature is as it were a non-being and nothing, according to that: "My substance is as nothing before thee," Psalm xxxviii, 6; and: "All nations are as nothing, and empty before him," Isaiah xl, 17; and: "The moon shineth not, and the stars are not clean in his sight," Job xxv, 5. The second, because no created thing can make man blessed, or satisfy his desire, which is immense. For true satisfaction and happiness is situated in God alone, as being infinite in every way. If you seek it elsewhere, you seek it vainly and in vain. The third, because man by his folly abuses created things for vanities, namely that he may fulfill his vain desires with them, by which he brings upon himself present and eternal destruction. This the Wise Man clearly shows, speaking of idols, Wisdom xiv, 11: "The creatures of God (which were created good by God the good) have become hateful (by the vice of men, who gape after them as gods), and a temptation to the feet of the unwise (who stumble in their abuse, excessive love and worship): for the beginning of fornication is the devising of idols: and the invention of them is the corruption of life. For this vanity hath been the invention of men." The Greeks in the Septuagint translate: Ματαιότης ματαιοτήτων, τὰ πάντα ματαιότης, that is, vanity or emptiness of emptinesses, and all emptiness; for ματαιότης is derived from μάτην, that is, in vain, emptily, to no purpose, in vain, beside the point, without fruit, futilely, and therefore foolishly; whence from μάτην they derive the Italian matto, that is, foolish. The sense is, as if to say, vain men, as if empty of brain and foolish, pursue vain riches, honors, pleasures in vain and without fruit, because they often do not obtain them; and even if they obtain them, they cannot long rejoice in them, nor satisfy themselves with them; nay, those things do not conduct man to his end, to which he was created and ordained by God, namely to eternal happiness, but often lead him away, and conduct him to hell. For he is foolish who occupies himself with futile things, who labors in vain, and squanders his labors, nay, through his labors loses and damns himself, when he could easily have saved and blessed himself with the same if he had spent them on God: "Vanity, or emptiness," says Nyssenus, "is either a word which does not fall under thought and understanding; or useless things; or counsel which cannot stand; or study which does not reach its end;" or, to sum it up, that which in any useful thing cannot endure. Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translate, ἄτμος ἀτμῶν, τὰ πάντα ἄτμος, that is, vapor of vapors, all things vapor; for ἀτμός, says St. Jerome, signifies the vapor of smoke and a thin breeze, which is quickly dispersed. Vapor is a hot and moist exhalation drawn by the force of the sun from water, or from watery matter, as Aristotle teaches in the first book of the Meteorology. Again, vapor is the material cause of all those things which are generated on high or below, says Albertus Magnus in his work On the Passion of Air; hence all things, equally as vapor, evaporate and vanish. Whence that funeral song of our Justus Lipsius, which he himself composed while living, and dying ordered to be inscribed upon his tomb as it were an epitaph of his wisdom and eloquence: Do you wish to speak with me in love and voice? All human things are smoke, shadow, vanity, And the image of a stage, to conclude in a word, nothing. In Hebrew, for vanity of vanities, and all things vanity, it is: הבל הבלים הכל הבל habel habalim haccol habel. Vanity is called הבל hebel, or habel from the root habal, that is, it was vain, it became worthless, it vanished. Whence הבל hebel, says Pagninus, is a thing which is nothing, or which quickly ceases, as vapor, or a breath which goes forth from the mouth. Habal has kinship with אבל abal, that is, he mourned, I mourn: for we mourn things that vanish, namely men, when they die; and with בהל bahal, that is, he was terrified: for death is to those who love the vanity of life the most terrible of all terrible things, says the Philosopher; and with בלה bala, that is, it grew old, corrupted and consumed by age, according to that passage of Ovid in the fifteenth book of the Metamorphoses: Time, devourer of things, and you envious old age, You destroy all things, and corrupted by the teeth of time, Gradually in slow death you consume all things. For time quickly brings old age, antiquity, death and destruction to all things; and with נבל nabal, that is, it fell, it withered, it faded. For just as a rose in the morning blooming with rosy color and fragrance, in the evening withers; so youth and its beauty perish in death, or old age, wither, vanish. For all these things tend toward vanity and nothingness. From the Hebrew habel, that is, vanity, some by aphaeresis derive the Latin word bulla, than which nothing is more vain, as can be seen when children from soap and water through a tube, by blowing it with their breath (which habel signifies), produce it; for this, rising into the air, immediately becomes thin and vanishes into air. Whence that saying: Man is a bubble. From habal also they derive the Greek φαυλίζω, that is, I despise; and φαυλίζομαι, that is, I am worthless, I become vile; and φαῦλος, that is, vile, vain, contemptible, a man of nothing. Hebel therefore and habel in Hebrew is the same as vanity, nothingness, breath, a thing of nothing and of no moment, says Nyssenus. Whence a certain ancient version of the Spanish Hebrews, according to the testimony of Pineda, read thus, nothing of nothing, said Cohelet; nothing and nothing, all is nothing. Hence Abel in Hebrew is called Habel, that is, vanity, because slain by Cain he quickly perished and vanished, and therefore was the first and living mirror of the vanity and brevity of human life; because "in the image (like a shadow) man passes away." And: "All vanity is every living man," Psalm 38:6, which Hugo thus explains, as if to say, In man exists a threefold and complete vanity, namely "the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life:" which he himself sets forth at length. On the nature of vapor hear St. Gregory of Nyssa discoursing in the Hexaemeron, or in the history of the six days, somewhat at length before the end: "Since therefore the condensation and conglomeration of vapor is a cloud, and vapor is a thin exhalation and evaporation of moisture, it is altogether necessary that when the cloud is burned by heat, that thin and indivisible body of vapor, even if it does not retain the moist quality, nevertheless, as far as the subject itself is concerned, does not pass into destruction and abolition, reduced to nothing. For four things are considered concerning vapor, moisture, cold, weight, quantity. Of these, whatever things are contrary to fire are overcome by the force of the prevailing element and removed from the midst. For neither moisture, nor cold, if it be in fire, remains such." To this version of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion St. James looked in his Epistle, chapter 4, verse 15, saying: "For what is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little while, and then shall be made to vanish away." See the remarks there. Hence also Psalm 77:33, as we have it: "Their days were consumed in vanity," the Chaldean translator rendered, the days of your life are consumed as the vapor of the mouth in winter. Therefore just as smoke and vapor, the higher it ascends, the thinner it becomes, and the more quickly it vanishes: so man, the higher he is raised to greater honors and more years of life, the more quickly he departs and dies. This maxim therefore signifies that there is nothing solid under heaven, nothing stable, nothing durable; but all things are empty, inconstant, subject to perpetual change, brief, perishable, circulating, going and coming in a circle. Wherefore they are similar to the cipher 0, says Arias Montanus, which if separated from a solid number, effects nothing, nor is it a number, but an empty and thin circle: for thus all things under heaven, viewed in themselves nakedly, are empty, and small, nay of no value and worth. Again, the more you multiply the cipher alone, the more empty things you heap up in emptiness; for what do 000000 effect or signify? Surely nothing. Thus likewise the more riches, honours, and other vain things you heap up, the more empty and vainer you become, and the more swollen with the wind of vain pride and arrogance. But just as the cipher, when a solid number is added to it, increases it, for example if you prefix the cipher 0 to 2, you make twenty; if to 3, thirty; if to 6, sixty; if to 9, ninety: thus likewise if vanity adheres to and is joined with truth, that is if man joins himself to God, and heaps up and expends in himself vain riches for his honour, it will effect noble acts of charity, almsgiving and other virtues, by which he will procure honour to God, life to his neighbour, eternal salvation to himself. Finally, just as ciphers placed in order, the more remote they are in place and position from a solid number, the more they increase it tenfold; hence 0 added to 2 increases it tenfold: for 20 makes twenty, which is tenfold of two; if then you attach a second 0 to twenty, you will increase it tenfold: for 200 makes two hundred, which is tenfold of twenty; if further you subjoin a third 0, you will increase two hundred tenfold: for 2000 makes two thousand, which is tenfold of two hundred. Moreover if you attach a fourth cipher 0 to the three preceding, you will increase two thousand tenfold: for 20000 makes twenty thousand, which is tenfold of two thousand; if you add a fifth cipher 0 in order following, you will make two hundred thousand, which is tenfold of twenty thousand, and thus consequently. Thus likewise the more works of temperance, patience, fortitude, and especially of humility and charity you weave into your life in itself vain, the more you increase your merits and crown with greater increments of grace and glory; and especially the more you remove yourself from the solid number, that is from God, through frequent and more humble acts of humility, and descend more deeply into the abyss of your own worthlessness, the more you increase the value and worth of your works and virtues and those of yours with greater, and as it were tenfold gains before God, and accumulate day by day far more august treasures than your former merits. Whence Arias Montanus thinks Ecclesiastes is called in Hebrew coheleth, that is collector, because arithmetically he enumerates the vanities of individual things, the cipher 0 being added, namely by this lemma: Vanity of vanities. "Where do you think," says Hugh of St. Victor, "was the mind of this man when he said these things? He was a man, but he was above man in unusual brightness (of divine light), etc. Into this therefore, his mind rapt above all perishable and transitory things, he saw that there was nothing of all things that remains, and as if terrified by a stupor of this new and unusual vision, he exclaimed: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. For he was beholding the universe, and the whole subject to vanity, and its vanity the vanity of all vanities, that is containing all vanity in itself, as it were the genus of all genera (because it contains in itself all genera of things), he called it. For all is vanity, and from all the universe, and the whole is vanity." Attend therefore, O sons of Adam, hear Solomon, and Solomon's parent King David thundering: "O ye sons of men, why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?" Psalm iv. Why do you love and seek after earthly riches, honours and delights, which are vain and false, nay the very vanity and falsehood itself? for immediately they vanish away, and thrust their lovers into the eternal fires of hell. Why do you not seek after heavenly riches and honours, which endure for ever, and will make you blessed with perpetual felicity? why do you serve a vain and deceitful world? what is this madness? why do you not serve the true God and faithful in his promises! For the world is vanity of vanities, and all is vanity; God is truth of truths, and all is truth. The a priori reason is that God alone is being itself by essence, that is, an immense, most solid, eternal, independent, immutable, most perfect ocean of essence in every degree and species of being. But all other things created by God, and especially sublunary things, have being participated from Him, diminished, dependent, unstable, temporal, perishable, shadowy, mutable, miserable, erring, imperfect. In God alone, therefore, is the truth of being; in creatures, however, only a shadow and vanity of being. Whence God says, Exodus iii, 14: "I am who am," or "I am Jehovah." See what I said there at length on this matter; where I showed that just as God's name is being, or who is, so the creature's name is non-being, I am not. Wherefore St. Athanasius in the Synopsis of Sacred Scripture asserts that "this book instructs anyone in piety, and transcends all things, and exhorts us to preserve the memory of eternal things, so that we may know that someday this present world will come to an end." And he adds that in this book "the vain and erring philosophy of the Egyptians is refuted. It appears, therefore," he says, "that in this book one philosophizes naturally about theory, etc. It also overthrows the religion of the Egyptians concerning divination from a man's birth, saying: He that observes the wind shall not sow." Heretics objected at the beginning to Ecclesiastes being cited, that it seems here to accuse and condemn all creatures as vain, when nevertheless they were created by the true and good God as true and good. Whence the Manichees took occasion to say that corporeal creatures are vain and evil, and were created by an evil god. I respond first, plainly and genuinely, that creatures in themselves are indeed true and good; but if they are compared with God the creator, they are vain and shadowy. For they are surpassed by God by infinite degrees; just as the sun surpasses its shadow immensely. Whence the Nyssenus: "Hither," he says, "tends the voice of Ecclesiastes, that one ought not to look upon this sensible life, which if it be compared with that which truly is life, is not, but is vanity;" and he explains this by the example of a reed immersed in water, which when it appears broken, there is no perversity of the reed, but either a deception of judgment, or of sight of one thinking it broken: so indeed there is no vanity or perversity of the visible thing, that it shines in appearance, but of the carnal and depraved soul, which enslaves itself entirely to it, and uses and abuses it against God's law and will. Vatable adds: "One sentence," he says, "condemns all the opinions of all who place happiness elsewhere than in God." And soon after: "Here the creatures of God are not condemned, but the depraved affection and cupidity of men, who are not content with these present creatures of God, and their use, but are always anxious and solicitous to accumulate riches, honors, glory, fame, as if we were to live here perpetually, meanwhile despising those things which are present, and always desiring others from others. For this is the sum of vanity and misery, to defraud ourselves of the use of present goods, and to be vainly afflicted about future things." St. Chrysostom responds secondly to that passage in Ephesians iv: "In the vanity of sense," homily 12, that it is not so much that creatures are vain, but that the vain studies of men are vain, which sweat over them more than is fitting, and do not refer them to their due end: "Which," he says, "were not made by God, but by our workmanship. Heaven is not vain, nor earth, nor sun, nor our body itself. Far be it, but what is vain? I planted myself vineyards, I made myself singers, I heaped together gold and silver," etc. But he adds elegantly: "He preserves the solid natures of things, and those constant in good; but he censures the arts and inventions of our depraved human nature, which corrupt and deprave not only our minds, but the creatures themselves." Thirdly, St. Athanasius responds in the Synopsis, that here creatures are not condemned, but the vanity and inconstancy of concupiscence concerning them, especially while men place their ultimate end in them, and all good and happiness, setting God aside: "Not," he says, "that he might accuse the creature, but that, contemplating eternal things, he might admonish of the vanity of temporal desires." Wherefore Olympiodorus thinks that not simply "vanity," but "vanity of vanities" is said, "so that he might clearly teach us that the pleasure of men, which is occupied with worldly things, is vanity." And the same in the Preface: "So that," he says, "he might reprove the counsels of men, who seem to have placed their hope in this world." But the Thaumaturgus in his paraphrase exclaims pathetically: "How vain and useless are all the business and studies of all men, which are undertaken in human affairs." This is what St. Augustine says, in the book On True Religion, chapter xxi: "If there were no vanities, there would be no one to be deceived by vanity; and yet something must exist which is deceived. Yet God's things are not vain, nor is the whole universe; how then is there vanity? Because there is form, because there is appearance, because there is something beautiful. How is it vanity? Because it falls; because it fails; because it slips away; because it tends toward nothingness. Therefore it is not vanity on account of form, but on account of defect." Let these things concerning this saying have been said summarily; now let us bring each of its words to the balance, and weigh and examine them more carefully. Vanity of vanities. — Cajetan translates it, vanity, vanities: "For Solomon, he says, distinguishes by introducing now some vanity, now many vanities together; but nowhere does he introduce some single excessive vanity, which he would call vanity of vanities," that is to say, In all things there is vanity, indeed not one vanity, but many vanities converge in it. But truly far better Our author, the Septuagint, the Chaldean, the Syriac, the Arabic, and all the others translate it by the genitive construction, vanity of vanities, which first Gratian, On Penance, distinction 2, final chapter at the end, taking it through vanity to mean mutability, explains, that is to say, Vanity of mutability and of continuous changes is in all things; for all are in continuous motion, flux and change, never in state and rest. Hear Gratian: "Hence also, he says, Ecclesiastes: All things that are done under the sun, that is, which receive the vicissitude of times, are not only vanity, which by reason of mutability is inherent in every creature, but also vanity of vanities by the variety of permutation, which they are said to receive in being." This sense is fitting, but narrower; for besides mutability there are many other vanities in things. Secondly, others explain it, that is to say, This world is vanity of vanities, that is, the totality and collection of all vanities; for it is composed of the individual vanities of individual things. Thus Hugh of St. Victor, whom hear: "By as much as the Song of Songs is elevated above a song, as a song is above a word, and thereafter a word above silence; and by as much as the age of ages is above an age, as an age alone is above a moment, or likewise a moment above nothing: and by a similar progression made here in the contrary way, by so much is vanity of vanities worse than simple vanity, as vanity is from solid and permanent essence. Thus by repetition the meaning can be read: Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities and all vanity, so that in all things complete vanity is expressed, and from all a certain sum is made to be understood, which contains all vanity; so that as it were each single thing is vanity in itself, and the totality collected from all is vanity of vanities. Thus in the creation of things, when God completed his works, each work is said to be good in itself, and finally the totality, with all things perfected, is called very good." Thirdly and genuinely, when Solomon says: "Vanity of vanities," it is a Hebraism, signifying the preeminence and summit of vanity. For the Hebrews, when they wish to signify something excellent and supreme in some kind, they double it by the genitive construction, as when it is said: Song of Songs, that is, an excellent song, God of gods, King of kings, Lord of lords, Heaven of heavens, Sabbath of Sabbaths, Holy of holies, Age of ages, Virgin of virgins, Mystery of mysteries, or Sacrament of sacraments, in Greek among Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy chapter iii, teleta teleton, namely the Eucharist. It is said therefore: "Vanity of vanities," that is, the supreme, greatest, fullest, most vain vanity, namely this sublunary world, or all earthly things. Hear Nyssen here, homily 1: "It is said, he says, vanity of vanities, that is, surpassing in vanity; just as if someone should say: More dead than dead, and more inanimate than inanimate: thus also vanity of vanities shows an inseparable surpassing in vanity." Whence below he compares men pursuing vain things to children making houses in sand, which soon collapse as the sand crumbles: "This is, he says, human life: ambition is sand, power is sand, riches are sand, whatever is of those things in which we strive greatly through the flesh to enjoy, in which, as things that are least able to subsist, laboring in vain with childish souls, and in each of them enduring many labors, if only they leave the place of sand, which is transacted in the flesh, I say life, then they will recognize how vain a pursuit they have placed in this matter. For while life remains with material things, pleasure remains with them; but they bring with them nothing except conscience alone." Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 55 to the People of Antioch: "Vanity of vanities is not simply vanity, but vanity in the highest degree. Let us believe Solomon, I beseech you, and lay hold of things in which there is no vanity, where there is truth, where all things are firm and stable, where all things are built upon a rock, where there is no old age, nor change." The same Chrysostom in Psalm iv: "Who is so senseless as to seek names which are destitute of things? and to pursue empty things, which ought to be fled? Do not all things lie and deceive? Therefore Ecclesiastes said: All things are vanity." Ecclesiastes said. — Solomon speaks of himself as of a third person: first, in order to signify that the primary author of the book is the Holy Spirit; for which reason Balaam says of himself: "He said who heard the words of God," Num. xxiv, 4; and St. John, cap. xxi, 7, says of himself: "Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said." Second, he does this for the sake of modesty and humility, for which reason St. Paul says of himself as of another: "I know a man in Christ caught up into Paradise," II Cor. xii, 2. Third, in order that things so great, salutary and admirable, yet obvious, and which occur daily before the eyes, but are not noticed on account of men's stupor, he might show as if from a distance. Thus Hugo of St. Victor and Bonaventure. And all things are vanity. — In the Hebrew there is no "and," but it is understood by Our [translation], the Septuagint and others. The Hebrew texts therefore have thus: vanity of vanities, all things are vanity, or all is vanity, or every vanity, or the whole is vanity. First, one may genuinely understand this saying of the universe, or world, especially the sublunary, when you expound it with the Chaldean thus collectively, that is to say: This whole universe which I survey with my eyes, with all the aggregate of its things, is vanity of vanities, that is the supreme and extreme (as Vatablus translated it) vanity, and all things which exist in it are vanity, that is mere, naked, pure, entire vanity. For thus the force and nerve of the sentence does not diminish, but rather increases through "all things are vanity," both because "all things" signifies that no thing in the world is free from, but full of vanity: for who would except and say: The world indeed is vanity of vanities, that is full of various vanities; but not the individual things which are in it are vain; this meets and refutes that, saying: nay, the individual things and all which are in it are vanity; and because "vanity" is the same as mere, nay the very vanity itself, that is the most vain vanity. Whence from the Chaldean the Royal [translators] render it, altogether vanity. Second, this saying can be understood distributively, and adapted to individual things of the world, that is to say: Not only the whole world, but also individual parts, nay individual things of the world are vanity of vanities, that is most vain; and all things which are in them, that is all their accidents, gifts, forms, species and qualities, are mere vanity. Whence it could be thus translated from the Hebrew: vanity of vanities, all vanity; and thus expounded by metathesis, as if it said: All vanity, that is, every thing of the world is in itself vain, is vanity of vanities, that is, most full of vanities. Therefore, just as Xerxes from a lofty vantage point contemplating his army, which contained one hundred and seventy times a hundred thousand men, weeping said: "After a hundred years not one of all these will remain alive:" so Solomon from the high throne of his happiness, or rather of his wisdom, looking upon this sublunary world, and all things that are in it, seeing their vanity cries out, and proclaims to the whole world, indeed to all ages: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." O wretched and vain mortals! Why do you pursue vain things and waste away? Why do you vanish away with vanity by brooding over it? Do you not see, O man! do you not feel, do you not touch with your hand that all things are vain, fleeting, deceptive? What madness therefore to pursue them with such ardor, to cling to them with such affection, to lean upon them? when there is nothing in them solid, nothing great, nothing durable, which can make man blessed, or satisfy the immense capacity and desire of his soul. Even if all things are good, and consequently true, created by God who is good and true, yet in themselves and from themselves they are not good nor true, but evil and vain, because from themselves they are nothing, and therefore inclined to nothingness: for by continual decline they turn back, so that into their nothingness, from which they were drawn by God through creation, they return and slip back. From God therefore they have that they are good, that they are true: because they received all their being, all their essence and existence from God. This again is mixed with much vanity: and therefore Solomon in this maxim repeats vanity, triples it, indeed quintuples it: for he repeats the word vanity five times, so as to demonstrate the manifold and as it were innumerable vanity of creatures: because indeed they borrow from God a participated, diminished, limited, small and remote being, especially those which are sublunary and terrestrial, hence they have that which is subject to continual motion, agitation, alteration, defect, misery, destruction, and therefore vain and as it were shadowy, or nothing compared to God, who is full and complete entity, truth, stability, blessedness and perfection, and compared to the worship of God, happiness, and eternal things, which participate in God's truth and happiness. This is what the Apostle says, Rom. viii, 20: "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that made it subject, in hope: Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." Wherefore this proposition: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity," since it is general, is true in things and objects both joyful and evil and sorrowful. For these, equally as those, are vain, that is, exile and brief compared to God, compared to eternal joys and punishments. Solomon, however, pursues only the former in what follows; for having set forth this as the theme of the book as it were: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity," he then demonstrates it from the induction of individual things, namely from the vanity and circulation of winds, sun, rivers, and most fully of human things; and after individual instances he often repeats his theme, and presses home his conclusion: "Therefore vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." Sometimes, however, he passes over it in silence, and leaves it to be inferred by the reader. Thirdly, this maxim can be appropriated to man, for whom this whole world and all these vain things have been created, and who is himself a kind of small world; indeed the Chaldean, Cajetan and others restrict it to man alone, meaning: Man is vanity of vanities, that is, the totality of vanity; and all things which exist in man are mere and utter vanity. What then is man? He is a microcosm of vanities, he is an epitome and compendium of all vanities, which are scattered and distributed through other things. Solomon learned this, however, from his father David, who in Psalm 38:6, to which Solomon here alludes, says: "Behold Thou hast made my days measurable: and my substance is as nothing before Thee. But yet all things are vanity, every man living. Yet in an image (like a shadow and shadowy image) man passeth away." Man therefore is all vanity; if living, "much more when dead," says St. Jerome, because just as he comprehends in himself the essence of all things, so also their vanity: for he undergoes the injuries of corruptibility, like inanimate things; the necessity of nourishment, growth, and death with living things; the alternation of sensible affections and passible qualities with sentient beings; the alternation of thoughts, wills, pursuits, counsels with angels; but moreover the atrocity of sins, which are wicked and contrary to nature: to say nothing of diseases and afflictions, to which man is subject above all animals, as physicians teach, and writers of natural history, and those who lament the calamities of fallen man. Thus our Lorinus and others everywhere from St. Gregory, homily 29 in the Gospel: "Every creature," says St. Gregory, "has something in man. For he has common being with stones, life with trees, sensation with animals, understanding with angels. If therefore man has something in common with every creature, according to something every creature is man. Therefore the Gospel is preached to every creature, when it is preached to man alone." Hence from David and Solomon philosophers learned and taught the same thing. The following sentences of theirs are therefore antistrophes to Solomon: Persius: "O cares of men, how much emptiness is in things!" Aristotle, when asked what man was, is said to have defined him thus: "Man is an example of vanity, a spoil of time, a plaything of fortune, an image of inconstancy, a balance of envy and calamity, the rest moreover phlegm and bile;" another: "Man is a slave of death, a passing traveler." Sophocles in Ajax: "I see," he says, "that we are nothing else but phantoms, as many as we live, or a thin shadow." Theognis: "Rejoice, O my soul: soon there will be other men; but I shall be black earth." Pindar: σκιᾶς ὄναρ ἄνθρωπος, that is, man is a dream of a shadow. A certain philosopher, when asked what the world was, answered: "The world is a casket of sorrows, a school of vanity, a market of deceivers." Zeno the Emperor, hearing of the defeat of his men, fleeing exclaimed: "Man is a mockery of God." For as Plautus says: "The gods hold us men like balls." Pliny writes that Apelles painted Alexander the Great holding a thunderbolt in his hand, as if penetrating by his power from east to west; because like a thunderbolt he appeared everywhere at once victorious in glorious triumphs, and soon conquered by poison and death, he disappeared as if inglorious. Whence Juvenal concerning his tomb, Satire 10: One world suffices not the Pellaean youth; A sarcophagus will content him: death alone confesses How small are the bodies of men. Trismegistus: "Put off the garment (body) of corruption, the bond, the living death, the sentient corpse, the revolving sepulcher, the dark veil." Seneca, Consolation to Marcia, chapter xi: "What is man? A most weak and fragile body, naked, by its own nature unarmed, in need of another's help, and cast down to every insult of fortune." The same in Proverbs: "Man is lent life, not given it." The same, Preface to book I of Natural Questions: "This is the point," he says, "which is divided among so many nations by sword and fire. O how ridiculous are the boundaries of mortals!" Rather, how ridiculous are the minds of mortals that gape at a point! And soon after: "When you have lifted yourself up to those truly great things, as often as you see armies marching under their standards in order, and as if something great were being done, now a horseman exploring higher ground, now spread out from the flanks, you will be pleased to say: A dark column moves across the fields, this is the running about of ants, laboring in a narrow space. What difference is there between them and us, except the measure of a small body? That point is what you navigate, what you wage war in, what you arrange kingdoms in, even the smallest, when the Ocean meets them on both sides. Above are vast spaces, into whose possession the mind is admitted; but thus, if it brings with it the least thing from the body, if it wipes away all filth, and having escaped light and content with little, it emerges." And after some things: "There it begins to know God. What is God? The mind of the universe. What is God? All that you see, and all that you do not see. Thus at last his greatness is restored to him, than which nothing greater can be conceived. If he alone is all things, he holds his work both outside and within." This is his view in the manner of Plato. There is an Arab Proverb: "Man is the son of defect," that is, deficient and full of defects; of the Hebrews: "Every man is a liar," that is, vain, deficient, deceitful, erring, and inclined to lying, Psalm 115, 11. Finally, Democritus, whenever he went out from home into public, always laughed; Heraclitus truly always wept. When asked why, they answered that they laughed and wept at the vanity of the world, and the vain occupations, cares and pursuits of men. For to one all that we do seemed misery, to the other ineptitude. More piously and pathetically does St. Jerome exclaim in the epitaph of St. Paula: "O fragile and perishable nature of mortals! And unless the faith of Christ lifts us up to heaven, and eternity of soul is promised, with beasts and cattle the condition of bodies is the same, the same death for the just and the impious." And elsewhere: "Without Christ all that we live is vain." You will ask, what and how many vanities are there in the world and in all created things? It is answered that there are many and almost innumerable; but the more illustrious than the rest are twelve, contrary to as many truths and true goods existing in God and heaven, which when observed move to contempt of themselves and love of God. The first is smallness: namely that every creature and created pleasure is small; for every creature receives something small from God, and consequently a small good: for good itself follows being, and is properly a property of being. Therefore as much as something is being, so much is its good, not more, not less. Opposed to this is the immensity of God, and of all his goods, which flows from the immensity of divine essence. Despise therefore the small honor which men, who are as it were ants of the earth, offer you, and God will restore to you his honor, which is immense. Despise the small delights of the palate, which extend only to the space of the throat, which is scarcely the width of one finger, and enjoy God, who is a sea of delights. Despise the small riches of the earth, and possess the kingdom of heaven. To this pertains that the globe of earth and water (and all that is in it) is so small that, compared with the whole world, it has the same proportion that unity has to eleven thousand myriads and 623 myriads, as I taught on Baruch 3, 25. The second is baseness: namely that every created pleasure, especially human and carnal, is earthly, base and sordid; whereas the uncreated which is in God, is heavenly, sublime, angelic, divine. Do you love gold and silver? Do you know what you love? You love red and white earth, says St. Bernard. Do you love purple, fine linen and pearls? Do you know what you love? You love the excrement of fish, shells and worms. Do you love rich tables? Do you know what you love? You love the carcasses of pigs, calves, geese, partridges, etc. Do you love a girl? You love a stinking harlot, or a sack of dung. The third is insatiability: that every created pleasure tickles the soul, does not satisfy it, but irritates it, so that it desires others without end. It is therefore like dropsy, which the more it drinks, the more it increases thirst, according to that: The more waters are drunk, the more they are thirsted for. Divine pleasure truly satisfies the mind and fulfills all its desire; because the soul, created in the image of God, is capable of God: whence it cannot be satisfied by anything which is less than God, such as every creature is. Hear St. Augustine in the Confessions, book I, chapter 1: "Thou hast made us, O Lord, for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee." Wherefore Athanasius in the Synopsis: "By that which it says is vanity," he says, "it signifies the eternity of things to come," so that we may transfer our mind and soul from the former to the latter. The fourth is brevity: that all created pleasure is temporal, perishable, momentary, and immediately vanishes; divine pleasure, however, is perpetual and eternal, and endures as long as God endures, who is its object, author and cause. Whence in Psalm 77, verse 33, it is said: "Their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste;" in Hebrew, with fear; the Chaldean, with stupefaction at such haste and swiftness. Read chapter 5 of Wisdom, where the impious in hell, recognizing too late the brevity of their pleasures, lament that they hastened after those things which passed, nay flew away like a bird, like a ship, like a messenger running, like smoke, etc. The fifth is instability: that all created pleasure is flowing, and has no consistency, but consists in continual motion and flux. For "all things pass away like flowing water." They have therefore no constancy, except in perpetual agitation and inconstancy of themselves: they are therefore constant inconstancy: divine pleasure, however, consists in the same state always and uniformly, because God is constant, stable and immutable. Do you hunt for riches, delights, glory? you hunt for winds, you pursue a shadow, you build on sand. Hear the Apostle in I Corinthians 7, 29: "This therefore I say, brethren: The time is short: it remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had none: and they that weep, as though they wept not: and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not: and they that buy, as though they possessed not: for the fashion of this world passeth away." On which words Theophylactus: "He admonishes," he says, "calling it a fashion, that all things of this world touch only the eyes, and are food for the eyes, and a flowing surface, having nothing stable or subsisting." The sixth is falsity: that no created pleasure is sincere, pure, unmixed and clear, but is mixed with many troubles, pains and bitternesses. Do you prepare a banquet? how many days are you anxious to procure the food, to prepare it, to arrange it? and what then? Sorrow occupies the end of joy. In God there is pure and unmixed joy, honey without gall, wine without water. Wherefore all earthly things are full of deceit, because outwardly they display a remarkable appearance and pomp, but inwardly they are empty and vain. Wherefore those are vain and empty-headed who long for them; for they feel and silently say that which is in Hosea chapter 12, verse 8: "Yet I am become rich, I have found an idol for myself." For riches are the rich man's idol, that is, his god, but an empty and vain one. Hear the Nyssene: "Their vanity is said of those things which have no use, which are made with great effort and contention, with no purpose proposed, such as buildings made in a sandy field, such as shooting at the stars, hunting the winds, a runner contending against his own shadow, when someone strives to ascend the top of his shadow, and if we find anything of this sort in those things which are done rashly, all of which are indeed subjected to the word of vanity." Finally thus he concludes all things in a few words: "Vanity is a useless thing, or a plan which cannot subsist, or an effort which does not reach its end," etc. The seventh is insensibility: that all created pleasure does not pervade the soul, nor penetrate it, nay does not touch it in itself, but only affects the body and the senses, and through them touches the soul in passing: wherefore it is similar to the apples of Sodom, which as soon as they are touched, turn to dust and ashes; and to the tricks of magicians and witches, by which the demon sets forth a banquet in the appearance of sumptuous fare, but in reality false and vain; whence when it is finished, they hunger as much as before. Hear Solinus the Polyhistor in chapter forty-four, On the Apples of Sodom after its heavenly burning: "They shine in appearance," he says, "yet cannot be eaten; for a sooty, ashy smoke is held within by the ambition of the outer skin alone, which when pressed even lightly exhales smoke and crumbles into scattered dust." Such is all vain earthly pleasure; but divine pleasure occupies, pervades and fills the very soul itself: for God alone can enter into the soul, that is, into the mind and will. See Jerome Platus, On the Good of Religious Life, book III, chapter 1. "That is vain which neither confers fullness on the one who holds it, nor support on the one who leans upon it, nor fruit on the one who labors," says William of Paris, treatise On the Universe, chapter fifty-two. The eighth is infidelity: that every creature is unfaithful, and often does not deliver the hope which it promises: thus fields, vineyards, meadows often do not yield the fruits which they promise in the seed. But God is most faithful, He delivers His promises, indeed He exceeds them, giving more than He has promised. "Blessed therefore is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord: and who hath not had regard to vanities and lying follies," Psalm 39:5; for, as it is said in Psalm 101:4: "My days have failed like smoke." Where Cassiodorus elegantly comments: "We see smoke issuing from flame, but it is dispersed most thinly into the liquid air, nor does its substance remain, although it appears to have been generated from bodily fire. Deservedly therefore the days of sinners are compared to smoky masses, which men deceived by their dark and gloomy deeds have lost, which chiefly regards the pride of the world, which the more it is exalted, the more it vanishes." And Psalm 36:2, turning away from the happiness of the impious, he says it is like hay and herbs that suddenly wither: "For they shall speedily pass away like grass, and shall wither like the green herbs;" and verse 20, comparing the same to smoke: "The enemies of the Lord," he says, "as soon as they shall be honored and exalted, failing, shall fail like smoke." This similitude of smoke St. Augustine elegantly expounds: "Smoke," he says, "bursting forth from the place of fire is lifted on high, and by that very elevation bursting into a mass swells up. But the larger that mass becomes, the more empty it becomes: for from that magnitude not founded and solidified, but hanging and inflated, it disperses into the air and into the winds, so that you see that very magnitude has harmed it. The more it is raised up, the more extended, the more spread out on all sides into greater compass, the more thin and failing it becomes, and not apparent." But Augustine of Nebrissa translates from the Hebrew, as the precious things of rams shall be consumed like smoke. The Chaldean more clearly: as the glory of rams, he says, which are fattened with food, and their end is beheading: so the impious shall be confounded, and shall be consumed in the smoke of hell. The ninth is uncertainty: that all creature pleasure is uncertain. How uncertain are riches, which can be stolen by a thief, consumed by fire, swallowed by the sea! How uncertain are honors! as uncertain as men and the wills of men, on which they depend: since all created things are uncertain, they can provide no certainty to one who loves them. But divine pleasure is as certain as God is certain, to whom it clings, and from whom it flows into us. Let us pray therefore with the Psalmist: "Turn away my eyes that they may not behold vanity," Psalm 118:37, where the Chaldean translates, that they may not behold falsehood or lie. On which passage St. Hilary elegantly prays: "What eyes, and from what vanity does he pray they be turned away? He prays that the eyes of both soul and body be turned away, namely those which lie captive in theatrical shows; those which marvel at the price of garments; those which are occupied by the splendor of gold and the variety of gems." The tenth is deceit: for every creature separated from God, or loved against God, is wont to lie and deceive, according to what is said in Psalm 61:10: "The children of men are vain, liars in the balances: that they may deceive even of vanity into the same." The Hebrew texts have, the lie of the sons of a man; the Chaldean, nothing of the sons of men: the lie of the sons of a man, that is, of princes or the most fortunate of men; and not one only, but all together into the same, all human things are so vain that from vanity, that is, on account of vanity, they deceive, that is, show themselves more deceptive and more lying, as if to say: if in one pan of a balance you place all the sons of men, even the great and princes, who appear most fortunate, and in the other you place vanity, this pan of vanity shall outweigh that of princes, as if to say: All princes, all their happiness and glory is lighter, more vain and more empty than vanity itself. The eleventh is weakness: because every created pleasure is weak. Do you love a beautiful woman? behold, she is seized by disease, she fades, loses color, becomes ugly, putrid, foul. Do you love God? He is incorruptible, immortal, most healthy, and He makes His holy ones most healthy, perpetually vigorous, young and flourishing, according to that passage in Malachi iv, 2: "The sun of justice shall arise upon you that fear my name, and health in his wings." All the glory of the world therefore is like the down of children (namely the flower and down of thistles), which when it rises becomes gray, grows old (whence it is also called senecio), vanishes: at the least movement of air it departs into thin threads and flying flocks. The twelfth is ruin: for created pleasure is harmful and deadly, and leads to present and eternal sorrows; but divine pleasure is most useful and salutary, and leads to eternal joys. Therefore spurn created "pleasures, for pleasure bought with pain harms." Say with Demosthenes: "I do not buy repentance at such a price." "Delight in the Lord," because "his delights are at his right hand unto the end." See the words of Isaiah xxiv, 10, at those words: "The city of vanity is broken." See more things in Diego Stella and Pope Innocent III, in the book On Vanity and Contempt of the World, Hugh of St. Victor, Cardinal Hugh, Bonaventure, Dionysius the Carthusian, and Titelmann in this proverb of Solomon. Do you wish examples of the force of this sentence and of these vanities? Receive those set forth and pathetic ones. Let Gilimer, king of the Vandals, equal to Solomon of the Hebrews, first come forth into the theater of the vanity of the world, who, conquered by Belisarius, captured and led in triumph, concerning whom hear Procopius, book II of the Vandal War: "Now Gilimer himself was among the captives of the triumph, clothed with a certain purple garment on his shoulders, together with all his kinsmen and Vandals, because they excelled in the height of their bodies and beauty. But when Gilimer was placed in the hippodrome, and saw the Emperor seated on a high throne, and the people standing around, and finally considered what fate he had come to, he neither wept nor complained otherwise; he only recalled that saying from the Hebrew scriptures: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. Without delay, he himself and Belisarius, commanded by those who bore the imperial purple, worshipped Justinian as suppliants." But Belisarius himself also became a mirror and herald of the same vanity, when after so many and such great victories and triumphs, by command of the Empress Theodora laying violent hands on St. Sylverius the Pontiff, by just vengeance of the divine power he was reduced to such misery that, blinded and stripped of his goods, he was forced to beg alms, and to say: "Give an obol to Belisarius, whom virtue exalted, whom envy blinded;" as Baronius relates from Volaterran, Crinitus, Pontanus and others, tom. VII, in the year of Christ 561. Lotharius the Emperor, grandson of Charlemagne through his father Louis, who gave his name to Lotharingia, when it was previously called Austrasia, having administered the empire justly and piously for fifteen years, remembering the discourse which his father Louis had held when dying concerning the vanity of the world, which he himself also had come to know by experience, determined to abandon all human things, and to withdraw himself from those waves of empire into the harbor of religious quiet. For this reason, while the whole world marveled, he shut himself up in the monastery of Prüm, where he spent the remainder of his life in poverty and obedience, the kingdom having been previously divided among his three sons. This happened in the year of the Lord 855, and in the same year he exchanged his religious life for a pious death. He is found praised by Rabanus, in the book On the Soul, and by Angelomus, Preface to the Canticles. Thus from Regino, Baronius, in the year of the Lord 853, and Jerome Platus, book II On the Good of the Religious State, chapter xxvi. Fulgentius coming to Rome in the year of the Lord 500, when he saw the court of King Theodoric and the glory of the Roman curia, said: "How beautiful can the heavenly Jerusalem be, if thus shines the earthly Rome! And if in this age such great honor and dignity is given to those who love vanity, what honor and glory will be given to the saints contemplating truth?" Thus it is found in his Life in Surius, 1 January. To St. Benedict the vanity and worthlessness of the world, and truly the truth and majesty of God, were shown in this rapture by a scheme from God, as St. Gregory relates, lib. II of the Dialogues, cap. xxxvi: "At night," he says, "standing at a window and beseeching almighty God, suddenly at an unseasonable hour of the night, looking about, he saw a light poured forth from above which had put to flight all the darkness of the night, and to shine with such splendor that that light which had shone in the darkness surpassed the day. But a marvelous thing followed in this contemplation, because, as he himself afterwards related, the whole world as it were gathered under one ray of the sun was brought before his eyes. Which venerable Father, while he fixed the intent gaze of his eyes upon this splendor of gleaming light, saw the soul of Germanus Bishop of Capua being borne by angels in a sphere of fire to heaven." And St. Gregory adds the cause and manner of this vision, saying: "Because to a soul seeing God all creation is narrow. For however little of the light of the Creator she may have beheld, all that is created becomes brief to her; because by that very light of vision the bosom of the inner mind is loosened, and expands so much in God, that it becomes superior to the world: and the soul itself of the one seeing becomes even above itself. And when in the light of God it is rapt above itself, it is enlarged in its inmost parts; and while it beholds beneath itself, exalted it comprehends how brief is that which humbled it could not comprehend." Thus St. Francis, rapt in mind in prayer to God, and suspended in body in the air, was saying: "Who am I, Lord, who are you? I am an abyss of vanity, ignorance, malice and nothingness; you are an abyss of truth, wisdom, goodness and of all things. God therefore my God and all things." Therefore as vanity is to truth, a ray to the sun, a drop to the sea, vapor to the earth, a shadow to a body, a point to the whole universe: so the world is to God. What therefore are you, O man, to God, you who are not the thousandth part, nor many millions of times the thousandth part and portion of this world and universe? says St. Chrysostom. St. Salvius the Bishop, having finished his life and been rapt to heaven, when he had contemplated the joys of the Blessed there, sent back to his body by God's command, as if awakened from a heavy sleep, having called all together exclaimed: "Hear, O most beloved, and understand that there is nothing which you see in this world, but they are according to that which Solomon the prophet sang: All is vanity. Blessed is he who can do these things in the age, so that he may merit the glory of God in heaven." Wherefore he instituted his life thereafter in great holiness, and in it happily completed his course, as the eyewitness and earwitness Gregory of Tours relates at length, lib. VII of the History, cap. i. This saying of Solomon St. Dominic frequently used: wherefore everywhere privately and publicly with great freedom and spirit he stirred all, even the great, to contempt of the age, and to love of Christ. Thus his Life has it. Let all Religious imitate him. Our Thomas Theodidactos, lib. I of the Imitation of Christ, cap. 1: "Vanity of vanities," he says, "and all is vanity, except to love God and to serve him alone. This is the highest wisdom, through contempt of the world to tend toward the heavenly kingdoms. It is therefore vanity to seek perishable riches, and to hope in them. It is also vanity to seek honors, and to exalt oneself on high. It is vanity to follow the desires of the flesh, and to desire that for which afterwards one must be gravely punished. It is vanity to wish for a long life, and to care little for a good life. It is vanity to attend only to the present life, and not to provide for things that are to come. It is vanity to love that which passes away with all speed, and not to hasten there, where eternal joy remains." B. Jacopone in the world a noble man, a doctor of law, and a celebrated patron of causes, but proud, avaricious, and a slave to the vanities of the world, when he found his wife crushed by the ruin of a theater at public festivals and games, clothed in a harsh hair shirt against her flesh, was so moved both by her fall and by the harshness of her life, bidding farewell to the world, following the standard of the cross in the order of St. Francis, he became a marvelous contemner, indeed a mocker, of himself and the vanities of the world, in the year of the Lord 1300. Among other things he composed this rhythm on the vanity of things, in which among other things he sings thus: Why does the world strive under vain glory, Whose prosperity is transitory? So quickly does its power slip away, As the vessels of the potter which are fragile, etc. Tell where Solomon once so noble? Or where Samson the invincible leader? Where has Caesar gone, lofty in empire? Or the rich man feasting entirely at his meal? Tell where Tullius famous in eloquence, Or Aristotle greatest in genius? So many illustrious nobles, so many spans of things, So many faces of prelates, so many mighty kingdoms, So many princes of the world, such great power, In the twinkling of an eye all things are shut up. Think on things above, let your heart be in the ether. Happy he who was able to despise the world. Thus our Raderus in his Life, and the Annals of the Minors. Not unlike this was he who, having perceived and despised the vanity of the world, thus sang in the book which is inscribed: The Washing of Conscience: I leave the croaking to frogs, tomorrow to ravens, and vain things to the vain; I go to logic, which does not fear death therefore. Let Eutropius close the tragedy of the world's vanity, whose beginnings were glorious, but his final acts tragic and disastrous. He himself had been consul of Constantinople, and tutor and governor of the Emperor Arcadius, through whom he ruled the whole world, so that all looked to him rather than to Arcadius, and all sought his favor. He fell through his luxury and arrogance into the hatred of soldiers and citizens, and of Arcadius himself, whose anger and drawn swords he feared, and so he fled to the church as to an asylum, and hid himself under the altar. The soldiers pressed on, and demanded his death, indeed they tried to drag him by force from the altar, because he himself a little before had wished to abrogate by law the right of asylum of the Church. St. John Chrysostom intervened, the bishop of the Church, who, in order to protect the right of asylum and to show ecclesiastical gentleness toward the fugitive, with this oration (which is extant at the end of vol. V and is inscribed to Eutropius) softened the raging minds against him: "Always indeed, brother, but now especially it will be said with propriety: Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity. Where now is the shining ambition of the consulship? Where are the resplendent lamps shining upon one another throughout the whole world? Where are the horse races? Where is the pomp of various gifts? Where is the crown and the varied ornament of the whole world? Where are the trumpets and that theatrical acclamation of the flattering people? By the blast of a sudden wind all things have been shaken off like leaves, and the tree is left bare; and not only bare, but torn up by its very roots: for the wind has pressed with such force that it has cut off the very sinews of the tree." He then proceeds to describe the other kinds of vanity: "Where now are those feigned friends? Where are the various faces of flatteries? Where are the dinner guests and the followers of dinners and suppers? Where are the side dishes? Where are the choice wines and the feasts drawn out throughout the whole day? Where are the exquisite arts of cooks? Where finally is all that power, and the flocks of clients speaking for favor? All those things were night and a dream, and when day arose they appeared nowhere: it was a shadow, and it passed away: it was smoke, and it was dispersed: they were bubbles of water, and they burst: they were spider webs, and they were torn. Therefore again we sing this spiritual song saying: Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity. For if those who are engaged in power understood this verse, they would write it on all walls and on their garments; in the forum, in the house, at the doors, at the entrances, and before all things in their consciences, so that they might always see it with their eyes and feel it in their hearts." And with some things interjected, thus he represents his misery to the raging soldiers: "Behold," he says, "him who was on such a height, now cast down to the depths; and him who shook the world of the earth with outstretched hand, now drawn by the timidity of some hare or frog to hide, bound without any chains to the base of this column, fearful and trembling," etc. With this oration St. Chrysostom moved the raging crowd to compassion, and bent them to tears, so that they would spare Eutropius, and Arcadius swore that he would grant him his life. Therefore, having received the oath, Eutropius was led out of the church and sent into exile. But again, as Gainas the general of the army, his rival, pressed on, and hatreds broke out afresh, Eutropius was not only deprived of his consular dignity and patrician rank, but also stripped of his goods and life, and was struck with the axe at Chalcedon; many statues, even golden ones, erected for him were overturned, and all his monuments were destroyed; his name was erased from the records, and marked with perpetual ignominy he was buried in oblivion. Thus the wretched are lifted on high, that they may fall with a heavier crash, and lightning strikes the highest mountains. Finally, hear Ascanius Martinengus in Genesis, part II, page 1235, pathetically heaping up examples of the vanity of the world: "Vanity of vanities," etc. Where is the pride of Nimrod? Where is the renowned name of Ninus? Where is the seat of Ahasuerus spread over twenty-seven provinces? Where is the glory of Cyrus acquired through so many labors? Where is the immense gold of Croesus? Where is the kingdom of Darius cunningly obtained? The innumerable forces of Xerxes exceeding sixteen myriads of soldiers? The empire of Alexander scarcely bounded by the Indian Ocean and the Riphaean mountains? The very great power of Pompey? The unconquered fortune of Caesar? The very great monarchy of Augustus? The foul pleasures of Caligula? The unimaginable allurements of Nero? "Vanity of vanities," etc. Where is the wonderful power of Semiramis? The unfortunate beauty of Helen? The numerous offspring of Hecuba? The excessive luxuries of Cleopatra? The august happiness of Livia? The never-satisfied vanities of Agrippina? "Vanity of vanities," etc. In what place can that proud Babylon now be seen, immense Memphis, Carthage the terror of the Roman empire, illustrious Argos, Athens the nurse of learning, beautiful Corinth, wealthy Sardis, triumphant Rome, holy Jerusalem? "Vanity of vanities," etc. Where have those seven buildings gone, celebrated throughout the whole world, which on account of the admirable magnitude of the work stood in place of a miracle, so that human art could fashion or devise nothing more divine? Namely, the walls of Babylon, the temple of Diana of Ephesus, the colossus of the sun among the Rhodians, the pyramids of Egypt, the tomb of Mausolus, the tower of Pharos, the statue of Jupiter Olympian? Where are the royal palace of Cyrus, the Roman amphitheaters, and the other wonderful buildings, which now prostrate and collapsed, scarcely teach and proclaim by their very ruins how great Rome was? "Vanity of vanities." But why does it please to recount the monuments of external things, and not to bring forth examples of our own? Where is that very great empire of the most wise Solomon, which scarcely extended from Dan to Beersheba, whose royal palace brought the queen of Sheba to amazement? Where are the immense riches of the same, who in daily expenses consumed sixty cors of flour (a cor indeed contained a thousand pounds), twelve domestic oxen, twenty field oxen, a hundred rams, besides the immense abundance of fattened fowl and wild beasts which were captured by hunting; who fed forty thousand horses in stables, twelve thousand chariots and horsemen; who besides all other revenues exacted six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold as tribute (a talent indeed weighed sixty-five pounds), who supported seven hundred queens and three hundred concubines; in whose kingdom finally there was such an abundance of silver as of stones; indeed silver was reckoned as nothing? Did not he himself, in such an abundance of human and earthly things, form this true judgment concerning the things of the world: "Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity?" Whoever therefore reads these things, and treasures them in a lofty mind, send word to vanity to depart, lest you vanish away with it; embrace truth, join yourself to God, fix your heart and mind always upon eternity enduring, so that you may remain stable with it, and be blessed with it forever and ever. "For perpetual light shall shine upon thy saints, O Lord, and ETERNITY OF TIMES. Alleluia." Hear Esdras, book IV, ii, 34: "Expect your shepherd, he will give you eternal rest: for he is near who will come at the end of the age. Be prepared for the rewards of the kingdom, for perpetual light shall shine upon you through ETERNITY OF TIME. Flee the shadow of this age; receive the joy of your glory. I openly testify to you my Savior. Receive the commended gift and rejoice, giving thanks to him who has called you to the heavenly kingdoms."
1:3
Understand, what vanity of vanities! For the word labor in Hebrew is yamal, that is, he labors anxiously and painfully; in Greek μοχθῶ, that is, he is afflicted, he lives in hardships, he leads a toilsome life. Labor therefore here signifies both toilsome action and passion, and every pain, affliction, hardship whether of body or of mind. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Man labors continually, and fatigues himself, and afflicts himself with a thousand cares and hardships, but in vain and to no purpose: because by all his labor, care and affliction he acquires nothing except vanity, namely vain riches, honors, delights, which very quickly turn to smoke and vanish. Whence in Hebrew it is, what remainder, or what is left over to man in all his labor by which he labors under the sun? The Septuagint of the Vatican, what is left over to man in all his labor? But the Complutensian and St. Ambrose in Psalm 118, sermon 12: "What abundance has man in all his labor?" The Syriac, what utility has the son of man in all his labor? The Arabic, what excellence has man in all his labor? Aquila and Symmachus, τί πλέον, that is, what more is there for man, or what is greater for man? Pagninus, what utility has man? Others, what remainder after labor? what reward? what wages? what great thing? what ample thing? what excellent thing does man bring back from all his labor by which he labors, and as if in a mill continually wears himself out? The Chaldean Paraphrast, for what indeed is left over to man, after he has departed from life from all his studies, which kept him occupied under the sun in this life, except the study of the law, by which at some time in the future ages he may bring back the reward of his diligence from the Lord? For the Hebrew יתרון iitron is of various and broad signification: whence it signifies more, remainder, left over, superabundant, surpassing, excellent, distinguished, reward, recompense, etc. The Zurich Bible, how much (how little, how small, vile and scanty) indeed is left over to man after all the labor which he endures under the sun! Also to and nam, as the Chaldean has it, is not in the Hebrew, Septuagint and Vulgate, but is understood. For it gives the reason why all things are vanity of vanities, that is, mere vanity, because namely from all the labor and study by which man anxiously and laboriously pursues them, he brings back no fruit except vanity, smoke and nothing. But Hugo of St. Victor judges this verse to be an inference from the preceding one, as if to say, "If all things are subject to vanity, how can the works of men be alien from vanity? If what God created is vanity, how much more is what man does?" From this it is clear that these words are not those of the impious denying the immortality of the soul, the resurrection, and the future rewards of the good, as some think; but are those of Solomon himself, as St. Jerome and all others assert, and he himself speaks of the labor of men, who strive after earthly and vain things: for this entire labor is vain; but not of the labor of the Saints, who devote themselves to piety, virtue and the worship of God. For this is not vain, but true and useful, because it produces eternal glory, according to that: "The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us," Rom. viii, 18. Therefore the Hebrew iitron, the Greek περίσσεια, the Latin amplius multa signify much, and can be taken in multiple ways. First, simply and properly, as if to say, What after continuous, grave and troublesome labor is left over to man as more, except vanity of vanities, namely a small profit, which is quickly consumed and vanishes? You err, O wretched little man, you err who wear yourself out with labor and torture yourself, as if you were about to bring back something great, when you are only bringing back vanity. Thus Hugo and Dionysius. Secondly, others more forcefully refer it to labor, as if to say: What does man have from his labor beyond the labor itself, understand, than the labor itself, as if to say: From labor man acquires nothing except labor, and from this exhaustion, pains and torments, in which respect man is more miserable and more foolish than other animals and creatures, which labor less and live more pleasantly, since man labors more and lives more miserably. For birds do not sow, nor do they reap, but gather grain sown by farmers, and from this live joyfully, sing, and praise God; oxen, sheep, horses are fed with unlabored food, namely grass which the earth produces spontaneously. But man labors night and day, and disembowels himself and torments himself with a thousand cares, so that he may feed himself, his wife and his children: and yet after all these labors and anxieties, he acquires scarcely anything beyond necessary food and clothing. Add the riches and honors which he acquires, often so mixed with cares and troubles, that they are more labors and pains than honors and pleasures. Hear Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, chapter 11: "How burdensome are riches to many! How many does daily eloquence, under the guise of displaying talent, drain of blood! How many grow pale from continuous pleasures! How many does the throng of clients surrounding them leave with nothing free!" The same thing is represented by that allusion between burden and honor, not so much a play on words as an express truth of the thing itself. For as St. Isidore said, book I, chapter 26: "Honor comes from burden, or rather burden comes from honor." Thirdly, take amplius for reward, as if to say: What reward does man bring back from all labor? certainly little or nothing, as if to say: Solomon: I call upon and summon you, O mortals, to reckon up your accounts of income and expenditure. You have expended so many years in the greatest labors, rural, mechanical, mercantile; what reward equal to such great labors have you received from all of them? certainly none: for labor surpasses every fruit which you have received. To this pertains that passage in Proverbs xi, 18: "The wicked man does unstable work (in Hebrew, work or labor of falsehood, that is, vain, false and deceptive, because sterile and useless); but to him that soweth justice, faithful reward." Fourthly, take amplius and the Hebrew yitron for utility, advantage and profit, as if to say: What more, that is, what utility have you obtained from all your labor, certainly little. You have labored like asses, and have scarcely acquired a few pennies. Whence Isidore Clarius translates: what stable fruit will man bring back, even if he torments himself in many ways in this, so that he may find some fruit? Thus St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, Hugh of St. Victor and others. Fifthly, amplius can be taken not as an adverb, but as a noun (for such is the Hebrew yitron) a comparative signifying great, excellent and outstanding compared to others, as if to say: What great, large and outstanding thing have you brought back from so many and such great labors? certainly nothing, but only base and meager coins or fruits. Whence the Arabic translates: what excellence, or what virtue, or what benefit or gift? St. Ambrose in Psalm 118, sermon 12, and St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, chapter 3: "What abundance to man?" Thus amplius for great and outstanding is taken in Matthew chapter 5, 47: "If you salute your brethren only, what more do you do?" That is, as Vatablus: What distinguished thing do you do? And Romans 3, 1: "What more hath the Jew?" that is, as the Zurich Bible: in what does the Jew excel? St. Chrysostom and Theodoret: what more honorable than the Jew? And I Thessalonians 5, 12: "That you know them who labor among you, that you have them abundantly," that is, as Ambrosiaster, that you have them in the highest honor. Zurich Bible: in the highest esteem; Theodoret: hold them in great account. Note on all his labor, that is to say, "Man is born to labor, as a bird to flight," as Job says, chapter v. But he himself aggravates and multiplies this labor for himself without end, from avarice and cupidity. His children, friends, enemies, and many other things increase it, which Ecclesiasticus reviews at length, chapter xl, 1 and following: "Occupation (trouble and most troublesome labor)," he says, "great is created for all men, and a heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their going forth from the womb of their mother, until the day of burial in the mother of all." All this and greater labor demands ample reward. But in vain, because a vile and scanty return is given to him. See the things said there. If the daily occupations which Ecclesiastes reviews there—anger, contention, tumult, fluctuation, fear—do not afflict every man badly, nor do they not sharply sting; how much do you think will torment the minds of most vain men the other most stubborn and most grave angers, contentions, tumults, fluctuations, fears and labors truly their own, truly undertaken from their vanity and fault, with no true or honest cause. Thus Pineda. Sixth, the word further and Hebrew iitron signifies remainder, or that which remains and is left over after labor, that is to say, How little is it that remains and is left over after such great labors? surely scanty, and of brief duration and of small age and time, because labor lasts until old age, indeed throughout the whole life of man: what therefore remains to him after it in life of rest, recreation and joy? surely very little or nothing; indeed all of it in turn ends in labor and sorrow, and thus all the honey of this life turns into bitter gall. This opinion is true in life, truer in death, most true after death. For in life indeed after labors little or nothing remains, because labors occupy the whole life, biting cares, and sorrows, so that they exclude almost all rest and joy from it. In death it is truer, because in death when life ends all the joy of life ends. Whence that: "They slept their sleep: and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands," Psalm lxxv, 6. After death most true, because vain and impious men, who in this life served vanity and vain desires, labored, sweated, will see in hell that they have procured for themselves from all their labor and sweat nothing other than the fires and torments of Gehenna. Whence that lamentable and inconsolable voice of theirs: "Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, etc., and we have been wearied in the way of iniquity and perdition, and we have walked difficult ways, but the way of the Lord we knew not. What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away as a shadow," etc. Wisdom v, 6. Hence that sarcasm, or hostile mockery of the impious in Isaiah, chapter l, 11: "Behold you all kindle a fire, girded with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled: this is done to you by my hand, you shall sleep in sorrows." See the things said there. Wherefore He Labors under the Sun. — First, that is to say, I Solomon lifting up my mind to heaven, and there above the sun, or in the sun in spirit placing myself, and thence looking down upon the earth, and seeing all men, and the labors, occupations and studies of men, I see all things to be vain, and of no utility and fruit; wherefore I pity them, and touched with compassion of heart, I cry out to them: O miserable mortals! I see your works, your structures, your cities, provinces, kingdoms, indeed the whole earth to be like a point and center, if it be compared with the vast amplitude of the heavens; I see you like ants running about, laboring, striving, that you may convey a few grains and store them away for a future age. I see you consume your whole life in this. Therefore to all and each I cry out: "Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity;" vain is all in which you labor, vain are all your labors, you consume your strength in vain: because from all your labor you obtain nothing except scanty nourishment, which birds, sheep and oxen have without labor. Secondly, properly "under the sun" signifies that the sun is the moderator of labor, while rising it stirs man to work, setting it to rest, while it provides light to those laboring and as it were a torch, while by its constant and swiftest motion it stimulates them to motion and labor. For the sun accomplishes in each hour one million one hundred forty thousand miles, as I showed in Genesis I, 14; indeed daily the sun circles the entire circumference of heaven. Hence that passage in Psalm ciii, 22: "The sun is risen, etc., man shall go forth to his work: and to his labor until the evening." The sun therefore is the index, symbol, stimulus and example of labor. Hugo of St. Victor, however, thinks that "under the sun" is said to the contempt and mockery of the vain and miserable labor of men, who are confined by the light of the sun, and forced to cease when it ends: "Ecclesiastes considered," he says, "how abject and miserable is the condition of mortals, who on the surface of the earth like certain worms creeping with vain curiosity, are suddenly stirred by light poured down from above as if to mockery to seize what they vainly desire, and the same being withdrawn after a little, are suddenly wrapped again in blindness, and can in no way proceed further into effect." Thirdly, "under the sun" denotes that laborers have nothing more than the idle, because under the sun all of us, leaving the present life, undergo common death. Whence Seneca, epistle 51: "We are born unequal," he says, "we die equal." Fourthly, Hugo: "Under the sun," he says, that is under time; for the sun by its motion describes days, years and seasons, as if to say: Vain is the labor of man, by which he labors for time, when he was born to labor and live for eternity. Thus Hugo both, namely the Carensis or Cardinal, and Victorinus. The Carensis adds: "Under the sun," he says, "as if by light, not by a leader." Fifthly, and especially, "under the sun" denotes both the place of the labor of men, which is under the sun on earth; and the matter of labor, which are earthly things, and therefore vile and vain; and the end of the labor of earthly-born men. For these labor in vain under the sun to acquire subsolar and sublunar things, that is, earthly and perishable goods. Wherefore "under the sun" hints that man ought to seek labors which endure above the sun and bless the laborer in heaven, as Olympiodorus says. Therefore the worldly, vain and impious man labors under the sun, and prepares for himself death and hell; but the pious man labors above the sun, because he acquires the works and merits of virtues, by which he may live to God, and be given by Him heaven and eternal life. Whence St. Gregory Thaumaturgus paraphrases this verse thus, for not easily would anyone be able to recount even one single utility contrived from all things which men creeping on earth bring forth with such great exertion of bodies and souls. And although they effect nothing in these temporal things, but rather are overcome and wearied by them; yet they are unwilling to lift the more generous eyes of their mind to contemplate the things above the heavens. Therefore some works are done above the sun, others under the sun: those which are done from grace, the works, I say, of the spirit, are above the sun, because they are not harmed by the devouring of time, and lead the laborer into the empyrean heaven and a blessed and perpetual age; but those which proceed from the flesh are done under the sun, since by the turnings of the sun and the rust of years and seasons the flesh and earthly things are consumed and worn away. All things therefore under the sun are vanity. Accordingly above the sun, says Paulinus, epistle 4, "is truth. Thus also those who consist in truth, even if they live in the world by bodily habitation, are nevertheless above the world by heavenly conversation, and flying in spirit they climb and surpass the choirs of stars or the poles of the heavens; and they act higher than the elements, not subject to things and uses of the elements, but with life fixed in Christ they become higher than the world, remaining in Him who is above all God blessed forever." To this is added Aben-Ezra: "The body," he says, "and bodily labor is under the sun, and the soul or spirit and its labor is above the sun, because it has its origin from God, and returns to Him." And the Author of the Greek Catena: "If the labor," he says, "which is under the sun, is useless, labors must be sent above the sun; for the actions of virtues penetrate that." Finally, our Pineda: Under the sun, he says, has an antithesis with man, who alone under the sun appears not to be, inasmuch as God has commanded him to be upright toward the stars and to lift his face above the stars: and to be never prone, never intent upon sublunary things. Therefore it is altogether unworthy that the labor of man, his eyes, his intention toward those things which are lower, should abase themselves; since human and free actions of man depend neither upon the sun nor upon this heaven, and are superior and more noble than the celestial influences themselves. Nor is it unworthy only, but also miserable; for the reward of labor expended on sublunary things cannot follow this soul flying upward to the supernal region. Therefore we seem to hear as it were from heaven this voice of Ecclesiastes: Wretched are "the dead, who die not in the Lord," whose labor is vain: "for their works shall not follow them," Apocalypse xiv. Mystically St. Ambrose in Psalm cxviii, octon. 12: "The saints, he says, always attend to spiritual things, and desire either to know or to teach those things which profit unto eternal life. Whence Ecclesiastes says: What abundance hath man in all his labor, whereby he laboreth under the sun, that is, what spiritual abundance hath man laboring under the sun of justice? and he subjoined: Generation passeth away, and generation cometh. Generation passeth away, because the rich have become poor and hungry. Those who before abounded in grace (the Jews), on account of their perfidy began to become poor; but those who were poor of the nations of peoples, are now satisfied and abound through faith, as it is written: The poor shall eat and shall be filled," Psalm xxi.
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In Hebrew, the age going, and the age coming; and the earth standing forever; in the Septuagint, a generation goes or departs, and a generation comes: and the earth stands forever; Symmachus, aiōnōs, that is eternal; the Syriac, a generation departs, and a generation comes: and the earth standing forever; the Arabic, a generation departs, and a generation comes: and the earth is forever. He explains and proves what he said in the preceding verse, that under the sun nothing remains to man from all his labor, from the fact that one generation passes away with its labor and the fruits of its labor, and a new generation comes, which in like manner soon passes away; but the earth itself always remains the same, so that these generations succeeding one another continually it constantly receives within itself. For the earth is as it were a center, which contains and sustains both men and the elements, the heavens and the whole universe; wherefore around this immobile center move and gyrate continually, both the generations of men and times, and ages succeeding one another in turn, as also the sun and the heavens, and likewise the winds and rivers, and all things, as the following verse explains. For all these things tend to this end, that they may show the vanity of earthly things and of men laboring in them from the continual change, circulation and succession of both, whereby one passing away and setting, another arises and comes forth on the earth and around the earth, which when things born have come to pass, they soon revolve and depart, and new ones arise with like swiftness to be revolved, and soon to depart. Wherefore on the earth nothing arises new, which curious men might seek; but the same is always the succession and circle of things and men succeeding one another. Thus St. Jerome: "What is more vain," he says, "than this vanity, that while others die others are born, and man never remains? yet the earth, which was made for the sake of man, stands forever." And Gregory of Nyssa: "Every pursuit," he says, "which is occupied in those things which pertain to life, is plainly the play of children in sand (this is the earth), in which whatever pleasure is taken from those things which are done, ceases together with the pursuit which is placed in those things which are made. For as soon as the sand began to move, so soon does the flowing stream leave no trace of those things which were labored upon. This is human life. Sand is ambition, sand is power, sand is riches, sand is whatever is, and in these vainly laboring infantile souls," etc. "But when we speak of sand, we may also understand that the earth is a perpetual sort of theater, in which the play of vanity is performed, the Apostle saying: 'We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men,' I Corinthians iv, 9." For spectacle in Greek is θέατρον, that is, a theater we are made, in the theater we are looked upon, in the theater of this world we act the comedy, nay the tragedy of our life, as it were masked actors. For actors, or comic and tragic persons are emperors, kings, princes, the voluptuous, gluttons, the rich, merchants, the poor and beggars, widows, wards, orphans, masters, servants, soldiers, the unwarlike, children, the aged, the ulcerous Lazarus, the avaricious glutton, the wise, the foolish, the wicked and most vain followers of worldly happiness. This is what the Apostle, exhorting to the flight of the world, says: "For the fashion of this world passes away," I Corinthians vii, 31, as if to say, The world has not a thing, but a fashion and a shadow. See the things said there. Secondly, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus judges that in this verse and the following the brevity of human life is noted, and therefore he judges that this verse depends on the preceding one; whence he paraphrases both: "What," he says, "is it that men creeping upon the earth, with so great a striving of bodies and souls bring forth, and are unwilling to lift the eyes of the mind to heavenly things? But meanwhile a generation passes away and a generation comes, that is, years and seasons pass, and years pass away." They depart and recede not only private men, but whole generations; and the earth indeed, as it were an heir, survives all the faculties of man, and his most precious goods: for when man departs, it itself survives, laden with the spoils of human life. On the other hand, Francis Valesius, in Sacred Philosophy, chapter 62, thinks that here is signified the perpetuity of generations through circulation, by which they go in a circle and return. This, he says, which Ecclesiastes observed, is nothing other than what Aristotle expressly taught in the last two chapters of the second book On Generation and Corruption, namely that the change of all things is circular, and that the eternity of the world depends on this: because indeed only circular change can be perpetual; therefore the parts of the world which are perpetual in themselves, such as the sun and other heavenly bodies, undergo no change of substance, but revolve in a circle, approaching and receding, the same in number always returning; but those which are corruptible are always being made from themselves, circularly being born and perishing, always different in number, but the same in species, as water is made from air, and air from water. This circle of generations going away and returning, by which the world is preserved, Ecclesiastes hints at, saying: "Generation passeth away, and generation cometh." Thus Valesius. But it is an error against the faith to say that the succession of generations will be eternal. Thirdly, Lyra, Titelmann and others refer these things to the difficulty of sciences, which arises from the difficulty of things to be known, because they perpetually revolve unstably, and thus escape the stable gaze of the eye and the contemplation of the mind: for such is the perpetual change, that is, the mutation, alternation and vicissitude of things generable and corruptible; such also is the circulation of the sun, and the blowing of winds, the course of rivers, as if all these things pertain to that verse 8: "All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word." Therefore, says Lyra, mention is made of generation passing away, that is, of the very brief fleeting life of mortals, so that since life is short, but art is long, it excludes man from the perfect acquisition of sciences. Therefore this opinion is similar, or nearly the same as that in Wisdom 9, 16: "We hardly guess aright at things that are on earth: and with labour we find the things that are before us. But things that are in heaven, who shall search out?". Fourthly, Olympiodorus thinks that the earth is here introduced, as it were a witness, nay rather as a teacher more stable and wiser than man, to reprove the vanity, inconstancy and wickedness of men. For thus he explains it: "Why, O men, do you labour about earthly things, when the earth itself, an element lacking sense, endures for a long time; but you perish according to generation? And the earth indeed stands forever, become an accuser of you, in which you have perpetrated wicked deeds." So also Salonius. And Hugo of St. Victor adds: "What is it that the earth stands? It perseveres in that which it was made: it preserves its nature: it does not abandon its condition: what it received, this it retains uncorrupted. Why therefore did you not also stand in that which you were made upon the earth?" And again: "Listen, O man, and be ashamed. The earth stands, and you cannot stand?" Whence Seneca, epistle 80: "All this happiness of theirs," he says, "is feigned. Despise them, if you strip them bare." And more forcefully, epistle 115: "We marvel," he says, "at walls covered with thin marble, when we know what lies hidden, we impose upon our eyes; and when we cover things with gold, what else do we do but rejoice in falsehood? For we know that foul wood lies hidden beneath the gold. Nor is ornament of thin material presented only to walls or ceilings; all these whom you see walking about proudly have a thin-beaten happiness. Look closely, and you will say, beneath this thin membrane of dignity how much evil lies hidden." And St. Chrysostom on that passage of Psalm iv: O ye sons of men, why do you love vanity, and seek after lying? "Here," he says, "both idolatry and a shameful life seem to be expressed. For that is called vain which is empty, when it has had a name indeed, but has not been a thing. Thus among the gentiles there are many names of gods indeed, but the thing in no way. Nor is it less so in human affairs: there is a name of riches, but the thing in no way; a name of principality, and there remains a bare and meager name. For who is so senseless as to seek names which are destitute of things, and to pursue empty things which ought to be fled?" This is that of Psalm lxi, 10: "The children of men are vain, liars in the balance: that by fraud they may deceive." The Hebrew texts have, the lie of the sons of a man; the Chaldean, nothing the sons of men: the lie of the son of a man, that is, the princes of men, or the most fortunate of men; and not one only, but all together in the same way, so vain are all human things, that by vanity, that is, on account of vanity, they deceive, that is, show themselves more false and more lying, as if to say, if in one scale of a balance you place all the sons of men, even the great and princes, who seem most fortunate, and in the other you place vanity, this scale of vanity will outweigh that of princes, as if to say, All princes, all their happiness and glory, is lighter than vanity itself, more vain and more empty. And the Nyssenus: "Be not more inanimate than earth; be not more senseless than those things which lack sense." St. Jerome also and Albinus: "What," they say, "is more vain than this vanity, that the earth remains, which was made for the sake of men, and man himself, the lord of the earth, is suddenly dissolved into dust?" Therefore these authors judge that earth is introduced here, so that from it we may learn the right manner of living, namely, so that from its firmness we may learn firmness and constancy in acting and suffering. Likewise from its lowliness, humility, namely, that Adam was made and called from adama, that is, man from the ground, earth-born from earth, according to that which the Church says on Ash Wednesday: "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return;" which is taken from Genesis iii, 19. Again, earth is here set before us as a wrestling-ground, in which, as runners in a stadium, we run to the goal, and as athletes we contend for a prize. Thus therefore let us run, thus let us contend that we may obtain. Anagogically, St. Gregory on Psalm V of the Penitential Psalms, on those words: In generation and generation thy years: "Generation," he says, "goes, and generation comes; but the earth stands forever. For this is the unstable change of this life, so that with some departing, others succeed, and then with these likewise failing in a similar way, others are born not in equal condition. From all these, however, which have been or shall be in the world, generations, that living and divine generation is perfected, which shall enjoy forever the fellowship of God's glory. In this therefore he says the years, that is, the eternity of God shall remain; then namely, when the generation which precedes and which follows shall be made one, the last being destroyed by death, which before it is absorbed in victory, leaves nothing stable, nothing solid, nothing unharmed." So also R. Isaac, in the Midrash Coheleth, that is, in the exposition of Ecclesiastes, on this verse: "Generation goes, and generation comes, but the earth stands forever: this is," he says, "this kingdom enters, and this kingdom exits: but Israel remains. And this is: But the earth remains forever." For those who are true Israelites, that is, the holy ones ruling in God, are called earth, on account of the stability and blessed eternity, which they enjoy in heaven. Thus Galatinus, lib. VIII On the Mysteries of Faith, cap. XXIII. Fifth, others judge that a demonstration of vanity is here sought from the likeness of the earth, sun, winds and rivers, as if to say, Just as the earth always holds the same place, and the sun, winds and rivers always hold the same course: so men always maintain the same course and tenor of vanity. For just as the past generation has passed and vanished: so also the present and future will pass and vanish, so that from men who have been and passed away, you can make a judgment concerning the present and future, namely, that in a similar way they will pass and die. Or, as Rupertus says, as if to say, Vain and senseless are the labors which avaricious men expend in acquiring earth, since with so many generations passing and coming, this earth always remains, nor can it be taken from any one or appropriated to himself. Sixth, some judge more aptly that earth, sun, winds, rivers are here introduced, so that they may prove what is said in verse 10, that nothing new is done under the sun, but all things go round and return, to check the novelty-seeking of men and their curiosity panting after new things, which is no small part of vanity in men. To this our Pineda adds, who thus expounds it, as if to say: Nothing, O man, from your labor will come to you more than you will be able to understand from other things constant by nature. Does the coming generation have what the past generation did not have? What does the young man think he will find that the old men have not experienced? The same earth, the same path of life is trodden by all; for the earth stands forever: the sun continually runs to its setting, panting; what has it found anew today that it did not have yesterday? The same hemisphere setting abandons, the same it finds rising again. Or by this reasoning: Nothing is great under the sun; for from no thing under the sun did the past generation derive happiness, just as neither will the coming generation: not from the water of rivers, not from the earth; therefore since nothing is new under the sun, the future men will be no more blessed than the past were. Nor say: I will labor more, and thus will I reap more fruit than they; because the same laws of life must be borne by you, whether you labor much or little, and the same reward of your labor must be received by you as by others. The same rising and setting awaits you. Allegorically, the generation of the Jews has passed away, the generation of Christians has come; but the earth, that is the Church, stands forever: because the Church is the same old and new, on account of the same faith and the same worship of God. Thus St. Jerome and Origen in Psalm LXXXIX, 1. The generation also of tyrants and persecutors has passed away; to this succeeded the generation of Arians and heretics: but against all the earth, that is the Church, persists unmoved. Tropologically, some here refer to the generation and kinds of vices, whose persons and masks man successively puts on. For, as St. Jerome says, epistle 48 to Marcella: "Now anger puts on the mask of a lion for us, now superfluous care thinks ahead for many years to come: we rejoice at a coin, we are saddened at the loss of a small piece, etc. Since indeed we are created in the image of God, from our vice we put on many masks for ourselves; and just as in theatrical scenes one and the same actor now shows himself robust as Hercules, now soft breaks into Venus, now trembling into Cybele: so also we have as many likenesses of masks as we have sins." Again the generation of the old man passes away, and the generation of the new comes through baptism and penance; and so the earth, that is the soul founded in virtue persists and remains, and thus is blessed with eternal happiness. Finally the generation of labors passes away, the generation of rewards comes in heaven, which is the land of the living, and therefore its happiness and glory stand forever. From all these expositions, that which I placed first seems most genuine and literal; for it most nearly touches the scope and end of Ecclesiastes, which is to show that all things under the sun are vain, from the fact that all things are circulating, and go in a circle and pass away. For this is what "one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh" signifies, that is to say, The generations of all ages go round and move in a circle, because one generation succeeds another continually, just as the posterior part of a circle succeeds the prior part in continuous series. Just as therefore the posterior part of a circle, while it revolves, extends the prior: so the posterior generation excludes any preceding one. He subjoins the cause, saying: "But the earth abideth for ever," that is to say, The earth is as it were the centre of this gyration and circle; for around it all generations, revolutions and successions of ages gyrate continually. Just as therefore the centre in a circle must be immovable: for in the centre one foot of the compass is fixed, and the other foot then moved in a circle around the centre describes the circle: so in a wheel the axis, which is as it were the centre, must remain immovable, so that the wheel may rotate around it. In like manner the earth, which is the centre of this circle and gyration of generations, must stand immovable, so that in it and around it these gyrations may continually be continued and perpetuated: especially because the earth supplies matter and cause to these gyrations and generations. For all things are generated from the earth. It in turn receives into itself the generation of plants, animals, and men passing away. For all bodies when they die return into the earth from which they were born, as into their mother, so that from it a new generation of new plants, animals, and men may continually germinate and be procreated, while it is irrigated by rain and warmed by the rays of the sun, and thus is made fruitful and fertile. Wherefore the earth is similar to a tree, which, as Pliny says, lib. XVI, cap. XX and XXI: "Although it always retains its foliage, yet the same leaves do not last, but as others grow beneath, the old ones wither." In like manner on the earth, as other men and animals grow beneath, the old ones wither and die. And this is hinted at by the word generation: for whatever is generable is also corruptible. For those things which are generated, arise and grow, then decrease, grow old and perish, according to that passage in Wisdom V, 13: "We being born forthwith ceased to be." From this gather that men are vain, who are intent upon a vain and corruptible world, inasmuch as it consumes and corrupts all their labours and fruits: just as foolish is the dove, and hath no heart, as Osee says in cap. VII, vers. 11, which although it sees eggs and young always taken from its nest, yet daily labours to lay new ones there. From this then as a principle Ecclesiastes collects, vers. 10, that there is nothing new under the sun, but all things move in like manner in a circle, and in time appointed to them by God arise and perish, and go in a circle and pass away. Whence vers. 11 he concludes: "There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter shall be, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the end." Now let us recall each word to mind, and examine it more deeply. Generation in Hebrew is דור dor, from דור dur, that is, I endure, I delay, I lead a life, also I wander, I dwell: wherefore dor is the same as duration, age, wandering, generation, age, time of life, by which man wanders in the world. Hence secondly, by metonymy dor, that is, generation and age, signifies men living in that age and time: also all things which arise, happen, and perish in that age. Our translator aptly renders it generation, so as to note both the corruption of sublunary things: for whatever is generated is also corrupted, as I have already said; and the circulation: for generations of things are renewed each year with the sun, and go in a circle. Finally, the generation of one is the corruption of another, and conversely the corruption of one is the generation of another, as Aristotle says. Hence Foreri in cap. XXXVIII of Isaiah, to those words: "My generation is taken away," derives the Hebrew dor, that is, generation, from the noun דור dor, that is, sphere, circle, ball; whence dor, he says, signifies the series of life; for it marks a revolution as it were spherical: but our whole life consists in revolutions and in vicissitudes in cap. LIII of Isaiah, vers. 8. Dor, he says, signifies to the Hebrews an age or age from its rolling nature, in that one age succeeds another age and one age another age, so that it seems to complete a circle. For, as St. Augustine says in Psal. XXXVIII, to those words: "Make known to me, O Lord, my end, and the number of my days what it is," our days are not, but pass away, "and all things are snatched away by fleeting moments." Passeth is in Hebrew holech, that is, goeth, walketh; the Septuagint, poreuetai, that is, departeth, as if to say, In this world we are not standing still, but walking and wayfarers; for we are continually departing and hastening toward death, and through it to immortality. Hence the Arabic, departeth; the Syriac, goeth away; others, passeth, slippeth away, as if to say, All human and earthly things hasten their journey, depart, and as if wishing to fly away somewhere, having already bound winged sandals to their feet, they go, they depart. Our translator aptly rendereth it, passeth, namely like a pilgrim who journeyeth through lands, goeth, leaveth and passeth by. For we are all pilgrims in this life, and we sojourn away from the Lord, and as the Apostle saith: "The figure of this world passeth away," as I said a little before; because the world hath not a subsisting substance, but a passing figure and a fleeting shadow, according to that saying of the Christian Poet: "One day passeth, the origin of the second is unknown." And Cicero, in the book On Old Age: "The age that hath passed, he saith, however long, when it hath flowed away, could never soothe foolish old age with any consolation;" because, as he saith in the same place: "Time that hath passed never returneth." And Virgil, VIII Aeneid: O that Jupiter would restore to me the years that have passed. "But the earth abideth for ever." Some here, as also in Genesis XI, understand by earth the prime matter which itself abideth, that is, underlieth the forms of things, and both to generations passing away and to those coming. Thus Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure and Albert. But this is symbolic and mystical. For it is certain that literally by earth the element of earth is signified. For ever in Hebrew is olam (whence the Latin olim), that is, age, eternity; and then not eternity absolutely, but relatively, and therefore signifieth only a long time. Whence some thus explain it: "The earth abideth for ever," that is, shall abide so long as men inhabit it, so long as mortals live upon it. Thus Horace saith in book I, epistle 10: He shall serve for ever, who knoweth not how to use a little. "An age, moreover, saith Varro, is a space of a hundred years (whence the secular games) so called from an old man, because this is the space of the aging of men." Yet eternity here can be taken absolutely. For the earth shall abide for ever. Thus St. Thomas, I part., Question X, art. 3: "Eternity, he saith, truly and properly is in God alone, because eternity followeth upon immutability, as is evident from what hath been said. God alone is altogether immutable. Yet according as some things receive immutability from Him, according to this they participate in some way in His eternity; some things therefore obtain immutability from God in this respect, that they never cease to be, and according to this it is said in Ecclesiastes I, of the earth, that it abideth for ever; and thus eternity can be attributed to angels, according to that of the Psalm: Thou shinest wonderfully from the everlasting mountains." For abideth in Hebrew is amad, that is, standeth, remaineth, persevereth, is firm and stable, like ammud, that is, a column, which standeth under a house and supporteth and sustaineth it. For thus the earth as a column, and as it were a centre, sustaineth all the orbs of the elements and heavens, and the whole universe. Again to this place it properly agreeth, "the earth standeth," saith Hugh of St. Victor: "That it may send forth those coming, bear those passing through, receive those departing." But Salonius: "The earth standeth, he saith, having become an accuser of you, in which ye have perpetrated wicked works." For in the day of judgment the earth as a witness, with silent voice shall accuse the wicked before Christ the judge, and shall demand vengeance upon them, because they have polluted, stained and violated her whom God created pure with their crimes. Whence that saying of Psalm XLIX, 4: "He shall call heaven from above, and the earth to judge His people." Hence Moses calleth heaven and earth to witness the law sanctified by God, and violated by the wicked: "Hear, O heavens, he saith, the things I speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth," Deuteronomy XXXII, 1. See the sayings there. Hence the Chaldee thus mystically rendereth it, King Solomon said in the spirit of prophecy: The good generation of the just hath departed from this age, on account of the sins of the worst generation of the wicked, which shall do after them; but the earth abideth for ever and ever, that it may bear the vengeance of those things which shall come in the age on account of the sins of the children of men. Hence it is evident that some Jews wrongly thought that abideth signifieth the eternity of the earth, that it is uncreated and hath stood from eternity; whom Rabbi Moses recounteth and refuteth, in book II of the Guide of the Perplexed, chapter XXIX; for to stand signifieth to remain, namely that the earth, after it hath been created by God, persisteth for ever. Therefore that the earth stands forever signifies first: that the earth from its creation has always endured, does endure, and will endure forever, whereas the generations of men, animals, and all things do not endure, but one passing away another and another continually succeed. For this is the antithesis between generations and the earth, that the latter persists while the former pass away and return to the earth. For this reason the earth endures, so that it may be the mother, matter, place, receptacle, and efficient cause of these generations continually succeeding one another; while old plants, animals and men die, new ones germinate and are produced. For all these things are offspring, fruits and children of the earth, and therefore are congenial to one another and as it were brothers, being earth-born from the same mother, namely the earth, which is a great humiliation and abasement of man. Hence Empedocles said that earth and water are the matter of generable bodies, as flour and water; but air and fire are more efficient than receptive, and bestow more powers than bodies for things to be generated. Whence Solomon subjoins concerning these: "The sun riseth and goeth down, etc. The spirit goeth round about to all places." For heat and fire are the attendants of the sun. To this pertains the exposition of the Catena of the Greek Fathers, which exists here in Rome in the Sforza Library, where I saw and read it, which has it thus: "Those things which are made by God, the same remain as they are; to be born from the earth, to go into the earth, the same earth to stand, the sun going round the whole earth, again to return to the same boundary, etc.; but in human discourses much trifling is found, nothing of utility." The earth therefore is as it were a stadium of moving and running things, and therefore in Hebrew is called ארץ erets, from רוץ ruts, that is to run (which in Italian is called ruzzolare), because all things run and are borne to it as to a fixed and stable center and quiet seat, and it itself is as it were a stadium in which men run from east to west, equally as animals and all things. The earth therefore stands forever, that is endures and remains, nor passes away, as generations of ages pass away, concerning which he said: "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh." For to these he opposes the earth, as being permanent, saying: "But the earth standeth forever," that is remains and consists, nor revolves about the spheres of heaven as the sun, concerning which by antithesis he subjoins: "The sun riseth." Whence Nazianzenus, oration 4: "The earth," he says, "is as it were the hypostasis of generations succeeding one another," because it underlies them, cherishes and sustains them. And Origen, homily 14 on Numbers, says that angels promote the births of animals, the growth of shrubs and plants, as it were common drivers of the earth and world. Hence secondly, that it stands signifies that the earth does not move, but remains firm and immobile against certain ancient philosophers, who thought that heaven is at rest and the earth moves, which, as Cicero testifies, lib. II of the Academic Questions, and Plutarch, lib. II On the Opinions of Philosophers cap. XIII and XV, was once the opinion of Nicetas of Syracuse, Cleanthes of Samos, Ecphantus the Pythagorean, Heraclitus of Pontus, and in this age of Nicholas Copernicus. Hence several philosophers thought the moon to be solid, and men to dwell in it. Hear Macrobius, lib. I on the Dream of Scipio: "Finally they (the physicists) called that (moon) an ethereal earth, and named its inhabitants lunar peoples; which they proved to be so by many arguments." And Plato in the Symposium calls the moon a terrestrial heaven, and the earth a celestial earth. Hear also Lactantius lib. III On False Wisdom, cap. XXII: "Xenophanes said that within the hollow of the moon is situated another earth, and there another kind of men live in a similar manner as we live on this earth. Therefore those lunar men have another moon, which exhibits to them nocturnal light, as this exhibits to us; and perhaps our orb here is the moon of another lower earth. Seneca among the Stoics says there was one who deliberated whether the sun also should give its own peoples, etc. But I believe the heat deterred him, lest he should commit so great a multitude to the danger (of burning from the sun)." Thus far Lactantius. William Gilbert, an Englishman and physician of London, recently published a work to defend this opinion, On the Magnet, where in lib. VI he strives to prove that the earth is as it were a great magnet, which not only regards the poles of heaven, but also has its own poles, around which it rotates daily and is carried round in the space of 24 hours, and this for its own advantage, namely so that it may receive the diverse aspects and influences of heaven and stars opportune for the generation of things. But this opinion is repugnant not only to philosophy, but also to Holy Scripture, which in this place and elsewhere asserts that the earth stands, and remains firm and unmoved, as in Psalm XCII, 2: "For He hath established the world which shall not be moved." Joshua, chapter X, 12, commanding the sun to stand still and to cease from motion: "Sun, saith he, be thou still against Gabaon, and thou moon against the valley of Aialon. And the sun and moon stood still." Therefore the sun moves, not the earth. Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXXVIII, 26: "In his days the sun went back, and added to the king (Hezekiah) life," namely fifteen years of life. Baruch III, 32: "He (God) prepared it (the earth) in eternal time," that is, who founded (for this is what the Hebrew כון cun signifies, that is, to prepare) the earth to endure in eternity. Psalm XXIII, 2: "For He hath founded it upon the seas," namely the earth. Psalm LXXVII, 69: "And He built His sanctuary like the unicorns in the land, which He founded for ever." Psalm CXVIII, 90: "Thou hast founded the earth, and it remaineth." Similar passages are Proverbs III, 19; Isaiah LI, 13 and 16; Job XXXVIII, 4, 6 and 38. To this pertains what St. Dionysius the Areopagite, in his Epistle to Polycarp, relates concerning the eclipse which occurred at the passion of Christ, that the moon, being exposed to the sun at full moon, immediately interposed itself between the sun and the earth, and thus caused the eclipse. Finally, the congregation of Cardinals under Paul V, in the year of Christ 1616, on the fifth day of March, in the presence of Cardinal Bellarmine, condemned the opinion of Copernicus from this place of Solomon, which teaches that the earth moves, based on this passage of Solomon. His reasons are frivolous, namely first, that all generation, he says, comes about not so much from rest as from motion, without which the whole nature of things would become torpid; second, that the forces of the sun and moon effect generations: therefore the earth must move and rotate, so that it may oppose itself to them, and thus draw in and receive their influence; third, it is derived from the earthquakes which we frequently experience: for these seem to proceed from the interior motion of the earth, which stirs and excites the spirit of the whole terrestrial globe; fourth, that animals themselves do not live without the motion of the heart and the perpetual motion and agitation of the arteries: therefore the earth also, the mother of living things, ought to have similar motions and agitations. To the first it is answered that the earth does not become torpid because it is continually cultivated by farmers, worked, ploughed, harrowed, etc., so that it may produce crops and fruits. I omit the blasts of winds and the alterations of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, which the earth continually undergoes through the four seasons of the year: for alteration is a species of motion, which does not allow the earth to become torpid. To the second it is answered that the sun and moon move, so that they may impress upon the quiescent earth their influences necessary for generation. For the efficient cause is accustomed to approach the matter, not the matter to the efficient cause. For the farmer goes to the field, not the field to the farmer: the smith goes to the iron, not the iron to the smith. To the third it is answered that the motions of the earth do not arise from the natural motion of the earth, but from winds and exhalations enclosed within the bowels of the earth, which, while they wish to burst forth and ascend upward, shake it as they seek an exit. To the fourth it is answered that animals have a soul, and therefore need the agitation and pulse of the heart and arteries; but the earth is inanimate, and therefore does not need these, indeed cannot have them. For whoever gives these things to the earth must also give it a soul. See more on this in our Christopher Clavius in the Sphere. See also what I have said concerning the earth at Genesis I, 1. Finally, hear St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, who, translating paraphrastically, and connecting this verse with the following ones concerning the sun, winds and rivers, and from these assigning causes why the earth stands in so few words, verse 7: "Things themselves, he says, are rightly compared to the flow of torrents, which fall into the immense depth of the sea with great noise. Yet there are things which remain always the same, such as being born from the earth, being turned into earth, the same earth remaining perpetually; the sun, when it encompasses the whole earth, returning in a perfect circle to the same goal of its exit; likewise the winds standing and so many agitated rivers pouring themselves into the sea, and the rushing winds neither forcing it to go beyond its bounds, nor themselves wandering from their laws. And these things indeed, as being conducive to this life of ours, were fittingly made so." Again, "the earth standeth for ever" signifies that the earth does not stand upon waters and float, as some philosophers and theologians thought, but stands beneath them and remains firm. For Thales, who flourished about 500 years after David under Cyrus, "judged, as Seneca says, lib. VI Natural. quaest. cap. V, that the whole earth is borne upon, floats upon and is sustained by the subjacent moisture, like some great ship upon those waters which it presses down." And others, according to Plutarch, lib. III De Placit. Phil. cap. XV, think "the earth floats upon waters like the leaves of a plane tree or boards, and therefore moves." Following this opinion were St. Athanasius, orat. Contra idola; St. Clement, lib. VIII Recognit.; St. Chrysostom in Psalm. CXXXV; St. Hilary in Psalm. CXXXV; Eusebius in Psalm. XXIII; Procopius in Genes. cap. I. Moreover, Anaximenes, as Plutarch says, thought "the earth is borne upon air," upon which it rests, and this seems probable to St. Basil, Ambrose and Damascene, who gather this from that passage in Job XXVI, 7: "He that hangeth the earth upon nothing." But Solomon refutes both here: "standeth" signifies that the earth remains firm and stands beneath the waters, the air and other elements and the heavens, as the base and center of the universe. The a priori reason is threefold, according to three kinds of causes; for the material cause of the standing and immobility of the earth is its very opacity, density and weight, which demands the lowest place in the world, so that it may stand beneath and support the heavens and the other more transparent and light elements. For all heavy things tend downward, as light things upward. That which is therefore heaviest among the elements demands the lowest place: but the earth is the heaviest. The final cause is twofold: the first, that the earth may be as it were the center of the elements, the heavens and the universe; for the center ought to be in the middle and lowest part of the circle, so that it may be equally distant from all parts of the circle. Again, the center in a circle is unmoved: thus the earth in the middle of the world is unmoved; for if it itself were moved and changed its center, the whole world would likewise become eccentric and be moved outside its place. The second is, that the earth may stand beneath men, animals and plants, and their generations passing away and coming; hence it must remain the same and firm. Blessed Alcuin, or Albinus Flaccus, the teacher of Charlemagne, Disput. cum Pipino Caroli filio: "What," he says, "is the earth? the mother of growing things, the nurse of the living, the storehouse of life, the devourer of all things." The efficient cause is God himself, the creator and preserver of the universe, who, like Atlas, sustains the world in the void or nothingness, and in the middle of the world holds the earth like a ball hanging in the air, stable and firm without any base or support. This is what the Psalmist says, Psal. CIII: "Thou hast founded the earth upon its stability;"; Aquila and Symmachus, upon its seat; St. Jerome and the Chaldean, upon its base; better others, upon its stable place, namely that it may stand stable and firm in its center. Whence St. Justin, Quaest. CXXX ad Orthodoxos: "The waters," he says, "sustain the heaven, the earth sustains the waters, the divine will sustains the earth." So also St. Basil, homil. 1 Hexam., and from him St. Ambrose, lib. I Hexam. cap. VI, whom hear: "By the will of God the earth remains unmoved and stands for ever according to the sentence of Ecclesiastes; and by the will of God it is moved and shaken. It does not therefore subsist resting upon its foundations, nor does it remain stable upon its supports, but the Lord hath established it, and contains it by the foundation of his will, because in his hand are all the ends of the earth." The symbolic and theological cause is that the earth is the seat of God, indeed the footstool of God's feet; it is therefore fitting that it be unmoved, inasmuch as it is the throne of glory and the footstool of the immobile and most firm divinity. For the same reason the empyrean heaven is immobile, because it is itself the throne of glory, in which God sits and shows himself to the Blessed. For it is fitting that both the throne and the footstool of the divine throne be immobile, so that it may represent God immobile and the most quiet judge. And by this reasoning the world or universe is mobile, and therefore eternal: because its extreme parts, namely the highest and lowest, are immobile, although between these the middle spheres of the heavens and elements rotate for a time, on account of the use of men and animals. This is what God says, Isaiah LXVI, 1: "Thus saith the Lord: Heaven is my throne; and the earth my footstool: what is this house that you will build to me? and what is this place of my rest?" Following Isaiah, Orpheus, according to Clement of Alexandria, lib. VI Stromat., thus sings of God: He himself stands constant and firm in great Olympus: A golden throne is his, and the earth beneath his feet. It is ridiculous what St. Epiphanius reports concerning Philistion and Manes, in his work against the Manichaeans, heresy 66: Philistion, he says, fashioning the Shoulder-bearer (God) teaches that he carries the whole earth upon his shoulder, and for thirty years, his shoulder being wearied, transfers it to the other shoulder, and from this earthquakes occur. He adds a similar account concerning Manes, the father of the Manichaeans: The Moon, says Manes, waxes and wanes and fails, while it is filled by their souls, who die in the thought of disbelief in it. Then these same souls from the lesser moon in a small vessel, as he says, are taken up into the sun, and deposited in the age of the Blessed. These were fables to Epiphanius, of Manes and Philistion. Furthermore, to this station and rest of the earth the earthquake, which we experience from time to time, offers no obstacle; rather it itself confirms what he said, namely that the earth remains unmoved by the will and sustenance of God. For from this it follows that God, at his nod, in order to show his power, or his indignation toward the inhabitants of the earth and to strike them with fear of him, shakes the earth for some time, and thus from time to time shakes the whole earth, and convulses it from its center, as happened in the earthquake which occurred at the passion of Christ, to show the indignation at the death of Christ the Son of God, as Didymus in the Greek Catena on chapter IX of Job, and others, think, and they confirm this from that passage Job IX, 6: "Who moveth the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble;" and from Ecclesiasticus chapter XVI, 18, and Psalm XVII, 8, etc. Again, grave philosophers and theologians hold that this station, or consistency of the earth, is not hindered by a motion of trembling, by which learned mathematicians think the earth is moved or balanced on account of the inequality of its parts, some being more or less heavy, for the sake of the highest equilibrium of the center; because this motion is so slow and so small that it cannot be perceived by men. Just as therefore a balance is thought to remain in the same place, even if its scales are balanced, and on account of the inequality of weight now ascend, now descend, because the balance does not on that account change its position and place: so much more does the earth stand and remain in the same place, even if it is slightly balanced. Indeed its consistency, they say, consists in this balancing, just as the consistency of a balance consists in the balancing of its scales. That you may understand this, know that there are three centers in the earth: first, the center of the roundness of the earth, which is the middle point in the round globe of the earth, just as the center is the middle point in a circle; the second center is the center of gravity of the earth, which is a point in the middle of the earth, from which all the surrounding parts of the earth are equally distant as to gravity, so that the center does not approach more to one part, which is lighter than another, but is precisely in the middle of the parts and of those equally heavy; the third is the center of the whole universe, which is a point in the middle of the earth equally distant from all parts of the perisphere, or circle and circumference of the heavens. But these three centers are sometimes really diverse, and distant from one another in place and position, although the center of gravity of the earth always strives and tends toward the center of the whole universe, so that it may be in the lowest or nethermost place of the world; for it desires and demands this as its own. The reason therefore of the aforesaid balancing of the earth (just as of a balance) is the inequality of weights, which now in one scale or part of the earth, now in another are greater, and therefore now burden this, now that part, and impel it toward the center of the universe, or toward the middle point of the universe, which is equally distant from all parts of the perisphere of the heavens. For all heavy things, and the whole earth, are borne by their gravity to this center of the world. Wherefore it differs, and is sometimes distant in place and position, as I have already said, the center of the roundness of the earth from the center of gravity of the earth, from which all parts of the earth are equally distant as to gravity: for the center of gravity of the earth is, or desires to be, the center of the world: but the center of the roundness of the earth is the middle point of the earth, which seems to be somewhat distant from the center of gravity of the earth, and consequently from the center of the world, because the earth is heavier in one part than in another: for it has more burdens and weights, such as mountains, rocks, sea, etc., in one part than in another: indeed often new weights accede to one part, not to another, as when the sea in its tide abandons one part of the earth and flows to another, and occupies and burdens it, and therefore then the center of gravity of the earth is somewhat changed, and consequently the earth is moved and balanced by a motion of trembling, by which it agitates and balances itself, until this new center of its gravity, moving itself, comes together and rests in the center of the whole universe. For this center of the universe is precisely the middle point of the whole world, which is equally distant, as the center in a circle, from all parts of the circumference of the celestial orbs; whence all heavy things tend toward it, especially the earth and all parts of the earth. Wherefore some distinguished mathematicians hold that this balancing of the earth is the true cause of the tide of the sea (not truly the motion of the moon, inasmuch as it is absent at night at the greatest distance, and is in another hemisphere, so that with the earth interposed between it and the sea, the moon cannot be seen to be able to act upon the sea and cause the tide of the sea); for while the earth is balanced, the sea flows and runs toward the part of the earth lower in the balancing, as being nearer to the center; and because in the balancing now one part of the earth is lower, now another, therefore the sea in the tide flows toward one part of the earth, but in the reciprocation of the tide toward another. But this opinion is opposed by the fact that this balancing of the earth, on account of the variety of weights approaching this part or that, is vague and unstable; whereas the tides of the sea are certain and stable. Other distinguished mathematicians add, and think that this was the cause of the flood in the time of Noah: namely, that God then balanced the globe of the earth in such a way that now He depressed it beyond the center of the universe, now He elevated it above it. For when He depressed it, immediately the seas and all waters, flowing together toward the center of the universe, covered the whole upper surface of the earth, as being depressed and near to the center; but when He elevated it, the seas and all waters, flowing back toward the lower surface of the earth, as being nearer to the center of the universe, covered it; and thus not all at once, but successively they covered the whole globe of the earth, so that upon it all men and animals were successively submerged in all places. For the rain alone of forty days, sent by God upon the earth, was not sufficient to cover it entirely, and especially so that water should rise above the highest mountains by fifteen cubits, as is said in Genesis VII and VIII. But this concerning the greater flood requires examination. Moreover, this opinion concerning the motion of the trembling of the earth Gabriel Vasquez attempts to prove thus among others clearly and solidly from the principles of geometry in I II, tom. I, disp. 81, cap. III, num. 20: For the explanation, he says, of two difficulties, a certain doctrine of Archimedes, easily the prince of mathematicians, is to be noted; first indeed that the earth and all heavy things, which rest upon the earth itself, so make one body as far as gravity is concerned, that they are balanced by their own weights, as Ovid said, lib. I Metamorph. at the beginning concerning the earth itself: "Balanced by its own weights." But the earth and other heavy things, which rest upon the earth, so tend by their gravity, and desire to be joined to the individual center of the magnitude of the whole world, that although they rest upon another heavy body, and are held by it, lest they penetrate and be joined with the center, yet by their own gravity they perpetually strive for this, and accordingly impress upon the body subject to them an impulse, by which they strive to tend downward, and impel the body subject to them, so that it yields place to them, until they so depress themselves downward that they are joined to the center of the magnitude of the world. Nor indeed does one body alone effect this in another, by which it is hindered and held; but also the parts of the same body strive mutually, and impel each other and impress an impulse toward the center of the world. Which thing we observe in water itself, when some drop falls into dust: for all its parts contract and compress themselves in the manner of a sphere. Next, from the same passage it is to be noted that the earth is so placed in the center of the universe that it rests upon no body, but is so equally balanced by its own weights that its center of gravity, which is indivisible, penetrates the center of magnitude of the whole universe, and cannot extend beyond it, but must necessarily rest there. For if it did not rest in this manner, it would ascend and move away from the center by itself, which is impossible. The center of magnitude of the universe is indeed an indivisible point equally distant from the outermost surface of the circle and the supreme orb on every side; but the center of gravity of the earth itself is that indivisible point from which, if lines are drawn to the whole circumference of the earth in a straight line, the weight is equal on either side. And this center must necessarily be found in every heavy body. When therefore this point, which is the center of gravity of the earth, penetrates the point of magnitude of the whole world, the earth rests. And since this center of gravity has no breadth, but is truly indivisible, it follows that if gravity weighs more heavily on one side of the earth, the center of gravity is changed, and thus the earth does not remain in the state in which it was before. For it is impossible for the earth to rest unless the point of its center of gravity penetrates and corresponds to the point of the whole orb; otherwise it would remain above. For to be above is the same as to rest above the center of magnitude of the universe; therefore, when the center of gravity is changed, however small the change may be, the earth will move with a certain trembling motion, so that another point of gravity may correspond to and penetrate the point of the whole orb, and thus again, being equally balanced by its weights on every side, it may rest. Moreover, the gravity of the earth can weigh more heavily on one side, when before it did not weigh more heavily than on the other, either because the earth itself becomes heavier on the other side by its native gravity through some physical change, or because some body is joined to it; for that body resting upon the earth gravitates upon it and imparts an impulse to it, just as the parts of the earth itself rest upon themselves and impart an impulse. Wherefore from the fact that some body is joined to one side of the earth, the center of gravity will be changed, and a trembling motion in the earth will follow, as we have said; and the more that body will weigh on that side, the greater the impulse it will impart to the earth; and therefore that part of the earth will then gravitate more, and consequently for that time the earth will move with greater trembling motion, because its center of gravity will be farther distant from the center of the world, and therefore will tend toward it with all its force, so that it may rest in it as in its ultimate center and that of the whole world. Thus Vasquez geometrically and precisely. But this inequality of weights, and consequently the inequality of gravity of the sides of the earth, is so slight, if compared with so vast a mass and globe of the earth, that it is imperceptible and insensible. For God has so opposed water to the earth that the earth sustains and has equal weight in every part of itself; wherefore this motion of oscillation and trembling of the earth, if it exists at all, is so slight as to be insensible. Wherefore, speaking physically, the center of roundness of the earth is the same as the center of gravity of the earth, and consequently both coincide and consist in the center of the whole universe, so that therefore the Wise Man truly says here: "The earth abideth for ever," as our Christopher Clavius learnedly teaches in chapter 1 of the Sphere. Tropologically, Nyssenus, in homily 1, thus expounds it, as if to say: "Be ye steadfast and immovable," 1 Corinthians 15:58. "Let temperance remain unshaken in thee, let faith be firm, let charity be unchangeable, let thy station in all good be stable and immovable, so that the earth which is in thee may stand for ever. But if anyone, being avaricious, grasps at many riches, and spreading forth cupidity like some immense sea, cannot be satisfied with gains, let him, looking upon the sea which is here, cure his disease;" so that just as the sea, receiving all the waters of rivers, does not overflow, because it sends them forth again through vapors, or through springs and rivers: so likewise the rich man should pour forth the riches and gains with which he abounds upon the poor. The earth therefore teaches man constancy and perseverance in good, against all generations of persecutors. For these pass away, even if one succeeds another, so that in this manner the faithful man may constantly hold the image of eternity to which he aspires (of which the earth is likewise a symbol), according to that saying of St. Bernard: "If you are not exalted in prosperity, nor depressed in adversity, but maintain the same constancy and tenor of mind, you will hold a certain image of eternity." The same St. Bernard, sermon 2 On Sts. Peter and Paul: "Moses, Deuteronomy XXXII, says of certain ones: Would that they were wise, and understood, and provided for the last things! In which words indeed I see three things commended to us, wisdom, understanding, providence. I believe these can be assigned to three times, so that a certain image of eternity appears to be reformed in us, moderating present things through wisdom, judging past things through understanding, providing for the last things with caution." Allegorically therefore the earth represents the Church in persecutions; tropologically, the holy soul constant in temptations; anagogically, the triumphant Church and enjoying constant eternity, according to that of the Psalmist: "I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." For the earth of the dying is the arena of those contending; the earth of the living is the kingdom of the Saints, says St. Augustine, "In the land of the dying my hope is God, in the land of the living my portion is God," says the same in Psalm CXI. Again, the earth standing forever is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who always stood in grace, and thus stood by Christ even to the cross and death, and always assists all who invoke her with her aid. Thus St. Augustine, book II On Genesis Against the Manichaeans, chapter IV: "The fountain," he says, "rose up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the earth, that is, the dignity of the earth, the Mother of the Lord Virgin Mary is most rightly understood, whom the Holy Spirit watered, who is signified by the name of fountain and water in the Gospel, so that such a man from the clay of the earth would be made, who was placed in paradise to work there and to keep it, that is, in the will of the Father, to fulfill and to keep it."
1:5
(Hebrew and Septuagint, rising) You may ask, to what end is the rising, setting and rotation of the sun introduced here? First, you should take these things plainly as they sound, as if Solomon here signifies a certain vanity to exist not only in the earth and earthly things, but also in the sun and the heavens, so that it is an argument from the lesser to the greater, that is to say: The sun itself and the heavens have vanity, that is, instability. For all things are constantly rotating and turning, and as it were moving in a circle they go and return; how much more therefore are man and all earthly things vain and unstable, and pass away and vanish! Whence Didymus and Nyssenus in the Greek Catena: "This, he says, is what he wishes to convey: considering the nature of this universe, whether you consider those things which are in the sun, or those which are in the sea, or those which are in the heavens, you will understand your own nature; for just as this sun has its rising and setting, so also our nature has its rising and setting." And St. Jerome: "But he says this for this reason, to teach that by the changes of times and by the rising and setting of the stars, human life passes away, and perishes while it knows not." Second, this verse can be referred to the generation that passes away and the generation that comes, verse 4, so as to signify the circulation of all things, that is to say: All things in the world are circulating and go and return in a circle: therefore nothing in it is fixed and stable, to which you may fix your heart. I prove the antecedent, because generations rotate and are circular, while one constantly passes away and another arrives. Thus likewise the sun rotates, while it constantly rises and sets; thus also the winds and rivers. And from this he concludes in verse 10, that there is nothing new under the sun, but all things go and return in a circle. Moreover, just as in the circulation of generations, the earth as the subject of all of them stands constantly: so in the circulation of the sun the sun itself remains the same, and the motion, going and returning of the sun. The same is true of the winds and rivers, which all flow into the sea, and it receives all things, and yet does not overflow. Third, this verse can be taken more forcefully, so that just as the preceding verse gave the material cause of generations, namely the earth: so this one gives their efficient cause, namely why generations constantly succeed one another on the earth. For the cause is the rotation of the sun, which now approaching with its light brings spring and heat, by which herbs germinate and animals reproduce, now withdrawing and removing itself brings winter and cold, by which plants and animals dry up and die. For since the sun is constantly moved with restless and agitated motion, changes place, alternates hemispheres, it is necessary that likewise the sublunary things, which depend on it, are constantly moved, and their rising and setting alternate. Wherefore the cause of the inconstancy and fugacity of earthly things is the inconstancy and fugacity of the sun. Thus St. Jerome, Alcuin and Nyssenus, whom hear: "The life of mortals is worn away by day succeeding day, and by the parts and revolutions of the year, and by the certain and defined courses of the sun, now preceding, now gradually receding." Hence the sun in Hebrew and Chaldean is called שמש scemes, that is, minister, because as it were it serves God and nature in the generation of things, and because it is a minister to us working, and as it were carries a torch before us. Fourth, our Pineda refers this verse to the preceding human ignorance, which is noted in verse 8. For from the science of astronomy, which is most excellent and most pleasant, nothing more certain can be had about it than that the sun with the other stars rises and sets, and repeats the same courses always. Finally Olympiodorus: "He shows, he says, the certain course and arrangement of the sun, so that it may lift us up to the contemplation of him who made the sun. But it is moved with an eternal motion, as some argue from the words of Ezra thus saying: Great is the earth, and high is the heaven, and swift in course is the sun, and it turns in the circle of heaven, and returns to its place in one day, as if to say: This sun also, although great, compared to the sun of justice, is vanity. But understand it thus in the mystical sense. The sun rises in the hearts of the faithful, directing those still making progress to those things which are to be done; but it also sets in them, when they inquire into the heights of meanings, and thus a greater desire of knowledge is kindled in them." Note on "renascens," that is, rising again: for the rising of the sun appears to be its own birth, because the sun is seen to be born from the dawn as an offspring from a mother, and this is believed by the unlearned. Whence the riddle: "I am the daughter of my mother, and soon I myself give birth from me;" which, just as it is said of snow, which is born from water and again is resolved into water, so also can be said of the sun, which is seen to be born from the dawn and the day, and in turn the rising sun and the day are brought forth by it. Indeed, some philosophers and poets believed that the sun is truly born from fiery vapors coming together. Whence Lucretius, book V, thus depicts the dawn and the rising of the sun: The ether's dawn he spreads abroad, and opens up the lights, Either because that same sun, returning beneath the earth, Anticipates, attempting to set the sky ablaze with rays: Or because fires come together, and many seeds Which always cause the sun's new lights to be born. Thus also Epicurus held that the sun perishes at sunset and is reborn at rising, as Cleomedes testifies, book II. Allegorically, St. Chrysostom, homily On the Turtledove, vol. V: "There has risen for us," he says, "the sun of justice, Christ, born of St. Mary according to the flesh. For 'Oriens' is indeed his name, Zechariah III, 6. But he sets when after the cross he descended to the underworld, and returns to his place, he himself saying: When I shall be lifted up, I will draw all things to myself," John XII. Concerning this sun of justice, Malachi also pronounces, saying in chapter IV: "In those days the sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings." Where I have said more about this matter. Christ therefore, like the sun, rose at his nativity, set in his death, rose again, and as it were was reborn in his resurrection, says Olympiodorus: for the sun by its light, splendor, heat, efficacy, and vivification is a symbol of God and Christ, as I have shown through many analogies in Isaiah XLV, 1. Again, St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, octon. 12: "The sun rises," he says, "for the just, but sets for the unjust; it rises for the tranquility of a pious mind, it sets for anger; whence he says: Let not the sun go down upon your anger; from this it can be gathered that for those same ones it both rises and sets, whose vices it buries and whose grace it illuminates; for he died to sin, that he might live to God, that is, we died to sin in him, that we might live to God forever. See this mystery foretold: And the sun rises, he says, and sets, and draws to its place, that is what the Lord says: When I shall be lifted up, I will draw all things to myself. For he drew to himself the pursuits of all, so that he might either crucify our sins, or provoke good nature to justice. Observe how he draws to himself: Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me. And to the thief he says: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise. Observe how he draws all things. He was exalted on the cross, and the whole world believed." Tropologically, although the sun is the most brilliant star of the world, "the eye of heaven, the ruler of times, the leader of the stars, the giver of life, the father of living things," as St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, oration 2 On Theology, and "the express image of divine goodness," as St. Dionysius says, chapter IV On the Divine Names, nevertheless that same sun is also a mirror and example of vanity: first, because it is unstable and always rotates, rises and sets, and does so daily and most swiftly: for daily it circles the whole earth; wherefore it represents vividly the brevity, rising, setting and death of human life: for the sun by its continual and most swift motion describes, defines and numbers the hours, days, months and years of our life. Thus St. Jerome, the Nyssene, Olympiodorus and others. Second, the sun is most inconstant, while at each moment it changes place and region, and in turn traverses each sign of the zodiac; wherefore it is a symbol of human inconstancy, and namely represents the inconstancy and circular motion of concupiscence, as the Greek text has it, Wisdom IV, 12. Thus R. Haccados in Galatinus: "Although the sun," he says, "and the celestial spheres revolve with restless motions upon their axes, they attain nothing new, nothing of perfection: not otherwise surely those who loosen the reins to their appetites, and by those same as it were versatile axes of their concupiscences are rotated about, attain nothing of advantage or good. To serve therefore the appetites of nature and the motions of the mind is utter vanity." Third, the sun is sometimes elevated to the highest point, and shines brightly at midday; but immediately it descends, and diminishes its light and splendor for us, and loses it entirely at its setting: thus likewise man is sometimes raised to high degrees of honors, celebrity and glory; but soon, with the turning of fortune's wheel, he is brought low, and often in life, always in death, all his glory perishes and sets. Thus the Nyssenus. Learn therefore modesty from the sun, and "in the day of good things be mindful of evil things, and remember poverty in the time of abundance," as Ecclesiasticus admonishes, cap. XVIII, 23; for the sun suffers darkness in the evening, indeed, departing, it brings it on. For, as Pliny says, lib. II, cap. X, it is clear that "night is nothing other than the shadow of the earth." But shadow and darkness are a type of obscurity and adversity. Again, the sun suffers an eclipse by the interposition of the moon, which is a type of defect and of human happiness. Finally Pliny, lib. II, cap. XII: "Who," he says, "beholding the appointed labors of the stars, would not pardon his own necessity, being born mortal?" Fourth, the sun, although beneficial to many, is nevertheless harmful to others, because with excessive heat it dries up and burns: wherefore the sun, by which "being risen, the good seeds of God and the shoots of virtues were scorched and dried up," is the devil and his temptations, as Christ expounds, Mark IV, 6, 15 and 17, and there St. Chrysostom and Nazianzenus, oration 1. Fifth, in the Hebrew the vau conversive is repeated, that is, that which turns past tense into future. Whence thus from the Hebrew word for word with Pagnino you would translate, and the sun shall rise, and shall enter, or the sun shall set; where it has emphasis and amplification, and signifies that the sun is wholly in going and returning, and that continuously and constantly (for the future tense in Hebrew signifies continuity and constancy). Again, for "returns" in Hebrew it is "pants," which all symbolically signify man seized by his desires, wholly borne along in them, forgetful of things past and future; for thus burning with most rapid course he is snatched along as it were hot and panting. Hence the common people think the sun is drawn by oxen, which in the evening, tired and panting, draw the sun with them at its setting to the stable, so that they may rest together there, as Pliny relates, lib. II, cap. XCVIII, and Seneca, lib. III Natur. quaest. cap. XXVI. But the poets fable that the sun in the evening, panting, immerses itself in the sea, so that it may be refreshed and cooled there, as Strabo testifies, lib. I. Hence that line of Catullus, lib. II: The river washes the panting horses of the sun. And that of Virgil, lib. XII Aeneid.: When day arises, when first from the deep waters The horses of the sun raise themselves, and breathe forth light from their raised nostrils. And that of Boethius, lib. III De Consolatione: Phoebus falls into the Hesperian waves. But by a secret path again He turns his accustomed chariot toward the risings. But truly the same sun is to man a pattern and example of true truth and genuine virtue rather than of vanity and vice: first, because being heavenly it teaches man to think of and love heavenly things; second, because by its light it teaches him to work the works of light, that is, of virtue, Ephesians chapter V, 8; third, because by its great speed, and that continuous and always of the same tenor, it teaches man that he ought to be diligent and unwearied in labors, so that in them he may always persevere with the same tenor; fourth, because by its heat, by which it vivifies all things, it teaches man charity and zeal, by which spirit endowed with apostolic fervor he may inflame all to the love of God; fifth, returning from setting to its place, that is the east, scoeph, that is it pants, that is with the greatest eagerness, with the most rapid movement, and with the most ardent desire it is borne and snatched away, panting as it were with drawn breath, in the manner of those who hasten somewhere with speed, or who wish to attain quickly the end of some work. This panting of the sun teaches man, wearied by labor, to renew his strength and spirit by meditation and prayer, by which we draw the grace of God, so that through the renewal of spirit he may sharpen his pious desires, and continually begin new works with new spirit, new fervor and ardor. So that as a mystical sun you never depart from your zodiac, that is your appointed course, and running through it, strive to illuminate all by the example of your life. Now lift yourself up above things subject to corruption through the exercises of prayer. Now subject yourself to your neighbors through honest actions; but after you have labored for some time, return to your place, that is to the quiet of your own examination and amendment. Say to your soul each month: "Return, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee," Psalm CXIV, 7. Where note that the East is called "its place," because it is proper to the sun: either because the sun was created by God in the East, as Severianus wishes; or because it rises in the East and is as it were born there. For the place of birth is called one's own and proper place. Therefore he calls the East as it were the cradle of the sun and of day: either because the sun, declining from the East and setting, always returns to the East, and is reborn there; or because it first shows itself to be seen in the East, and appears to us most beautiful, namely rosy, golden-haired and flaming. To this pertains that from Psalm XVIII, which I cited a little before: "He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way," which is said literally of the sun, allegorically of Christ and the Apostles. Whence St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in the oration which is in praise of St. Basil, comparing him to the sun: "It is praised," he says, "in David the beauty and greatness of the sun, and its course and speed, and its force and power; for indeed it represents a bridegroom in splendor, a giant in magnitude, and progressing far and wide has such force that it illuminates the extremes equally from the extremes, nor is its heat diminished in any way by the intervals of places. But to Basil beauty was virtue, magnitude was theology, course was the perpetual agitation of virtue, bearing through daily ascents to God; power was the seed of doctrine and its distribution. Therefore I need not fear to say even this, that his sound went forth into all the earth, and the force of his words to the ends of the world; which Paul said of the Apostles, borrowing from David." Finally, the sun appears as it were a certain god of bodies, since it itself is supremely eminent above all bodies, and bestows the heap of all goods; hence it is most justly called (because it truly is) the fountain of all corporeal good, because there is nothing in bodies subject to it which does not flow from it as from a fountain. Is life a good? but the sun vivifies all bodies capable of life. Is health a good? but by its motion it brings the health of mortals. Is duration a good? but it preserves all things. Is increase a good? but it arranges and governs all things. Is beauty a good? but it adorns all things by its splendor. Is pleasure a good? but by its charm it wonderfully refreshes the eyes. For sweet is the light, as it is in Ecclesiastes, and it is delightful for the eyes to see the sun. It is he who makes the earth fertile with plants, metals, animals. It is he who makes water fertile with fish. It is he who adorns the air with his splendor as with a garment. It is he who illuminates the moon, the stars and all the celestial spheres. Finally from the highest heaven down to the deepest bowels of the earth, he fills all things with his influence, cherishes and protects them. O most beautiful image of my Christ! O most fair footprint of my leader! I praise him who placed his tabernacle in you; I glorify him who created you so fair, so agile, so strong, so admirable, that in you and in your effects he might show me his singular charity. Be thou also, O Christian, in the manner of Christ, just as if thou hadst been left by Him, or rather made by Him to be the sun of the world. Thou shalt be a sun in heaven; for "the just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," Matthew XIII. Be therefore also a sun on earth, a sun in contemplation, a sun in action, a sun in the forum, a sun in the school, a sun in the temple, a sun at table, a sun in the bedchamber, that thou mayest illuminate all, kindle all, vivify all. These and many more things our Alvarez de Paz, book III On the Nature of Perfection, part III, chapter XXVIII. Thus the rising sun was St. Francis Xavier. "It goeth about towards the South, and turneth towards the North." Hebrew, going towards the South, and circling towards the North; Septuagint, it goeth towards the South, and gyrateth towards the North; Syriac, it goeth towards the South, and circleth towards the North; Symmachus, it goeth towards the South, and circumeth towards the North; others, it declineth, surroundeth, deflecteth, turneth towards the North; Chaldean, it goeth through the whole southern region, in the equinox of April, and in the solstice of June; circling round about the spirit goeth to the northern region in the equinox of September, and in the solstice of December it goeth forth from the eastern exit in the morning, and entereth at the western entrance in the evening. The Chaldean therefore judgeth that in this verse are noted the four seasons of the sun and year, namely the double equinox, and the double solstice, that is the summer and winter solstice. Some judge this to be said according to the opinion of certain ancients, who, as Aristotle testifieth, book II of Meteorology, chapter I, thought that the whole world according to the northern part riseth up on high, according to the southern part however is depressed not only in the celestial but also in the terrestrial globe. Wherefore the sun doth not circle the earth round about, but by day traverseth the South only, but by night deflecteth towards the North, that under its hump it may lie hidden and be concealed. They confirm this from that passage of Isaiah XIV: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the North," as if namely the North were the higher part of heaven. But all these things are repugnant to astronomy, theology and Holy Scripture, which teacheth that the globe is round, and therefore the North is not higher than the southern part, and so the sun and heaven are plainly rotated in a round sphere, and circle and traverse the whole terrestrial globe in every direction. Again others say that the sun moveth daily towards the South, when it moveth towards the meridian: for when it reacheth it, it is midday; but when it transpasseth it and receedeth from it, it appeareth to decline towards the North. But they err, because the meridian, which maketh midday, is one thing; the South, or the region of the southern world, is another. For the Zodiac obliquely and laterally cutteth the meridian between the South and the North; whence it cometh to pass that the sun running through the Zodiac and passing the meridian, now inclineth and goeth towards the South, now towards the North, according to the southern or austral signs which it traverseth and runneth through, as may be seen with the eye in the sphere. Therefore, both these opinions being rejected, this passage can be understood in two ways, namely first, of the daily motion of the sun; for of that he said: "The sun riseth, and goeth down," that is to say, the Sun while it moveth from rising to setting, gyrateth towards the South and turneth towards the North; secondly, of the annual motion. Of the diurnal and daily motion understand St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the Nyssenus, Hugh, Lyra, Valesius and Titelmannus. Of the annual: St. Jerome, Olympiodorus, Theophilus, epistle 3 Paschal; Cajetan, Pineda and others. First therefore of the daily motion thus expoundeth Lyra and St. Thomas writing in chapter XXXVII of Job: By the North, say they, is understood our hemisphere, which respecteth the arctic or northern pole; by the South however is understood the opposite hemisphere, in which are the antipodes, which respecteth the antarctic or southern pole, that is to say, the Sun rising in our arctic hemisphere moveth through it towards the South, that is, tendeth towards the antarctic hemisphere, namely towards the antipodes; when it reacheth there, again it bendeth towards the North, that is tendeth, and returneth to us, and our hemisphere which is under the arctic pole. But the sun properly gyrateth through the South in our hemisphere, while it exhibiteth to us the meridian hours. Midday therefore is in our horizon, and a part of our hemisphere; wherefore by the South is not understood the antarctic pole and the antipodes. Wherefore Francis Valesius answers more precisely and aptly, in his Sacred Philosophy, cap. LXII, that this circuit of the sun from South to North is true and truly appears to those who dwell under the tropic of Cancer (but not to those who dwell under the equinoctial in the right sphere), as do the Italians, Spanish, Syrians and Palestinians, among whom Solomon wrote these things. For they, since they have an oblique sphere, hence the sun moves obliquely for them, gyrating toward the South, and thence bending toward the North. "For an oblique and broken line proceeds through the South toward the North, and thus returns toward the East," says St. Jerome. And Valesius demonstrates this by this mathematical reasoning: For on whatever day a man turns his face toward that part where the sun rises, and thence drawing through his zenith a line, describes a great circle, and in imagination divides the world into two equal parts, that half of the world toward which his right hand will look he will call the South, toward which his left hand looks the North or the North, because he will have the pole on his left, and on his right the meridian. the motion of the sun: but daily after the sun has gyrated through the South, intersecting that great circle (which is the line of longitude) it will bend toward the opposite half of the sky; wherefore it will bend toward the North. But that it intersects that line daily is established, because when the sun is borne through the equinoctial, it describes a great circle; but two great circles cannot fail to intersect each other through the middle; when, however, the sun cannot recede from the equinoctial except by thirty degrees, and the obliquity of the sphere in the said places is greater (which the elevation of the pole from the horizon indicates), it happens that the sun never traverses a circle which does not intersect that great circle, even if not through the middle and into equal parts. But if it intersects, certainly it bends toward the North. Most truly therefore the sun, from the moment it rises, gyrates through the South, and deflecting toward the North returns to its place. The reason therefore why to those dwelling under the tropic of Cancer, the sun, while it is in the northern signs, appears to decline toward the South, and thence to be reflected toward the North, is the obliquity of position, equally as of the zodiac. For since they dwell in an oblique sphere, hence they have a more oblique zodiac, in which the sun perpetually moves, and which therefore gyrating appears to them to oblique its course, and not in direct motion, but in oblique gyration toward the South, thence to regyrate toward the North, while it tends toward the West. This obliquity is hinted at by the word gyrat, and in Hebrew סואב soeb, that is, it circuits. For in obliquity there are gyrations, bendings and circuitings, by which the sun wanders. For since the zodiac obliquely cuts the equinoctial, equally as the meridian, which makes the South for us, so that its upper part, where the sun rises for us, touches the tropic of Cancer, and is near the arctic circle, which regards the arctic pole or the North; its lower part, however, touches the tropic of Capricorn, and is near the antarctic circle, which regards the antarctic or southern pole. Hence it happens that the sun rising for us in the tropic of Cancer, while it is in the northern signs, appears in the morning to be borne from the northern east toward the meridian, that is toward the South, and then to decline toward the North, so that it tends toward the West: it appears, I say, to him who stands under the vertical circle, which the meridian cuts at midday, with his face turned toward the rising of the sun; and this is done both by the obliquity of position and of the sphere, and by the curvature of the circle of the zodiac and of the circulation in the motion of the sun. For this after midday is curved, and bent from the meridian and the South, and more approaches and inclines toward the North, so that it may proceed toward the West; for the zodiac in which the sun always moves by its ecliptic line, from the tropic of Cancer which regards the North, obliquely tends toward the equator, and toward the meridian, and obliquely cuts it; which done obliquely regyrates and is reflected through the North toward the West, where the sun sets, while, as I said, it passes through the northern signs. To Valesius agrees our Christopher Clavius in the Sphere of Sacrobosco, cap. II, pag. 145, where he teaches that the southern and northern part, or the South and North can be taken in three ways with respect to three circles, namely the zodiac, the equator and the vertical circle, which indeed passes through both poles and the zenith, that is the vertex of our head, and divides our hemisphere into two parts, the southern, which is toward the South, and the northern, which inclines toward the North; and this third acceptance of northern and southern serves very much for clocks. Hear Clavius: "From three circles, namely the zodiac, the equator and the vertical properly so called, the sphere is divided in three ways by astronomers into the northern and southern hemisphere, etc. From this acceptance of the vertical it happens that the sun running through the northern signs, according to its rising and setting is said to be Northern; for the remaining time of the day before and after midday, it is called Southern." This sense of the daily and quotidian motion of the sun the Vulgate version seems to require, which has, gyrat per meridiem, although the Hebrew and the Septuagint have, vadit ad Meridiem. Secondly, this passage can be understood of the annual motion of the sun, or of the approach and recession of the sun between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, so that just as by "the sun rises and the sun sets" he expressed the diurnal motion of the sun, by which daily according to the motion of the first movable sphere through twelve hours of the day it is borne from rising to setting: so by "it gyrates toward the South," or, as it is in Hebrew, toward the South, and "turns toward the North," let him express the annual motion of the sun, that is to say, the Sun from the tropic of Cancer gyrates toward the South and Meridian, that is toward the tropic of Capricorn, which is southern, because it faces the Antarctic or southern pole; when it reaches there, it turns again and returns toward the North, that is toward the tropic of Cancer, which faces the Arctic pole, or the northern and northern pole. For the Sun always moves between these two tropics, and when it has gone around both, it has completed its annual course and circle. For the sun never exceeds these two tropics, because these two tropics contain and bound the zodiac, in which the sun always moves. Wherefore the sun, while it is in the tropic of Cancer, passes through six summer signs (which however mathematicians call Boreal, because they face the Arctic or northern pole, as Clavius says in cap. II of the Sphere, page 112), which are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo; it enters Aries in March; hence on March 21 it makes the equinox almost everywhere on earth. These six having been traversed, it enters the tropic of Capricorn, and passes through six winter signs (which however mathematicians call Austral, because they face the Antarctic pole, which is southern), which are: Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces; these having been traversed, with the course and year completed it returns to the tropic of Cancer, and its six summer signs already mentioned, and thus it begins a new course and year. The sun enters Libra in September; hence on September 21 it makes the autumnal equinox. THE SUN THEREFORE GYRATES TOWARD THE SOUTH (Hebrew, toward the South; Septuagint, toward the South, that is toward the South), AND TURNS TOWARD THE NORTH,—when from the tropic of Cancer which faces the North, it passes through the semicircle of the zodiac opposite to that tropic, and its six summer signs, and through them runs and tends toward the tropic of Capricorn; for this faces the South, that is the Antarctic or Southern pole, when it reaches there, it turns again and gyrates back toward the North, that is toward the tropic of Cancer, which faces the Arctic or Northern pole. Again our Pineda interprets "toward the South," which the Vulgate has, that is to say, from the South or across the South, or beyond the South. Perhaps it could be explained more plainly thus: "The Sun gyrates toward the South," that is through the summer signs, which bring great heat and summer, so that the six signs of the tropic of Cancer already reviewed are called by Ecclesiastes Southern, because they are summer signs (even though mathematicians call them contrarily Boreal, which face the Arctic or Northern pole, as I said a little before), and conversely the six opposite signs of Capricorn are called by Ecclesiastes Northern, because they are winter and cold (even though mathematicians call them Austral, because they face the Antarctic or Southern pole). For the Hebrew דרום darom, equally as the Latin meridies, often denotes the summer and hot region: for such is the South; but the North denotes the winter and cold region, for such is the North. Finally, many and grave authors, who hold that the world was created by God in September; for then is the time of fruits, which it is clear were created at the beginning of the world from the forbidden apple, which Adam ate (although others no less probably hold that the world was created in spring, when all things flourish and are pleasant, namely on the 25th day of March, on which day Christ was incarnate and after 34 years died, so that on this same day the world was created by God, recreated and redeemed by Christ, as I said in Genesis I, and in the Chronology which I prefixed to the Acts of the Apostles for the year of Christ 34): these, I say, who wish the world to have been established in September, thus explain it, that is to say, the Sun begins its course in September, and "gyrates toward the South," that is, runs through the six southern signs of the mathematicians already reviewed, which are in the tropic of Capricorn: these having been traversed, "it turns toward the North," that is, runs through the six northern signs, which are in the tropic of Cancer. These therefore hold that the beginning of the common year was originally September, although afterwards in the time of Moses, God ordained that the first month should be Nisan, that is March, or April, because that is the Paschal month; hence he commanded the Hebrews to begin their year from it, Exodus XII, verses 1 and seq., which the Romans afterwards followed, until Julius Caesar ordained that the year should begin from January; which in honor of the nativity and circumcision of Christ the Christians followed. Therefore by this phrase, "gyrates toward the South," that is toward the South or the Austral region, and "turns toward the North," is signified the annual course of the sun between the two tropics, namely of Cancer and Capricorn. For the sun always moves from Cancer to Capricorn, and from Capricorn to Cancer: from the North to the South, and conversely from the South to the North. In sum, Ecclesiastes notes here a twofold motion of the sun, namely first, a common and diurnal motion, by which motion the first movable is moved daily from east to west, and thence returns to the east; secondly, a proper and annual motion, by which in the space of one year it successively traverses the zodiac in its ecliptic line, of which one half declines from the equator toward the South, the other toward the North or the Boreal region. Thus therefore the sun in one part of the year moves from the North toward the South, and then is said to be Boreal; in the other part from the South toward the North, and then is said to be Austral. It moves from the North toward the South when it traverses the semicircle of the zodiac from Aries through Cancer as far as Libra, that is from March as far as September, during which time it traverses six boreal signs already mentioned. It moves truly from the South toward the North while it traverses the other semicircle of the zodiac from Libra through Capricorn as far as Aries, during which time it passes through six austral signs, which it accomplishes from September as far as March. In brief, Ecclesiastes wishes to say that the sun by its proper and annual course now moves toward the South, now toward the North, just as by its diurnal motion it moves from East to West, and thus successively passes through, purifies, and makes fertile all regions of the world. He names the South first, because the austral part of the world is more worthy, more pleasant, warmer and more fertile than the boreal: he wishes nevertheless only to say that the sun successively now moves toward the South, now toward the North, indeed now through the South, now through the North, nor does he care whether it moves first toward the South or first toward the North. This appears to be the genuine and solid exposition of this passage, according to the sense and phrase of mathematicians. Furthermore, Ecclesiastes says this for this end and purpose, says Pineda, as if to say: The sun, not content with the motion of one hemisphere in a day, also attempts and traverses the opposite regions of the sky, but on account of this has not thereby obtained anything of greater rest or happiness from annual labor than from daily labor, finding nothing in the South or North greater than in the East or West. In which you see represented the inconstancy of the human heart, and that as it were innate desire of changing places, and always seeking new stations, so that it might fare better and acquire some gain or happier condition; but in vain, for place does not diminish cupidity, nor strips the soul of internal passions, but rather exacerbates them and increases troubles, according to that saying: "They change the sky, not their soul, who run across the sea." See St. Basil, epistle 1 to Gregory the Theologian, and Seneca, epistle 28, who excellently proves this very thing from Socrates, Virgil, and Horace; and the same Seneca, in the book On the Tranquility of Life, where among other things, book I, chapter XII, he cites and praises that saying of Democritus: "He who wishes to live tranquilly should neither do many things privately nor carry himself publicly to superfluous matters." Wherefore he who sitting in his cell converses with God and angels, he rests in his God, and rejoices and enjoys in Him, and therefore his cell is to him a prelude of heaven, indeed an earthly heaven, as to St. Bernard his cell was like heaven. Therefore Ecclesiastes signifies here that the sun moves from east to west, and gyrates through the South and North, and thus passes through the four climates of the world, and gyrates and circles through the whole circumference of the world, so that namely it purifies, illuminates, heats, vivifies all men, and all animals and plants which in any region of the globe, even of the other hemisphere opposite to ours, dwell and live: for the sun by gyrating passes through and purifies that. Our Pontanus brings forth an acute riddle of the sun, volume III of Progymnasmata, part I, chapter XLI: What animal do you think it to be, which is wholly mobile and is an eye, nor does any part remain past. Daily it begets offspring born without a mother; yet that one perishes on this very same day. Its sister likewise is created without a father present, having divided the empire of her brother and his destruction. For the sun is wholly an eye, and by its light begets the day, by its absence the night, which is as it were the sister of the day; but day and night alternately rule the globe, and successively destroy each other. Symbolically again, this very swift motion and revolution of the sun denotes that man ought to be swift in all beneficence. Cyril has a pleasant apology concerning this matter of the sun and darkness, in book III of his Moral Apologies, chapter XXIV: "When the sun rose," he says, "in the first beginning of the East, having poured forth most abundant light, it soon put to flight the darkness from every part of the uninhabited hemisphere. Then darkness complained to it thus: Why with such great impetus of largesse, with such sudden influx of emission, have you poured forth the splendors of your rays upon the earth? Was it not sufficient to flow in gradually with due moderation, and thus to put me to flight more courteously with modest contrariety? But he answered: You are darkness, and therefore filled with the blindness of ignorance, as you have spoken being darkness. Truly you did not know the measure of liberal giving: for when there is great will in giving, and ability is present, the speed in pouring forth is not less. Thus he who was able to pour forth and delayed, desired what he held, nor did he give with full will. The speed of giving poured forth is a clear mirror of free will. For it is clearly shown that virtue, not what is given, is loved! But virtue consists in free will. Have you heard what is said in Proverbs: He who gives quickly, gives twice; namely twice, because both will and the thing itself. Or certainly he gives twice, because by will and by deed: whence he did not give by will, who delayed to give the whole thing by his own work from without. For where ability to give was present, and delay intervened, there will was not present. Truly if giving is loved, it is not delayed." Then he demonstrates the same by the example of fountains and heavens: "Attend, I pray, with what impetus fountains given by nature gush forth, winds are poured out, heaven revolves to give benefit, and substantial form bestows itself wholly upon matter and in a point of time. Therefore, the more swiftly benefit is given, the more willingly is it given; and the more liberally, the more dearly is it received and more joyfully possessed. When these things had been said, darkness disappeared." The phrase "the vault gyrates" signifies that heaven is round and spherical, so that it can be revolved and circled about by the sun in an orb. Hence it is evident that there are antipodes, that is, those with feet turned away, who namely fix their feet opposite and adverse to us, or, as Cicero says in the Dream of Scipio: "Adverse footsteps press upon us." Many of old denied that there were antipodes, such as Lactantius, St. Augustine, Pliny, Aristotle, Lucretius, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, but they were persuaded by various and different reasons. For Lactantius, in book III of the Institutes, chapter XXIV, and book VII, chapter XXIII, the reason was that he ridiculously feared lest those adverse to us, as if hanging upside down, should fall into heaven. Wherefore he held that heaven is not spherical, nor does it encompass the whole earth, but only this hemisphere of ours, and is bounded within its limits. Thus also St. Chrysostom, homily 14 and 17 on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Theodoret and Theophylact on chapter VIII to the Hebrews, and St. Augustine doubts, in book II of Genesis according to the letter, chapter IX. But the reason of St. Augustine was that he thought the part of earth opposite was covered by waters, and therefore uninhabitable; or if some part were not covered by waters, it could not be penetrated on account of the immense spaces of the seas which lie between us and that part. Wherefore he saw no way how men descended from Adam could have reached there. For from Scripture it is clear that there are no other men than those who descend from Adam. Thus he himself, in book XVI of the City of God, chapter IX: "It is too absurd," he says, "to say that some men were able to navigate and arrive from this part to that part, the immensity of the Ocean having been crossed, so that even there the human race was established from that one first man." The same was the opinion and reason of St. Gregory Nazianzen, epistle 71 to Posthumian. Finally, the reason of Aristotle was that from the five zones of the earth he held only two lateral ones to be habitable, namely those which lie beneath the two tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. For he held the middle one to be uninhabitable on account of heat, the two outermost on account of cold: wherefore through those there was and is no passage into another world; for no one then navigated beyond the Pillars of Hercules and Gades. Whence Charles V, surpassing them, inscribed upon them: Plus ultra. Thus Aristotle, in book II of Meteorology, chapter V, and Pliny, in book II, chapter LXVIII. But the Ecclesiastes here refutes all these reasons, asserting that the sun gyrates around the earth through all the regions of the world, so as to traverse the antipodes. Experience teaches the same thing more clearly: for from one hundred and thirty years ago Christopher Columbus and the other followers of his, Spanish and Portuguese navigators, discovered a new world and antipodes, namely Peru, Mexico, Brazil, etc. See our Joseph Acosta, book I On the New World, chapter I and following. And our Conimbricenses in book II On the Heavens, chapter XV, Question II, article 2, and Christopher Clavius in chapter I of Sacrobosco's Sphere, page 406 and 107, where he teaches that the earth is situated in the middle of the world and rests there immovably, so that it is the center of gravity equally for the antipodes as for us. Hence again it is evident that the heaven is spherical or round, and that the sun gyrates around it in an orbit. Physicists and mathematicians demonstrate this. Read the Conimbricenses, book II On the Heavens, chapter IV, Question I, and Clavius in the Sphere; although some of the Fathers seem to deny it, such as Justin, Question CXXX to the Orthodox (although that work does not appear to be of St. Justin, but of another, who is posterior to him, indeed to Origen); St. Ambrose, book I Hexameron; St. Chrysostom, homily 14 and 17 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Theodoret in chapter VIII to the Hebrews (who nevertheless changed his opinion, Question XX in Genesis); Lactantius, book III Institutes chapter XXIII; Procopius in chapter I Genesis, and Theophylactus in chapter VIII to the Hebrews. Allegorically, Christ the sun of justice gyrated through the South, when preaching he traversed Judaea which is a southern region; then he turned toward the North, when to the nations cold and stiff in infidelity and torpor he sent the Apostles, who illuminated them with the splendor of faith and inflamed them with the heat of charity. Thus St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, octon. 12: "He himself (Christ) rising goes toward the South, and gyrates toward the North. He indeed rising, who says: Rising is my name; who always rises for the pious, never sets. He himself rising for the people of the Hebrews, went toward the South, toward a softer people, more fervent in the lubricity of the body through luxury than hardened by the savagery of impiety: or certainly toward a more noble people, which was an elect nation, claiming for himself the lineage of the Patriarchs; but because it persevered in vices and did not amend its error, therefore the sun of justice gyrated toward the nations, which before were defrauded of heavenly words and held to be savage and ignoble. For the North is a harsh wind, like the peoples of the nations, but those who were harsh before in perfidy, now made lighter than eagles by faith and piety, after he came who would say: From the East I will bring thy seed, and from the West I will gather thee. I will say to the North: Bring, and to the South: Do not forbid. And in the Gospel: They shall come from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God: and behold they are last who were first, and are first who were last. Finally the Psalmist himself also says: Mount Sion, the sides of the North, the city of the great King; that is, those who were the side of the North, became a people of the eternal King, who alone is great Lord." And below after some things: "See therefore our sun coming toward the South, afterwards gyrating toward the North, etc., so that God might be all things and in all. Therefore the holy is called heaven, because the brightness of the sun always illuminates it more closely. It has its own domestic splendor, so that it does not feel the darkness of night. Therefore the Church is called both heaven and world, because it has saints comparable to angels and archangels, and also has most earthly ones. It is also called the orb of the earth, which is founded upon the seas, and prepared upon the rivers." Again, the sun of justice, faith and the Church rose in the East, namely Judaea: from there it was transferred to the West, when St. Peter migrated from Syria to Italy, and transferred the Pontifical see from Antioch to Rome. The same turned toward the South, when at the same time it illuminated Egypt through St. Mark, Ethiopia through St. Matthew, Africa through other Apostles; from there it bent toward the North, but more slowly, when St. Boniface with his companions and followers about the year of the Lord 700 converted Germany, Frisia, Saxony, Denmark, Poland, Russia, and other northern regions. The Apostles therefore and apostolic men are Samsons and suns of justice. For, as Varro says: "As small circles are called rings, so great ones were called years." For just as the sun in Hebrew and Chaldean is called שמש (scemes), that is minister, from שמש (scamas), which in Chaldean and Syriac means to minister, because as it were a minister it imparts heat and life to all creatures, and by its excellence represents to them the excellence of God its master: so likewise the Apostles rendered the same service especially to all men and nations; and therefore they are Samsons. For the Hebrew שמשון (samson) is the same as small sun, which indeed shone upon the Hebrews in the darkness of captivity, desired by them, and freed them from the Philistines by its strength. Tropologically, Olympiodorus through the four climates of the world, which the sun traverses, understands the four cardinal virtues, which the sun of justice Christ inspires in the faithful, namely through the South, which blows from the hot region of the world, prudence, which inspires heat and rational life to all actions; through the North, fortitude: for this wind is sharp, swift and rigid; through the East wind or sub-east, which blows from the East, and is born beneath the rising sun, as Pliny says, lib. II, cap. XXVII, justice, which passes through and extends to all virtues; through the West wind or Libyan, which blows from the West, temperance, which cools the pleasures of the body and dries them up. Therefore the sun of justice, illuminating all the regions of the soul, radiates with internal splendor. This is Olympiodorus. Again, the place of the sun is the soul, but the sun itself is spiritual intelligence. This rises when it is inspired in the heart by God, and sets when the ray of light is withdrawn as a punishment of our imperfections, or by God's disposition. It returns to its place when the soul returns to the consideration of its own weakness; afterwards truly we are reborn when again from itself it ascends to know higher things. It turns through the South when it reflects upon the blessedness of the Blessed spirits; it bends toward the North when it considers the pain of the damned. Finally, the continual gyration of the sun and year represents vividly the gyration and circulation of all things, especially human things, namely that all things as it were circulating go in a circle, depart, and return anew. Whence the Nyssene: "To the likeness of the sun," he says, "our nature also has rising and setting: one is the way for all, one entrance of life and one exit." And Blessed Antiochus, hom. 30: "What else," he says, "is human life than a wheel which is perpetually turned by rotation?" And this is signified by the etymology of year. For year in Hebrew is called שנה (scana) from iteration and revolution: שנה (scana) indeed means to iterate, to change, to revolve; in Greek however year is called ἐνιαυτός, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν ἑαυτῷ εἶναι, which is to go into itself like a wheel, according to that saying of Seneca in Hercules Furens: "The wheel of the headlong year is turned." In Latin however it is called annus, says Servius, as if annulus, that is a ring, because it returns into itself. Whence the Poet: "And into itself through its own footsteps the year is turned." For, as Varro says: "As small circles are called rings, so great ones are called years." Or from ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνανεοῦσθαι, that is from renewal. But Attius Capito says that a year signifies the circuit of time, from am, that is around. Am, says Priscian, lib. XIV, in the ancients signifies around. Whence Cato said am terminum, that is around the boundary; hence ambio, that is I go around; ambesus, that is eaten around; ambustus, that is burned around. The same teaches Varro and Festus; but our Goropius Becanus derives the year from the ancient Cimbric word ama, that is circle. For anna is a circular word. Whence if you invert it and read it in reverse order, it will sound equally anna. Hence among the Romans Anna the eternal goddess was named, according to that: On the Ides is the birthday festival of eternal Anna. For they invoked this goddess as if presiding over the years, so that by her aid they might be able to return to the new year. Elegantly St. Isidore of Pelusium, lib. II, epist. 138: "Time," he says, "imitates the form of a wheel, inasmuch as it turns and revolves in itself." For as Seneca says in De Brevitate vitae: "The present time is very brief, so much so that to some it seems nothing: for it is always in motion, it flows and rushes headlong; it ceases to be before it comes." Moreover this wheel of life is to man a wheel of labors and sorrows, in which he is continually rotated and tormented like Ixion, whom the poets relate was bound to a wheel by Jupiter for his crime, and in it perpetually rotates and is tortured. Whence Seneca, lib. De Vita beata, cap. XXVIII: "What then," he says, "is it not even now, although you perceive it little, that some whirlwind rotates your minds and involves them, fleeing and seeking the same things, and now carries them bound aloft, now dashes them down to the depths?" And St. Gregory Nazianzen in Carmina: "O world, my friend, yet not altogether my friend," he says, "why do you turn me like some wheel, striving to go in the opposite direction?" The same, epist. to Sophronius: "You see," he says, "what is the condition of our affairs, and how some wheel of human business is turned about in its course, now these things flourishing, now those withering, while neither adversity nor prosperity remains constant with us, but changes and leaps to the opposite with the greatest speed, so that one might sooner trust in waters and letters written in water than in human happiness." This is the vertigo of human affairs: O foolish those who believe themselves fixed, and as if they fasten their heart to things of eternal nature, forgetting true eternity. The same, orat. De Pauperum amore: "Nature," he says, "is nothing firm in human affairs, and equal and durable, and remaining constantly in the same state; but our affairs are turned about like some wheel, often changing in one and the same day, and sometimes even in an hour." St. Ambrose, lib. De Abraham: "The goods," he says, "of this age are unstable, and are turned about like wheels with the age itself." St. Nilus in Paraenesi: "Compare shadows and wheels to both the sad and joyful things of this life; for as shadows do not remain, and as wheels turn;" and then he drives men and his heroes into the vertigo of pride or despair, perverts and overturns them, as St. Peter Damian deplores, epist. 15: "The rectors of churches plainly also," he says, "to whom especially the care of this matter ought to have fallen, are rotated daily by so great an impulse of worldly vertigo, that nothing divides them from seculars except a barber's razor, but action does not distinguish them." And St. Augustine in Psalm. XIX, 8: "These in chariots, and these on horses," that is, he says, "these are drawn by the changeable succession of temporal goods, and these are lifted up by proud honors, and exult in these." More wisely Willigis, first Archbishop of the Vangiones, son of a cartwright, in order to restrain himself by the humility of his birth, had wheels painted everywhere throughout his chambers, and frequently said to himself: "Willigis, remember who you were, who you are, what you will be." Thus Bruschius De Episcopis; and recently Leo XI, when on the 27th day of his Pontificate he departed from rank and life, said to his great Confessor with great presence of mind: "How much better it would have been for me now, if I had held the keys of a monastery rather than of heaven!" Whoever therefore desires stability, so that he may not be rotated with the world and time, but may remain stable and always the same as himself amid all the tumults of the age, let him fix the foot of his mind in God and in His stable eternity, who, as Boethius says: Time from eternity / Bids go, and standing still gives all things motion. For God is the basis of the world, the center of the sun and stars, the axis of times. For around God and His eternity, as around an unmoved axis, the sun, the heavenly stars, the elements, and all the times and ages of the world continually rotate, and are contained and sustained by Him. Do you wish therefore to be stable in the sphere? Fix your heart in Him, ascend with your mind above the heavens, tread the earth under your feet. Live for God, live for eternity. "What is sweeter to man?" says St. Bernard, tract. De Charitate, cap. XVIII, "what more pleasant than to despise the world, and to reckon oneself higher than the age, and to stand on the summit of a good conscience, and to have the world under your feet, to see nothing in it that you desire?" And St. Nilus in Paraenesi: "Blessed is he who tramples on pleasures; for demons fear to engage in combat with him."
1:6
Hebrew, going round and round (that is, continually going round) the spirit goes, and in its circuits or gyrations the spirit returns; the Septuagint, gyrating and gyrating, the spirit goes, and in its circles the spirit returns. Thus also the Syriac, except that for "goes" it translates "turns" or "departs"; and for "in its circles" it translates "to its circles"; the Arabic version, however, translates "surrounds going round about", namely the sun which preceded. Then he adds concerning the spirit, that is the wind: The winds depart, and to their circuits the winds return; Symmachus, perambulating the wind goes, and through which it had gone round the wind returns; Zurich, winds rising in the adverse regions of the world go forth, and in their circuits the winds return; another, by its turning going round about the air hastens, and according to its circuits the air returns. I have recited the Chaldaic version above. You will ask, what is this spirit here? First, many understand the sun by spirit, because the sun is called spirit, both on account of its velocity, and on account of the subtlety of its rays and light, and on account of its power and efficacy of action; for the sun illuminates all things, and brightens them with its light, and returns in its circuits. Thus St. Jerome, Olympiodorus, Albinus, Hugo, Dionysius, Titelmannus and our Conimbricenses, lib. II De Caelo, cap. I, Quaest. II, art. 4. Hear St. Jerome: "The sun is called spirit, because it animates, and breathes, and is vigorous, and completes its annual orbital course, as the Poet says: Meanwhile the great sun revolves through the year. And elsewhere: And in itself through its own traces the year revolves. Or because the spirit within nourishes the moon's shining globe, and the Titanian stars, the mind infused throughout moves the whole mass, and mingles itself with the great body." St. Dionysius, cap. IV De Divinis Nominibus: "To the generation," he says, "of visible bodies it contributes (the sun), and to life itself it moves, and nourishes, and increases, and perfects, and cleanses, and renews," in the manner of spirit. Hence some believe the sun to be animated; and St. Thomas attributes this to St. Jerome, I part. Quaest. LXX, art. 3. From this error, however, St. Jerome frees himself, epist. 59 to Avitus, and in cap. XLV of Isaiah, where he criticizes Origen, because he attributed rational souls to the heavens. Hear Isidore clearly teaching this, De Natura rerum cap. XXVII where he believes the sun to be animated from St. Augustine: "Solomon," he says, "when he said of the sun: Gyrating and gyrating the spirit goes, and in its circuits it returns, showed that the sun itself is spirit, and that it is an animal, and breathes, and is vigorous, and completes its annual orbits by its course, just as the Poet also says: Meanwhile the great sun revolves through the year. And elsewhere: The spirit within nourishes the moon's shining globe, and the Titanian stars." But now it is a dogma of the Church, that is of the Fathers in the fifth Ecumenical Council, of all theologians and philosophers, that neither the sun nor the heavens are animated. More probably St. Thomas, Opusc. X, believes the sun is called spirit because it has a spirit or intelligence not informing, but assisting, moving and directing: where St. Thomas seems to understand by spirit an angel, who assists the sun and moves it. Second, Valesius, Sacrae Philosophiae cap. LXII, Aben-Ezra and others understand fire by spirit. For thus on account of its purity, subtlety and power of igniting it seems to be spiritual; this again by its heat effects the generations and transmutations of things. Whence it is the noblest element and most necessary, and thus Solomon here assigns fire among the three other elements as a principal one. But these seem to be foreign and forced interpretations. Thirdly, properly and genuinely by the spirit is understood air and wind, which the sun causes, concerning which the discourse has just preceded. For, as Seneca says, book V of Natural Questions, chapter VI: "Sometimes the sun itself is the cause of wind by itself, pouring forth rigid air, and unfolding it from a dense and compressed state." Pliny, book II, chapters XLVII and following, teaches that winds are not only driven by the sun but also generated by it: "The sun," he says, "both increases and compresses winds. It increases them at rising and setting, it compresses them at midday in summer times, and so at midday or midnight they are mostly calmed, because they are dissolved either by excessive cold or heat; and winds are calmed by rains." Hence Symmachus translated for spirit, wind. So also the Zurich Bible, Vatable and others. This is the opinion of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Hugh of St. Victor, Cajetan, John Ferus, Pineda and others. The sense is therefore, as if to say, Spirit, that is air driven, or wind runs through all things and all regions of the world by blowing and circles about, and returns into circles, that is to its beginning, from which again it may circle about in turn, and as it were traverse its circle. Wind, I say, the same not in number, but in species or kind; as if to say, All things in heaven, equally as on earth are circular, not stable; indeed the sun itself, which is as it were the king of the heavens, the wind itself which on earth as king dominates; the sea itself and rivers, equally as all earthly generations, have their own vanity, namely circulation, change, restless state, flight, setting, destruction. Others explain it by antithesis, as if to say, In the sun, winds, rivers the motion is stable and the course of nature: but the gyrations of men, falls, desires, phantasies are unstable and uncertain, and always fluctuate. He mentions air and wind, because this serves the generation of things and human life and is most useful, both for ventilating the air, torpid and putrefying in stillness; then for dispersing harmful vapors; then for man's respiration and cooling, and for sharpening and strengthening his spirits, lest they become sluggish. Whence Aristotle, book VI of the History of Animals, chapter XXIX, and book IV of the Generation of Animals, chapter II, teaches that when the North wind blows strong and sharp males are begotten, but when the South wind blows mild and warm females are begotten. Finally "wind is a stream of air," says Apuleius. Fittingly therefore it represents the tenuity, inconstancy and flux of human affairs. Spirit therefore, or wind, Solomon here brings onto the stage, both because it is one among the causes of the generation of things and their variety; and because it itself by its invisible tenuity, supreme swiftness, impulse and instability, is a clear symbol of human instability, inconstancy and unhappiness. For just as the East wind blowing from the East immediately opposes itself the West wind blowing from the West, and this is broken by the South wind blowing from the South, to which soon the North wind blowing from the North opposes itself: so likewise to prosperity immediately opposes itself adversity, to virtue envy, to riches poverty, to glory calumny, to honor disgrace. Again, just as winds are sometimes pestilential and breathe diseases upon men, so likewise earthly things not rarely bring plague and death to man, especially if he uses them immoderately. Furthermore, the spirit, that is air and wind, is said here to traverse all things and return into its circles, both because air by its subtlety pervades and penetrates all things on earth and around the earth, and as it were traverses them; then because air, being near the heaven, is carried in a circle by the motion of the heavens, and returns into its circles equally as the heavens do; then because winds are sometimes circular, and agitate things in circles, such as whirlwinds and typhoons; and finally because winds have their own order, which goes and returns in a circle and orbit: for now the East wind blows from the East, soon the South wind succeeds it from the South, the West wind follows this from the West, the North wind follows this from the North, and many others between these and collateral. Whence sailors make an orb of winds from 32 collateral winds: for they describe a circle, in which they place four primary winds blowing from the four regions of the world, and to each they adjoin eight others collateral, so that in total there are 36. Tropologically, which many think to be literal, you should understand by spirit the spirit of man that is restless, wandering and inconstant: for such is imagination, and the desire that follows it in man, so that now he thinks and wills one thing and now another and yet another, and again returns to the first things which he thought and willed, and thus he gyrates continually and turns in his circles. Thus Nyssenus. Graphically St. Bernard depicts this instability of heart and spirit in the Meditation, chapter IX: "Nothing," he says, "is in my heart more fleeting, etc. And while through various things it seeks rest, it finds it not; but in labor it remains wretched and empty of rest, it does not accord with itself, it is discordant with itself, it recoils from itself; it alters its desires, changes its counsels, builds new things, destroys old things, rebuilds what is destroyed, changes and arranges the same things again and in another and yet another way, because it wills and wills not, and the heart never remains in the same state. For just as a mill turns swiftly and rejects nothing, but grinds whatever is put into it; but if nothing is put in, it consumes itself: so my heart is always in motion and never rests, but whether I sleep or wake, it always dreams and thinks whatever occurs to it. And just as a mill, if sand is put in, wears away, if pitch is put in, it defiles, if chaff occupies it: so my heart is troubled by bitter thought, stained by unclean thought, disquieted by vain thought and instigated. And further after some things: "And while it is snatched away by those and involved in these, vanity receives it, curiosity leads it, cupidity allures it, pleasure seduces it, luxury defiles it, envy torments it, anger disturbs it, sadness tortures it, and thus it is submerged in wretched misfortunes by all vices, because it has abandoned the one God (who could have sufficed for it). It is dispersed through many things, and seeks here and there where it might rest, and finds nothing that suffices for it, until it returns to Him." Blessed Peter Damian, opuscule 12, chapter XIII, describes this vertigo, rotation and circulation of the spirit with a similar theme: "A mill," he says, "is turned in a circle, and flour is produced; but each action of this world is a mill, which while it heaps together many cares, turns human minds as it were in a circle, and projects from itself as it were flour: because to a seduced heart it always generates the tiniest thoughts," especially while it is turned and agitated by the spirit and wind of vanity and pride: for this is the whirlwind of minds. Others understand by the alternating and often contrary winds the contrary cases of things and changeable, indeed adverse blasts of fortune, against which Boethius suggests this shield, book II of the Consolation, prose 1: "Finally you ought to bear with equanimity whatever is done within the arena of fortune, once you have submitted your neck to its yoke; but if you wish to prescribe to it the law of staying and departing, when you have willingly chosen it as your mistress, would you not be unjust, and would not your impatience exacerbate the lot which you cannot change? If you entrusted your sails to the winds, you would be carried not where your will sought, but where the blast impelled: if you entrusted seeds to the fields, you would weigh the fertile years against the barren ones. You have given yourself to the rule of fortune: you ought to obey the ways of your mistress. But you try to restrain the impulse of the turning wheel. Yet of all mortal men, most foolish one, if it begins to stand still, fortune ceases to be fortune."
1:7
Hebrew, all torrents go into the sea, and the sea is not filled; Septuagint, it is not filled; Syriac, all torrents are precipitated into the sea, and it is not filled; Arabic, and the sea is not gathered full; Chaldean, all torrents and fountains of waters go and flow into the sea of Ocean which circles the world; or, whose circumference as with a ring contains the world, as our Costus translated it. For torrents he more aptly translated rivers, because from concurring torrents rivers are born, which flow into the sea, since torrents are absorbed by thirsty earth, or dried up before they reach the sea. Following Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus, XXXIX, 11: "All things, he says, that are of the earth, shall be turned into earth, and all waters shall return into the sea." "As he said of the sun and wind, that they turn and return into their orbits: so here he says of torrents, and the rivers born from them, that all flow into the sea, and from there return to the origins of rivers, so that by these examples he may represent the vanity, course and circulation of human life and of all earthly things. Whence St. Jerome: "The Hebrews, he says, under the name of torrents and sea, by metaphor understand that men are signified, that they return into the earth from which they were taken, and torrents are called not rivers, because they quickly perish, and yet the earth is not filled with the multitude of the dead." Hence St. Gregory Thaumaturgus paraphrastically translated, but the things themselves are rightly compared to the flow of torrents, which fall into the immense depth of the sea with great noise. The Tekoite used the same similitude, II Kings XIV, 14: "All, he says, die, and like waters we slip away into the earth, which returns not." B. Alcuin the Frankish, disputing with Pepin the son of Charlemagne: "What, he says, is the sea? The way of boldness, the boundary of earth, the divider of regions, the harbor of rivers, the source of rains, the refuge in dangers, the grace in pleasures. What are rivers? A failing course, the refreshment of the sun, the irrigation of the earth." Furthermore, the sea from so many rivers flowing in is not filled, does not grow, does not overflow, so as to pour itself over the shores or flood the land, but like an insatiable gulf swallows all, and gapes to swallow forever: hence they think Pontus is called from παρὰ τὸ πέποται, because it always drinks waters. Aristotle gives the cause, II Meteor. cap. II, that waters are drawn from the sea by the force of the sun, and either dried up, or turned into vapors and clouds; and that the sea is so vast, that rivers in comparison to it are like a few drops. Another cause Ecclesiastes will give in the following verse. Hence Proverbs: To carry water into the sea, Wood into a forest, Owls to Athens, Grain into Egypt, Saffron into Cilicia: which are said of those who work useless and superfluous things. Tropologically, the insatiable sea denotes the insatiable cupidity of man, which always drinks pleasures, and yet always thirsts, according to that which Solomon adds, verse 8: "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." Thus Nyssenus. Whence St. Ambrose, lib. De Tobia, cap. XIII, teaches that the insatiable sea is the heart of the avaricious man: "All, he says, torrents go into the sea, and the sea is not filled. This sea is the usurer of all, it swallows patrimonies like waves, and itself knows not how to be satisfied. Yet many use the sea for gain, no one uses a usurer except to his loss. That is the advantage of many, this is the shipwreck of all. In like manner gluttony, lust, ambition is a sea that swallows all: for the glutton and the lustful, equally as the proud, is a devourer of patrimonies, and a gulf of riches and all things. The Rabbis in the Midrash on Ecclesiastes, that is, the Exposition of Ecclesiastes, interpret it symbolically thus, as if to say: "Rivers enter into the sea, and the sea overfloweth not," that is, all the dead tend toward hell, and hell is never filled, nor doth it overflow, according to that passage in Proverbs XXX, 15: "Three things are never satisfied, etc., hell, and the mouth of the womb, and the earth which is not satisfied with water." Thus Galatinus, book VI On the Mysteries of Faith, chapter VII. In a similar manner the sea is a type of death and the sepulchre: for to both of these all men flow as rivers, nay rather like torrents are they most swiftly borne away. See I Kings XIV, 14. Hear St. Augustine on Psalm CIX, on that passage: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way": "Just as a torrent," he says, "is gathered together from rain waters, overflows, rushes, runs and in running completes its course, that is, finishes its course: so is all this course of mortality: men are born, they die, and while others are dying others are born, they succeed, they come, they depart, nor shall they remain. What is held here? What doth not run its course? What doth not as it were gathered from rain go into the abyss? For just as a river suddenly gathered from rain, from drops of showers, goes into the sea; and it does not appear, because neither did it appear before it was gathered from rain: so this human race is gathered from hidden sources, and flows forth into death. Again it turns toward the hidden, this middle part sounds and passes away. From this torrent Christ drank, that is, He was born, destined to die." Again Richard of St. Victor, tract. I On the State of the Interior Man, chapter X: "All rivers," he says, "are borne into the sea, and all sweet water is changed into bitter; because pleasure is turned into disgust, and all fleshly delight ends in bitterness," according to that passage: "Sorrow occupies the extremity of joy." Finally hear Marcus Antoninus the Emperor, surnamed the Philosopher, book IV On His Life: "Time," he says, "is a certain swift torrent of things that come to pass; for at once each thing both appears and passes away, and another succeeds, and soon another will succeed in turn. Everything that happens to us is so customary and known, as the rose in spring, the fruit in summer. The same is the reason of disease, death, calumny, snares and all those things which bring either joy or sadness to the foolish." And after some intervening matter: "The saying of Heraclitus must always be kept in mind: that the death of earth is water, of water air, of air fire, and this in turn." And with several things interspersed: "Gather together also those whom you yourself have known one after another, whose funeral you yourself attended, dead; and what yesterday was a fish, tomorrow will be salt-fish, or ashes. Therefore it must be considered that a momentary time has been established by nature, and one must depart from life with equanimity; just as if an olive having reached maturity falls, it praises the tree itself that bore and produced it, and gives thanks. You ought to be like a promontory, against which waves are constantly dashed; it itself persists, however the surging waves are carried about." Whence he concludes: "Therefore whenever anything happens that provokes you to sorrow, remember this precept: That is not to be called a misfortune, but is to be attributed to good fortune, that you bear it bravely." The same, book IX: "Now all of us will be hidden by earth: after that earth itself will also be changed, and then other things likewise will be changed infinitely. Truly whoever considers the wave of changes and motions, and their swiftness in all mortal things will despise them. Like a torrent the cause of the universe sweeps all things along. To the place from which rivers go forth they return, so that they may flow again." And St. Basil, On Famine and Dryness: "Time is like a river, passing by the idle and the sluggish; and just as it cannot happen that you stop the course of a river, and use its water for necessities, unless at the first encounter, and where it presents itself you draw it: so neither can you restrain time driven by necessary circuits, or recall what has already elapsed to its source, or have use of it, unless one seizes it when it offers itself." Thus Basil. For "whence they go forth" in Hebrew is שהולכים scheholechim, that is, whither they go: whither, that is, to what place, or from what place. Whence there is here a twofold version and a twofold sense: the former, so that the terminus to which the rivers tend may be signified; the latter, so that the terminus from which they themselves go forth and proceed may be signified. The former followed the Septuagint, which translates: to the place whither the torrents go, thither they themselves return to the same; or, as the Venetian version has it, to the place, I say, the sea the rivers go, so that they may return again and flow. And the Syriac: to the place whither the torrents go, there they return to go. And the Arabic: to the place to which the torrents go, to it returns their spirit: for they go. Thus also Pagninus, the Zurich version and others. Our author followed the latter, translating it as "to the place whence the rivers come forth." St. Jerome in his Commentary from Symmachus, on the passage about where the torrents come forth, says that they themselves return to that place so that they may enter; the Chaldean paraphrase says, as it were, to the place indeed to which the torrents go and flow down, from there they return and flow out through the cataracts of the abyss. Or, as Costus translates it, and through the channels and the divisions of the abyss, to which place the rivers flowed out, to that same place they are borne, the Ocean itself is in no way filled. The sense of the former version is this, namely: Rivers are borne to the sea in continuous flow, and pour themselves into it, so that it comes about that they always flow again and again: for new waters continually flow in, which flow into the sea: for if their flow into the sea were hindered anywhere, they would stop, and would prevent others from flowing in, inasmuch as they would occupy and fill their own place and channel. Whence from the Hebrew some translate thus: to the place to which the torrents go, to that same place they themselves return, namely: Rivers by flowing continually follow their own channels and beds, and that one through which they once began their course, they constantly retain, nor do they ever change, which is indeed wonderful. Titelmann and some others assign this sense to the latter version, so that it may coincide with the former, namely: "To the place whence the rivers come forth," that is, to their sources and origins, "they return," that is, new waters of the rivers flow in again, so that they may flow again; as if he were assigning the cause of the perpetuity of rivers, namely this, that as their waters flow out, new ones flow in from the mountains, which through the sources again emanate, and flow down into the sea. But this sense seems rather weak and narrow: for it is not properly said that rivers return to the place whence they come forth. Add that it seems to be a tautology: for it is the same thing to say that springs and rivers flow perpetually, as to say that as the waters of rivers flow out, others continually flow in; for perpetual flow is nothing other than the outflow of former waters and the inflow of others. Moreover, according to this sense it is explained, and no reason is given why the sea does not overflow from so many rivers flowing into it, which is indeed wonderful and astonishing. Tropologically, man is as it were a river continually flowing into death, so that through it he may flow back to God the immortal, who alone has stable, constant and eternal being. Hear Eusebius, book XI of the Preparation, chapter vii: "For since all sensible things are in flux, they continually come to be and are corrupted, nor can the same things ever remain. But to enter the same river twice, according to Heraclitus, is impossible. Wherefore neither mortal substance, if you consider it again, will you say is the same in condition, but with wonderful swiftness of change it is now dispersed, now contracted." From which he infers: "Ridiculous therefore are we men, fearing one death, who have already died many times, and often die, etc. For the young man is corrupted into a man, the man into an old man, the boy into a youth, the infant into a boy; and he who was yesterday becomes he who is today; and he who is today becomes tomorrow: but no one remains the same. No one is the same; but in one moment concerning phantasms, concerning one and common matter flowing in and flowing out every moment they are changed. For how, if we are the same, do we rejoice in different things than before? We love and hate differently, we praise and blame different things, we use different words, we are moved by different passions, not having the same form, not the same opinion about things? For it is not possible, without change, to be moved now by different things than before; nor is he who is changed now and then the same. But if he is not the same, neither is he, but he flows in continuous change; but sense is deceived by ignorance of being itself, and thinks that to be which is not; who therefore truly is? That which is eternal, which has no origin, which is incorruptible, which is changed by no time." And in chapter vi, he proposes Plato's riddle: "Plato also says: What is that which always is, and has no origin? and what is that which always becomes, but never is?" And he answers that the former is God, who always is, and was never born; the latter is creature and body, which always becomes, and never is in its condition consistent and stable, but continually changes, flows and flows away. Cornelius a Lapide illustrates this very thing by appending an allegory of a sea-monster and a fisherman, attended by a chorus of parables, which Cyril explains in book I of his Moral Apology, chapter viii, whose title is: "Fix the anchor of thy hope in perpetual goods alone": "Upon the wave of the sea," he says, "a very great whale, raised up into an island, while it counterfeited the appearance of dry land; a fisherman floating on a raft, desirous of land, arrived at this sophistical harbor, and soon descending there, having slightly lifted the skin with his hand, from a rock and iron-born fire, pious to himself, began to cherish his little body stiffened with cold, weary from labor and dried up with hunger. But truly the sharp heat of the fire, having passed through the insensible fat of the fish, at length descended into the sensible flesh, the sense of burning would have arrived, immediately the fish being moved, the stupid sailor, thinking it an earthquake, left all things and ran to the raft. Thus from thence, having discovered its liveliness, safe from the vessel, he said to it lamentably: Why, having shown forth a great mass, and having lethally simulated stability, and having painted skin, didst thou lie that thou wert a harbor? Unless certainly a floating wood had immediately come to thy aid, in thee confiding, thou wouldst have been snatched away and submerged no less than by shipwreck. To which the fish answered: But thou, why didst thou descend to rest upon a mutable thing? And he: Certainly because thou didst appear to be earth, not an animal. Then the other: Does everything that appears exist? or art thou ignorant that many things are founded in their appearance alone, and not in truth? For a sophist appears a philosopher, and a hypocrite a saint." From which things, collecting this epimythium, declaring the end and fruit of the allegory: "For this reason, dearest, thou who art an inhabitant of the sea and art versed in perilous waves, and beset on all sides by camps of destruction, art surrounded in a very fragile wood, to which thou mayest flee in necessity, to whom thou mayest entrust thyself, and where thou mayest more firmly confide, first see with diligent rumination, and attend with clear circumspection of prudence. For if thou hast once erred altogether, prevented by death, there shall be no place for correction afterward. Thus therefore seeking a harbor safe with perpetual stability, this better one, and the best with better goods, prudently choose it, where thou mayest rest with secure confidence. Does not the wise architect, digging in stable earth, seek a more stable foundation? And the watchful pilot of a ship, before he accommodates his anchor, a searcher of the abyss, with a weighted cord seeks the safest foundation? For he is foolish who builds upon unstable ground; and altogether mad, who commends himself to be established by soft things. Go therefore, and hence learn never to confide in things that perish, but henceforth fix the anchor of thy hope in eternal things alone. By which being instructed the sailor, comforted, departed." More aptly therefore and more connectedly, profoundly and forcefully thus expound it, so that here he gives the reason not only for the perenniality of fountains and rivers, but also why the sea from so many and so great things flowing into it does not overflow: for this is more admirable than the perenniality of rivers. This cause is, that rivers running down into the sea return again from it, and recur to their principles whence they went forth, so that they flow again; they return, I say, by equality, namely not in themselves the same in number, but in their like, or the same in species: for the water of the river which enters the sea does not go forth the same in number, but another like to it, namely the water of the sea, which is near to the land and the abyss. For thus the sea is unloaded by another part, and again the fountains of rivers are filled, so that they perpetually flow forth waters and endure. That this is the meaning is clear, first, from "they return"; secondly, because this is the adequate cause why the sea from so many and so vast rivers, which would make the sea, indeed more seas, flowing into it, does not overflow, because namely so much flows down from the sea as flows up into it; thirdly, because Ecclesiastes here shows the vanity of human things from their circulation and gyration, that they always gyrate and go in a circle. But he proves this circulation from the sun, the heavens, the elements, namely that the sun and heavens gyrate in a circle; that air and wind return to their circles; that the generations of men, animals and plants are fed from the earth and return to the earth, so that from it they again proceed and germinate. Therefore, since to prove the same circulation he brings forth rivers, and says that they return to their principles, it is necessary that he understand this properly, namely that this is done by circulation, by which waters from the sea are sent back to the fountains of rivers. For thus the sun, heavens and winds return to their principles and their own origins. Finally, thus St. Jerome, the author of this our version, explains this reversion, and St. Basil, Theodoretus and many others soon to be cited. Briefly, but forcefully, St. Augustine, book III On the Trinity, chapter vi: "Straightway, he says, as if by a river of hidden things from the secret into the open, from the open into the secret, circulation happens everywhere." Elegantly Ovid, book XV of the Metamorphoses: All things flow, and every wandering form is shaped. Time itself also glides away with constant motion. Not otherwise than a river; for neither can a river remain still, nor can a light hour, but as one wave is driven by another, and is urged by the same wave coming on, and urges the one before it. You will ask first, by what means do rivers return from the sea to their origins? I respond first, that from the sea daily very many vapors are drawn out by the force of the sun, which, lifted into the air and there by the force of cold condensed into clouds and resolved into waters, flow down into rivers, and fill them, so that they flow again. Thus Olympiodorus, Procopius, Rupertus, Isidorus, Cajetan, Vatablus and others; whence for rivers in Hebrew it is torrents: for these properly arise from rains or snows resolved into water, and thus the sea does not overflow, because a great part of the sea evaporates; for so much, they say, goes out from the sea into vapors as much as rivers flow into it. But this is remote and less proper. Secondly, properly and more proximately, because rivers flowing into the sea return from it through subterranean passages and veins gradually to their origins. The manner in which this happens I shall explain presently. That this is the meaning is clear plainly from St. Jerome in his Commentary, who interprets his Vulgate version thus, as from St. Basil, homily 4 of the Hexaemeron, Theodoret, sermon 2 On Providence, indeed also from Plato in the Phaedo, and Seneca, book III of Natural Questions, chapter xv. Hear each one: St. Jerome: "Some think, he says, that the fresh waters which flow into the sea are either consumed by the burning sun above, or are food for the saltiness of the sea. But our Ecclesiastes, and the creator of these very waters, says that they return through hidden veins to the heads of fountains, and from the matrix of the abyss always bubble forth into their origins." St. Basil asserts that by God's will waters ascend from the sea to the peaks of mountains: "Waters, he says, flow down by a propensity to descend, remaining until they would pour forth into their amplitude, where, as if bound by fetters, they are not further spread out, nor overflowing by descending alluvion, but flowing beneath the sea, carried upward through narrow pipes, driven on high by the agitating spirit, burst forth and spring out through the surface of the earth with force disrupted, and they put aside through filtration the saltiness and bitterness, and become drinkable." Theodoret: "Do not think that waters by their own nature climb upward, but obedient to God's word occupy the highest peaks of mountains. But to the Creator it is most easy to do, not only to carry the nature of waters to the peaks of mountains, but also into the midst of the air, and to sweeten the bitter with sweetness, etc., and to show that which whose natural motion is borne downward, flowing upward." Plato in his Phaedo follows the opinion of Moses, or of the oracle of sacred Scripture, as in many things, saying: "Fountains from that great chasm, which is within the earth, partly through certain open pores, partly filtered through the solidity of the earth thus again overflow, so that as much as one part flows together, so much the other flows." Seneca recounts the same from the same: "Some judge that the earth receives again whatever waters it has sent forth, and for this reason seas do not grow, because what flowed in, they do not turn to their own use, but straightway return it. For by a hidden path it goes under the earth, it returns in secret, and is filtered by passage, the sea, which beaten through manifold windings of the earth, puts aside bitterness, and strips off the depravity of taste in such variety of sun, and passes into pure water." Add Rupertus and Hugh of St. Victor. Rupertus: "The founder of the earth, he says, drove back the abyss, and distributed a fitting supply of waters through its innermost veins abundantly; and the earth drawing waters into all its veins, flees the abundant breast of the abyss." Hugh of St. Victor on that passage of Genesis II: A fountain went up out of the earth, etc.: "This fountain, he says, can be understood as the abyss, namely the matrix of all waters, from which all fountains of waters and rivers go forth." I shall cite more presently. You will ask secondly, what is the origin and cause of fountains and rivers, and their perpetuity; namely, why do they constantly emit waters? I respond that various origins and causes are given by various ones. First, Aristotle, I Meteorology, chapter xiii, with his followers holds that fountains and rivers arise from air and vapor, resolved into water by the force of cold. Hence in the Alps and other mountains most rivers arise, because around mountains and cliffs many vapors come together, which by the force of cold are condensed, and resolved into water flow down into valleys, and there coming together produce torrents and rivers, as I myself beheld with my eyes, while I was crossing the Alps. A certain distinguished Mathematician of our Society in Rome assured me that he had investigated the Alps and the Salt mines of the Alps, and at their summit had seen vast caverns in the rocks, intersected by many cracks, so that abundant air could enter through them, in which vapor and heated air, then condensed by the cold of the rocks and stones, and resolved into water, flowed down and produced a perennial stream, by which salt was liquefied, which was dug out below from the same rock. For immediately air succeeds air to prevent a vacuum, and it is at once resolved into water; just as we see in winter columns, marbles and walls in temples continually sweat, and drops drip, namely from air resolved into water. It is added that around the peaks of mountains there are perpetual vapors, which collect there and as it were gather, and these dewy ones are at once resolved into water from the rock, which flowing together from various places into one form a stream, and then a torrent, soon increased by the influx of many become a river. The second cause of rivers is rains and snows: for rains in winter frequent and abundant pour down a great quantity of water, which collected in the ample and numerous caverns of mountains, flows out gradually through narrow passages and narrow openings of springs, and thus brings continuity to rivers. But snows in the Alps, perpetually liquefied by the heat of the sun during the day, bring a great quantity of water to rivers, so much so that wise men, among whom was our Father Leon. Lessius, hold that the principal cause of rivers is this continuous and orderly liquefaction of snows. For the quantity of snows in the Alps is immense and enormous, which extend lengthwise and widthwise through many hundreds of miles (indeed I myself, riding with companions through the Alps near Trent, could scarcely cross and traverse them in width in ten days, when I covered about 30 miles daily); wherefore snows falling during the night in the Alps, liquefied during the day by the force of the sun, produce continuous torrents, and these flowing together produce continuous rivers. The argument is that, while in winter there are immense rains, rivers increase twofold or threefold, indeed overflow, and stagnate widely all around, as we experience in Rome in the flooding of the Tiber. The same happens when the snows of the Alps are liquefied in March; then indeed the Meuse, the Rhine, the Ouse, the Main, the Adige and other rivers, which are born in the Alps, swell wonderfully and often overflow; wherefore in winter they increase twofold, in summer they decrease twofold. Comparable to the Alps are the Apennines, the Taurus, Olympus, the Ardennes and many other vast mountains. But these do not seem to suffice for the permanence of so many and such great rivers, some of which are vast, and extend in width twenty and more miles (such as the river which they call the Silver River in India), so that they seem to be not so much rivers as seas. For neither vapors, nor snows and rains seem sufficient for their perennial course, so ample and vast: especially because rains in summer are rare and slight. Add that many springs and rivers arise at the peak of the highest mountains, to which no higher mountains are adjacent, where such cavities and receptacles of snows and rains cannot exist; others arise in the depths of valleys, where there are no neighboring mountains, no snows, no caverns of rainwater, and yet with such abundance of water that they are immediately navigable. Hence also many wells are very deep, in whose depths from the innermost veins of the earth living waters spring forth, which supply perennial water to the wells. Finally, Scripture in this place, and in Genesis I, 9, and elsewhere, seems to assign another more universal and more adequate cause of springs and rivers. The third cause therefore, full and adequate, is this: the matrix of springs, rivers and other waters is the sea. That this may be understood, it must first be noted that God on the first day of creation of water and the world, or rather on the third day, when He separated the waters from the earth, produced beneath the earth vast certain chasms or receptacles of waters, which Scripture calls the "abyss," Philosophers call the chasm, our Interpreter in Deuteronomy xxxiii, 13, calls the abyss lying beneath, where in Hebrew it is, the abyss lying below. God did this for this use and purpose: First, so that the immense force of waters which at the beginning of the world covered the earth, He would partly conceal in it, partly place in the very beds of the sea themselves, which He also made at that time and excavated from the earth, but not so large nor so deep that those beds alone could contain all this mass and force of waters; for sailors experience the bed of the sea to be in many places very shallow and not very deep. Second, He did this, says the Philosopher, in the book On the Making of the World, so that the earth, lest it crack from dryness, He would water it with the moisture of water, contain it and coagulate it. Third, so that from the earth permeated with aqueous moisture, metals and stones would coalesce. Fourth, for the production of plants, herbs and vegetation, likewise of rivers, fountains, and all water both spring water and well water. Read St. Basil, homily 4 of the Hexaemeron, St. Ambrose, books II and III, Theodoret, sermon 8 On Providence, and Seneca, book IV of Benefits, chapters 5 and 6. Second, it should be noted: Just as the earth is the mother of living things and of terrestrial mixtures, so the sea is the mother of aquatic creatures, namely of so many kinds of fish, oysters, shells, etc. Therefore, just as in the body of a mother and of any human being there is a great abundance of blood in the liver and heart, and from there through very many veins it is dispersed into individual members and the whole body: in a similar manner, says Seneca, book III of Natural Questions, chapter 15, those immense cavities, or chasms beneath the earth filled with waters, are as it were the liver of the earth, from which waters through hidden passages and channels as if through veins, are dispersed through all parts of the earth and the whole world, and at certain places in fountains and rivers, either made in the genesis of the world or in later ages, they burst forth. For this is the work of the providence of God, who for the uses of the earth already mentioned, everywhere among the nations at certain places mixed in and sprinkled fountains and rivers, just as He likewise imparted and distributed winds to the same places at fixed times and seasons. Hence those phrases: "The earth has its own veins: a vein of living waters: a vein of sulphur, quicksilver, gold, orichalcum," etc. For the earth is as it were a certain animal composed of four humours aptly distributed, just as conversely man is like the earth, and thus a microcosm. So Seneca, book III of Natural Questions, chapter 15, and Plutarch in the Life of Paul Aemilius. Therefore I assert that the matrix of waters is the abyss, that is, the sea both open and public, and hidden and concealed in caverns, caves and veins of the earth. For this is the abyss created by God at the beginning of the world, which God originally filled with primordial water, and therefore sweet water, which flowing out through various caverns and veins toward the origins of rivers, in its place water from the sea entered, and continually enters: and by this reasoning water is always supplied from this abyss, or chasm, to rivers and fountains. Hence all seas, and thus the Caspian Sea, which the intervening land separated from the rest of the sea, are joined to the Ocean through subterranean passages, and cohere to it as to a matrix, as Geographers, such as Pliny, Strabo, Dionysius, Mela, have discovered by not doubtful signs; especially from the fact that many huge rivers flow into it, yet it, although small, does not overflow, because namely the same waters flow out from it into the Ocean through subterranean passages. The Ocean therefore is the matrix of all rivers and fountains, that is of all living and flowing waters. That this is so is proved first, because this is the plain and obvious sense of this passage, as interpreters teach everywhere. The same is hinted at in Ecclesiasticus, chapter 24, verse 39: "From the sea," it says, "her thought was abundant, and her counsel from the great abyss. I wisdom poured out rivers. I as a stream of a river of an immense water from a river. I as a river Dioryx, and as an aqueduct I went out of paradise." And chapter 40, verse 11: "All things that are of the earth shall return into earth, and all waters shall return into the sea." And Genesis 1, verse 9: "God said: Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear: And it was so done. And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas." For the sea with its abyss, or caverns, is one place; therefore the waters return from the sea through subterranean cavities. Secondly, because this must necessarily be said of the river of paradise, which was divided into four great rivers: for God had not yet rained upon the earth, so that it could be produced from rain or vapor, Genesis II, 10, as Rupertus rightly observed there. God therefore drew those forth from the sea. The same thing seems to be said by parity or similarity of the remaining fountains and rivers of the earth, at least the principal and greater ones. For just as God on the third day of the world adorned the earth with mountains, trees, plants, herbs and other seeds: so also He adorned the same, equally as the sea, with fountains and rivers proceeding from the abyss of the sea, to irrigate and nourish the trees, plants, herbs and shoots produced by Him, so that flowers and fruits might germinate, and Scripture plainly signifies this, Genesis II, 4, 5 and 6: "These, it says, are the generations of heaven and earth, when they were created in the day that the Lord made heaven and earth; and every plant of the field, before it sprung up in the earth; and every herb of the field, before it grew: for the Lord had not rained upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a fountain rose up out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth." And Ecclesiasticus, cap. xxiv, 39, in the words cited a little before. Again, Genesis VII, 11, it is said that "all the fountains of the great abyss were broken up," that is of the chasm already mentioned, to bring about a universal deluge of the earth; for the rain of forty days alone was not sufficient for this. Thirdly, because no other adequate reason can be given why the sea does not overflow from so many rivers, except that which this Wise Man gives here, namely that as much water flows into the sea from rivers, so much flows out into the abyss; for the reason which Aristotle gives, namely that the sea is very vast, and therefore rivers add little to it, and it immediately evaporates, does not satisfy. For very many and very great rivers continually pour their currents into the sea: wherefore in one year, one month, indeed in one week, by their continuous flow into so vast a gulf of waters, which they continually pour into the sea, they would make many seas, since we see that vapors in the air and sea are often scanty or none; nor does the earth, which evaporates more than water, lose anything from its quantity. Certainly the continuous influx into the sea for so many years, indeed for so many centuries and thousands of years of so many and such great rivers, would make an abyss and would exceed the sea itself. Why therefore does the sea not swell above all hills and mountains? Indeed the Pontus increases from the access of rivers, and for that reason discharges itself into the Propontis, as Pliny testifies, lib. II, cap. lxxix. The reason therefore why the sea does not overflow from so many rivers is that one part of it goes into vapors and clouds, which resolved into rains and snows flow to the heads of fountains and rivers, and make streams; but another part of it partly goes into lakes and rivers which arise from the sea, and are lower than it; partly flows out into subterranean cavities, from which through many veins, and dispersed and diffused through all parts of the earth, either immediately or mediately it flows to the heads of fountains and rivers, and there mixed with rainwaters, snowwaters and vaporwaters, that is those which are converted from snow, or air and vapor into waters, it makes streams. And Psalm xxxii, 7: "Gathering together as it were in a bottle the waters of the sea, laying up the abysses in treasuries." Therefore from the sea through subterranean cavities. Again Asclepiadorus relates that legates sent by Philip of Macedon to search out treasures and veins of gold, having walked through a subterranean cave for many days, saw huge rivers and immense receptacles of stagnant waters. Otherwise from this abyss of waters inundations made at Valencia and elsewhere are narrated by our Conimbricenses in Meteora, tract. 9, cap. iv. Finally, this is the express opinion of St. Jerome, St. Basil, Theodoret, Plato, Seneca, Rupert, Hugh of St. Victor, whose words I cited a little before; likewise of Tertullian, Against Hermogenes, Salonius and Albinus on this passage, Procopius, St. Augustine, Bede on Genesis II, 8, St. Gregory, book XXX of the Morals II; Damascene, book II On the Faith, chapter ix; Isidore, III Origins xx; Pliny, book II, chapter lxv; Philo, book On the Making of the World; the Master of the Sentences in II, distinction 14, at the end; St. Thomas, in II, distinction 17, Question III, article 2, to 4, and I part. Question lxix, article 1, to 2, 3 and 4; St. Bernard, sermon 13 on the Canticle, at the beginning; Albert in II Meteorology tract. 2, chapter xi; Dionysius in chapter viii of Proverbs; Valesius, S. Philosophy chapter lxiii; the Conimbricenses, at the cited place; Pineda and Lorini here; Francis Suarez, book II On the Work of Six Days, chapter vi, at the end; indeed Aristotle, I Meteorology xiii, says this is the common opinion of the ancient Philosophers. Hence Homer, Iliad XIV and XXI, calls the Ocean "the principle of rivers and of all things, indeed the parent of the Gods." Strabo, book I, calls it the same "the crown of the earth;" others, "the zone and girdle of the world;" others, "the breast of living things." Hear Philo, book On the Making of the World: "It is evident by necessity that the watery essence is a part of the earth bearing all things, just as women have need of menstrual flows; to every mother also nature has added, as a part most necessary, springs of water, preparing nourishment for newborn infants. But the earth also seems to be a mother; wherefore it pleased the ancients that it be called δημήτηρ, a name composed from mother and earth: for not the earth imitates a woman, as Plato said, but woman imitates the earth. Deservedly therefore to the earth, most ancient of mothers and most fertile in nature, as breasts were given the flows of rivers and the springs as roots, so that plants may be watered, and all animals may have abundant drink." Aristotle objects against this Platonic abyss: The origin of rivers is higher than the sea itself, because rivers flow into the sea as into something lower and descend: therefore it cannot happen that waters ascend again from the sea upward to the origin of springs and rivers. For this is against nature according to that saying: "Rivers upward." Whence the reason why perpetual springs cannot be made by art is that water cannot ascend higher than its origin. It is answered: The same difficulty exists in Aristotle's and all others' opinions. For certain springs arise on the highest peaks of the loftiest mountains, higher than any sea and earth, so that it is necessary for water to ascend there from its origin or matrix, whatever that may be assigned; yet certain rivers which arise proximately and publicly from the sea are lower than the sea itself. Therefore Julius Scaliger, exercise 46, answers that water is outside its natural place, in that it occupies the place of air: water therefore above, he says, presses the water below, desiring to return to its place owed to it, and by pressing it expresses it, and causes the pressed water to leap forth in mountains through springs and rivers. For since from the first creation of God by which it should cover the whole earth, then on account of the habitation of animals a part of the earth was freed from water, hence that water must be accumulated to another water, and be raised and occupy the place of air, so that there is water outside its natural place: wherefore by its own weight it bears down on that water which is in caverns, so that it may receive its natural place; but water in caverns compressed, through channels as if tubes made by God, bursts forth in mountains higher than the sea pressing, because the weight of the sea is greater, because it forces water to burst forth through narrow channels, since there is no other place for bursting forth. For thus we see in great aqueducts, if the channels are narrowed, so that they cannot pour out all the water at once, by the force of waters flowing in the water thrust forth leaps higher than usual from the channels. To this are added certain Doctors, who are of the opinion that water is higher than earth, and has another center distinct from earth, and therefore rises higher in the earth. To this also pertain certain of the Fathers, who hold that water is higher than earth, and therefore it is held by divine force as if by a perpetual miracle with a bridle, lest it overwhelm the earth, and lest it do so, sand is cast upon it and set against it by God as if it were shackles. Thus St. Basil holds in hom. 4 Hexam., St. Chrysostom in the Catena of Job, Theodoret in Psal. ciii, St. Ambrose, lib. III Hexam. cap. II and III, St. Thomas, in the place already cited. The same was the opinion of Lucretius and Cicero, lib. II De Nat. Deor. But the Mathematicians, Philosophers and Theologians refute this very thing, who teach that water is not higher than earth, but makes one globe with it, and therefore has one center with it. Thus Clavius in cap. I Sphaerae, Pererius, lib. I in Genes., Molina and Valencia in Opus 3 diei, the Conimbricenses, lib. III De Coelo, Quaest. iv, and others throughout. The true response therefore and cause why water from the sea creeps upward and ascends to the origins of fountains is the will of God, His ordinance and provident distribution, who, as I have said, distributes water through all places above and below in such a way, and divides it for the necessary or convenient uses of the earth and of men and animals (just as water-carriers and water-measurers distribute waters through channels and fountains into cities, fields and gardens), in the same manner as He distributes blood in the human body. For just as the liver, by its nature blood which is heavy and tends downward, naturally by the force of the soul distributes it not only downward into the thighs, shins and feet, but also upward into the chest, neck and head: so likewise the sea naturally by virtue imparted to it by God distributes waters through veins and passages into all parts of the earth, both upper and lower. For the natural place of each thing is that which God assigns to it, says St. Thomas. And what is marvelous that water ascends above mountains, when it ascended above the heavens at first, and still remains there? For the firmament divides the waters above from those below, Gen. I, 6. It is added that mountains are of earth and earthy, and therefore the natural place of the sea requires it to be superior to them, so that it may subject them to itself. For earth seeks the lowest place, water the second, air the third: hence waters at the beginning of the world covered the whole earth; wherefore this ascent of water is not violent, but natural, both because it is done by God the author of nature; and because water seeks to be above earth, of which mountains are a part; and because this ascent of water is for the good of the universe, to which all its parts incline, and consequently water also, which is one part of the universe; and finally because water from the sea through veins imparts itself to the whole earth and to each of its parts above and below, in the same manner as blood from the liver through veins pours itself into all members above and below and is communicated through the mutual union and sympathy of the members. But by what art and manner does God cause waters to ascend to the origins of fountains? Various ones assign various modes. First, some probably hold that water ascends through the earth by suction and the attraction of spongy veins, just as we see dry sponge draw moisture from its vessel by suction to the upper parts, and cloth immersed in a tub gradually empty it. For if a line or linen band hangs down from above into a vessel full of water or other liquid, the lower part of the band will suck water from the vessel, and from this lower part another part adjacent to it will suck, and from this another neighboring part, and so on in succession; and in this way water gradually creeps upward and ascends, until it reaches the top of the band, where, following it as it bends and turns downward, it drips into the earth, and thus draws out all the water from the vessel and lets it down into the earth by dripping. Lyra adds that waters of the sea, percolated through the earth, become lighter and can ascend higher than the height of the sea. Albert adds that water heated in the earth's veins evaporates, and thus ascends upward through vapors to the heads of fountains, where the vapors are resolved into water by the force of cold, and create fountains. Thus veins by their suction draw blood from the liver upward to the chest and head. For this reason God made various spongy cavities in the earth, and therefore water-attracting ones, which gradually draw water from the sea up to the highest mountains as if through siphons, says Pliny; I say as if, because in siphons there is a nozzle, and, so to speak, a proboscis, that is, an outer tube projecting from which water flows into the earth, which must be longer and lower than the inner tube which sucks the water from the vessel; for if the outer is not longer, the inner will not suck water. In mountains, however, the opening of fountains is not lower but higher than the sea, from which it sucks water. Wherefore in this fountains differ from siphons. The reason is that in siphons, into the outer tube through which water is drawn by suction from the vessel, unless it is longer, air enters, and thus prevents a vacuum in the tube; to prevent which, if it is longer, water ascends, since air cannot enter it and prevent its vacuum. It is otherwise in the veins of waters so wide and vast in the earth and mountains. Thus therefore waters are transmitted upward from the caverns of the earth, and penetrate and rise not only up to the level of the sea, but also up to the highest mountains distributed throughout. Therefore, just as God imparted to the magnet the power of attracting iron: so in the earth's veins there is a power of attracting waters, and as it were a magnetic one. Second, others hold that water ascends from the abyss to the head of fountains by the force of subterranean blasts, winds and spirits enclosed in the earth. For thus the sea agitated by winds sometimes swells to the greatest height and lifts its waves to the stars. What wonder then if by the same agitation it elevates waters through channels to the heads of fountains? Thus St. Basil, St. Jerome, Plato, Pliny, Valesius and Pineda. Hear Pliny, lib. II, cap. lxv, who from the Greeks with geometric subtlety thus concludes: "Therefore all waters in every respect tend toward the center, and therefore do not fall, because they strive inward, which the artificer of nature must have formed thus; so that since the earth, being dry and parched, could not consist by itself and without moisture, nor again could water stand unless sustained by earth, they are joined by mutual interweaving, the one opening its bosom, the other permeating throughout within, without, above, running in veins as in bonds, and even bursting forth on the highest ridges, by which spirit driven and pressed out by the earth's weight, it shoots forth after the manner of siphons, and is so far from the danger of falling that the highest and loftiest things leap forth." By which reasoning it is manifest why the seas do not grow with the daily influx of so many rivers. Third, others attribute this ascent to the sky and the stars; for thus the moon causes the tide of the sea. Thus St. Thomas. Moreover there are several other modes of elevating water, as is evident in pumps, and in the machine of Ctesibius, through which in vessels enclosed with air, if water is poured in from elsewhere through an opening, we see the air eject the waters superposed to it in another vessel upward, so that it may seek room for itself, and enter into the place of the waters. Finally, this ascent of waters and their equal distribution throughout the whole earth, just as also of winds, rains, lightning, hail, snow, etc., their regular generation and division through individual provinces, is a peculiar work of divine providence, as Theodoret says, sermon 2 On Providence, providing for the whole universe with water, health and fertility, to be venerated with admiration, contemplation and thanksgiving rather than to be scrutinized with overly exact and curious inquiry, as Ecclesiastes chapter v, 8, and vii, 24 subjoin; for it is God's wisdom and providence which, Proverbs viii, 28, says it established from the beginning the fountains of waters, or, as it is in Hebrew, the fountains of the abyss, thus namely elevating and suspending the waters, both in the clouds and especially in the womb of fountains, the abyss, as she herself speaks, so that the course of fountains and rivers may never cease, by which as by udders the earth as a mother waters all living things and provides them with nourishment, as Philo says in the book On the Making of the World. To this pertains that Psalm ciii, 6: "The waters shall stand upon the mountains;" the Chaldean: pools of waters shall burst forth upon the mountains. Fifth, the same is evident from the sympathy of many rivers, which are less distant from the sea or less percolated through the earth: for some are salty like the sea; some imitate the tide of the sea, as one at Cadiz, another at Bordeaux, a third at Antwerp. Sixth, experience favors it: for in the time of the Mithridatic war at Apamea, a city of Phrygia, which nevertheless is far distant from the sea, Nicholas of Damascus writes that new lakes and fountains emerged, and from these one river which was salty, which poured forth a great abundance of oysters and marine fish. You will object secondly: The water of fountains and rivers differs greatly from sea water, both in sweetness, in color, in lightness, and in other qualities; therefore it does not seem to be the same, nor to proceed from it. I respond first: In the genesis and creation of the world, one did not differ from the other; for the water of all was the same, and it was sweet; otherwise indeed its saltiness would have made the earth, which it covered, dry, sterile and parched; on the third day therefore of the world, when water was separated from earth and led into its own channels and cavities, and the sea was made and received the name of sea, it became salty, and this for these purposes, namely first, lest standing always and not flowing (as the sea stands) it would putrefy; second, for the natural generation and nourishment of fish which are born from the sea; third, for easier navigation: for sea water, because it is salty, is heavier than fresh water, and therefore more easily bears and sustains ships and their enormous burdens. Thus the Conimbricenses, tract. 10 in Meteora, cap. ix. Yet the fresh water which was originally in fountains, rivers and subterranean recesses remained, and flowing through its veins into various regions of the earth, salty sea water succeeds it, which in like manner percolated through various passages and windings of the earth, becomes fresh, as Aristotle teaches, light, and of different color and quality from the sea, especially when it flows through minerals of sulphur, iron, copper, gold, vitriol, etc., whose virtues it imbibes and contracts, and therefore becomes medicinal, as is evident in the fountains of Spa, the hot springs of Aachen, and other similar ones, which therefore differ and are discrepant from each other and from the sea in many qualities. Symbolically again, this perpetual flowing of rivers into the sea signifies that man's beneficence ought to be perpetual. Cyril has an apt fable on this matter concerning the Danube and the sea, rich in many parables of things, in book III of his Moral Apology, chapter xxiii, which has the title: How the benefit of the liberal man ought to be perpetual: "Always to the ever-inundating Danube, he says, the sea spoke thus: When will the force of your flowing cease? When will your influx be terminated? How long will you give forth your waters? But he, somewhat indignant, replied: Truly you speak as the sea does; because you receive all rivers insatiably, and yet you have not justly grown. Assuredly then the influx of my liberality will cease, when the appetite of your insatiability will be terminated. For the health of virtue is no less than the defect of vice; and on account of this, just as nothing is sufficient for cupidity, so there is no end to liberality. Answer me how, from what, for what reason, and what the liberal man gives. Does he not do this from the inclination of virtue, and does he not communicate himself wholly by reason of delight? Because virtue, as nature inclines it, always acts, and never exists idle. Whence the humble man is always inclined, just, innocent, upright, merciful, prudent, pious, liberal, beneficent and profuse. Similarly true love is without end. For charity never fails, and he who is a friend loves perpetually, never withdraws from love, unless love itself ends. For love works great things, if it exists; but if it ceases to work, it is not love." Then he teaches the manner by which anyone, even a poor man, can always be liberal: "Yet the benefit never fails the liberal man to give, since he is most rich in virtue and love. Namely, if money fails, speech is present: if wealth is lacking, the hand is present. If the storehouse is empty, counsel is not diminished. For riches never fail virtue. Let not therefore the virtuous will fail, because the fruitful faculty will not be lacking." Finally, by the example of nature, of heaven and of the sun, he confirms the same thing: "Attend, I beseech you, how perpetual are the emanations of benefits of liberal nature. Does not heaven always pour forth vital powers to lower things? Does the sun perpetually pour forth light, and does not the ever most grateful earth always produce pastures; and as long as the heart lives, does it not warm each member, nourish the liver, animate the brain? Therefore the influx of liberal benefit is perpetual. Having said these things, the Danube flowed more abundantly." Mystically, the sea, most full and immense in all wisdom, virtues and graces, is God and Christ. Whence He Himself says, John vii, 38: "He that believeth in me, etc., out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Likewise the Blessed Virgin Mary. Whence St. Bonaventure, On the Praises of the Virgin, chapter vii: "All rivers enter into the sea, and the sea does not overflow," thus expounds mystically: "Just as in the sea there are waters, so in Mary there are congregations of graces." Moreover the sea is wisdom, as she herself says, Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 39. See the things said there. Furthermore, the fountains and rivers are preachers and doctors, indeed any just and holy persons, and even sinners, who through prayer, thanksgiving or penance return to God, the fountain of all good, in all things, so that they may obtain new light and grace. Whence St. Thomas, in the commentary on chapter I of Romans, lecture 5: They return, he says, rivers, that is benefits through gratitude to their principle whence they went forth, namely to the giver God; and thus they flow again, because gratitude for things given provokes the liberality of God to give new things. For, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 26 on Matthew: "The best guardian of benefits is the memory of benefits, and perpetual confession of thanks." And again the same, homily 2 to the People of Antioch, calls thanksgiving "a great treasure, an unconsumed good," as if to say, "perpetual streams." Otherwise, for a river not returning would dry up the sea: likewise God dries up for the ungrateful. Indeed, as St. Bernard says: "Ingratitude is a burning wind, drying up the fountain of piety, and the dew of mercy, the streams of grace." And again: "It obstructs the ways (and hidden) channels of grace;" which he transcribed from Augustine in the Soliloquies, chapter xviii. Indeed, rivers return more to the sea than we return to God; for they return the thing itself, whereas we return only words and a verbal giving of thanks. Let us therefore imitate rivers in their swiftest course to the sea, so that with the most ardent affection of heart, if not with the affection of works, we may return to God through love, confession and praise. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 13 in the Canticles, at the beginning: "The origin of all fountains and rivers is the sea; of virtues and sciences, Jesus Christ the Lord. For who is the Lord of virtues, except He Himself who is the King of glory? But also, according to the canticle of Anne, that same God is the Lord of sciences. The continence of the flesh, the industry of the heart, the rectitude of the will flow from that fountain. Not only this, but also if anyone is skilled in talent, if anyone shines in eloquence, if anyone pleases in morals, it is from there. From there are sciences, from there the discourse of wisdom. For all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden there. What? Chaste counsels, just judgments, holy desires—are these not rivulets of that fountain? But if the abundance of waters by secret and subterranean courses incessantly return to the seas, so that from there again they may burst forth to our sight and use in constant and insatiable service, why should not also spiritual rivulets, so that they may not cease to water the fields of minds, be returned to their own fountain without fraud and without interruption? Let the rivers of graces return to the place from which they go forth, so that they may flow again. Let the heavenly outflow be sent back to its celestial principle, so that it may be poured forth more abundantly upon the earth. How, you ask? How the Apostle says: Giving thanks in all things. Whatever wisdom, whatever virtue you trust yourself to have, ascribe to the virtue of God and to the wisdom of God in Christ." Again St. Gregory, III Morals, chapter II, or according to another edition IV, understands by the sea the contemplative life, to which rivers, that is, preachers and other saints who lead the active life, ought often to return, so that from it they may draw and obtain the force of action; rivers, he says, are lightnings, concerning which Job says, chapter xxviii: "Wilt thou send lightnings, and will they go; and returning will they say to thee: Here we are;" because after the external works which the saints perform, they always return to the bosom of contemplation, so that there they may refresh the flame of their fervor, and as it were kindle themselves from the touch of heavenly brightness, etc. To the place therefore from which rivers go forth they return, so that they may flow again; for they themselves there are rivers, who here are called lightnings: because indeed they water the hearts of hearers, they are called rivers; but because they kindle, they are called lightnings. Concerning which it is written elsewhere: The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices. And again: His lightnings have shone forth to the world. To the place therefore from which rivers go forth they return, because holy men, although they come forth from the sight of their Creator, whose brightness they strive to behold with the mind, on account of us to the ministry of the active life, yet they incessantly return to the holy study of contemplation; and if in their preaching they outwardly pour themselves forth to our ears through bodily words, yet with silent mind they always return to consider that same fountain of light." Elegantly and forcefully St. Bernard to the Brethren of the Mount of God: "It is not idle," he says, "to be at leisure for God, nay rather it is the business of all businesses, since from this the forces come to business;" and he who knows prudently to rest for a time will afterwards know how to labor strenuously and usefully.
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The Septuagint, all words are weighty; a man will not be able to speak: and the eye shall not be satisfied with seeing, and the ear shall not be filled with hearing; the Syriac, all answers are laborious; a man shall not be satisfied in speaking, neither shall the eye be satisfied in seeing, nor shall the ear be filled in hearing; the Arabic, all words are divided, he cannot but speak; and the eye is not satisfied with sight, and the ear is not filled with hearing; others, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. For "all things are difficult" in Hebrew it is, all words יגעים iegeim; the Septuagint βαρέϊς that is, laborious, weighty, difficult; the Interpreter of Nyssa, laboring. Less correctly the Complutensian and Royal editions read ἐγκωπα, with ω, and translate it, entangled: for ἐγκωπος, with ω, is unused among the Greeks and unknown to the Lexicographers; Symmachus κοπώδεις, that is, toilsome, troublesome; Aquila, κοπιῶσιν, that is, they bring labor; others, full of labor, failing in weariness, vexed, fatigued. First, many explain this saying concerning sciences, as if to say: All sciences, both philosophical and natural, as well as theological and supernatural, which are taught by the discourse of a teacher and explained to disciples, are difficult and laborious. For the teacher labors that he may speak them aptly to the capacity of the disciples; and the disciple also labors, that he may draw them in and grasp them, and that he may conform and adapt his conception to the conception of the teacher. This labor is experienced by the masters of our schools, equally as by the disciples. Thus St. Jerome, Olympiodorus, Salonius, Lyra, Hugh, Cajetan and others. On the other hand, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus holds that here the sayings and deeds of men are opposed to the motion of rivers, winds and the sun: in that this is stable and very useful to human life, while those are unstable and useless. Whence he thus translates: "The sun, winds, rivers do not exceed their bounds, nor do they wander from their laws; but truly those things elaborated by men, whether words or works, know neither measure nor limit. For how frequent is the heap of foolish and frivolous talk? yet without any benefit whatsoever. Nevertheless thus it is with mankind, hearing and telling fables, and by the sight of things slipping away, though uncertain, it cannot be satisfied." Again, the Chaldean limits this saying to prophecies and foreknowledge of future things; for these are obscure and difficult. Whence he thus translates: in all the words which are prepared to come to pass in the world, the ancient Prophets were wearied, and could not find their ends: but truly there is no faculty in a man, that he should speak what is to come after him; and the eye cannot see all that which is to come to pass, so that it may happen in the world; and the ear cannot be filled hearing the words of all the inhabitants of the earth. Secondly, words can be taken for things which are explained by discourse, by a usage common to the Hebrews, as Our Author has taken it; whence you may translate, all things are laborious, that is, they labor, weary themselves, sigh and as it were groan; יגע iaga indeed signifies to labor with panting, to weary, to sigh, to groan, so that the sense is, as if to say: Just as the sun, rivers, winds already mentioned, so also all other things continually move, are agitated, labor and from their labor seem to be worn out, to sigh and groan, so much so that man cannot worthily and fully explain this their labor and groaning in words. Consider indeed the labor which oxen, horses, asses, camels, and other animals and beasts of burden undergo in plowing, bearing loads, drawing a cart, running, contending, fighting, etc., and you will see all things often sigh and groan under the burden, and sometimes sink down and expire. This is what the Apostle says, Rom. viii, 20: "The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that made it subject, in hope; because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now." Thus our Pineda. Thirdly and properly, this labor of things is taken not as proper and passive, but as improper and active, as if to say: All things are laborious, that is, troublesome to man, because they weary him, both in their acquisition, possession, use and enjoyment; and in their knowledge, which follows from possession and use. For all things weary man, so that he may obtain them, possess them, use them and taste them, and thus know and understand them through experience; especially because after great labor, by which man obtains them, they immediately depart or perish, and thus afford man but little use and taste of themselves, nor do they satisfy his eyes in beholding, or his ears in hearing. For they are like lightning, which shows itself in a moment and immediately passes and disappears. Whence Fonteius translates: All things perish before our eyes and ears: and they flee so quickly that you are able to hold none of them in mind and see them for long, or say anything fitting and certain about them, nor would you dare to do so even if you were wise. Hence Our Author translates it, all things are difficult, namely both for possessing and enjoying them, and for knowing them; for difficult is the same as laborious, troublesome, avaricious, tedious, so that they scarcely and sparingly offer themselves to be possessed, and having scarcely been seen and tasted, they flee away. For such are all earthly things. Thus Cicero calls old men difficult when they are morose and troublesome. And the Comic poet calls courtesans difficult when they are avaricious, who do not grant themselves except for great entreaties and prices. For they are skilled in this art of extracting money, if they present themselves as difficult; to which all the other allurements of the world are accordingly similar. The sense therefore is, as if to say, the Sun, winds, rivers go round in a circle and depart, and involve and wrap themselves in their gyrations: wherefore to stop them and enjoy them at fixed times is impossible; but to unfold and unravel those same things is most difficult; just as it is difficult to unfold and extricate a ball of tangled and interwoven threads, even for those skilled in spinning: thus it is difficult to explain the gyrations of rivers, winds and the sun through the zodiac, and to give reasons and causes for them, namely why they go in a circle and return each year; why rivers entering the sea do not cause it to overflow; why winds go in a circle, and now blow from the East, now from the West, now from the North, now from the South: thus all other things are difficult both to grasp and to know. Whence discourses, as it is in the Hebrew, or things, as Our Author translates it, Olympiodorus transfers as reasons: "All," he says, "reasons are difficult." For who would assign the reasons and causes of all things and changes? That this properly pertains to knowledge and the cognition of things is evident from the discourses being laborious, as the Hebrew, Septuagint, Chaldean, Syriac, and Arabic have it, and from the fact that he adds: "Man cannot explain them by discourse." And: "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." Besides the vanity of things consisting in their perpetual agitation, inconstancy and circulation, he assigns another here in man, which follows from the former, namely, that man, partly from an innate blindness and ignorance in himself, partly from the instability of things themselves, cannot fix the eye of his mind upon them and perceive and understand them fully. They themselves therefore are "difficult," that is harsh, avaricious, denying themselves to be possessed, so that they flee and fly past however eagerly one gazes with eyes and listens with ears; wherefore man cannot fix his mind upon them and find rest in them, as they are vain and immediately vanish; but he ought to seek the good, the true, the stable and eternal, namely God, in whom he may find complete rest. For man, because he is a rational animal, naturally desires to know, says Aristotle, wherefore man's good and perfection, as man is, consists in knowledge and science. Whence Herillus constituted the highest good in knowledge, as Lactantius testifies, book III, chapter III. But because man's soul is immersed in a wretched body, and is therefore the lowest in the genus of spiritual creatures, and through original sin lost original justice, which not only conferred grace, but also perfected nature and intellect, hence there is in him great blindness, ignorance and difficulty in knowing things both natural, and much more supernatural and divine; which is his great vanity and affliction. Whence Socrates, as Laertius testifies in his Life, said that he knew only this one thing, that he knew nothing, and that our knowledge should be called learned ignorance rather than perfect science; whom Nicholas of Cusa the Cardinal followed, writing three books on Learned Ignorance; indeed the philosophers called Academics, or Skeptics, denied that man could have certain knowledge of things, since they have only doubtful opinion. Whence that one (Empedocles, if I remember correctly) said that snow is not really white, but only appears white to man. Mystically, and Olympiodorus explains this in various ways: "All rational principles, he says, both those pertaining to secular and those pertaining to divine wisdom, cannot be transmitted without labor; yet secular and worldly sciences for the most part bring detriment to learners. But the knowledge of God and divine discourse is always useful; which nevertheless man will not be able to explain with due dignity, even if he be otherwise prudent, unless he has received the gift of teaching, the word of wisdom. Otherwise: The teachers of divine word almost always labor and are in distress, and are often deterred from teaching itself, when they see themselves expending effort in vain and gaining only labor on account of the disobedience or sloth of hearers. The office of preaching therefore deters those who are heard with negligence. Otherwise: One must first do, and then teach others. Labor is therefore not common and slight, but very dangerous, to teach others those things which one has not first done oneself. Wherefore the perfect and prudent man, when he contemplates the magnitude of the matter, shrinks back and is deterred from preaching itself." And St. Jerome: "It should be noted, he says, that all words are weighty and are learned with great labor, against those who think that knowledge of the Scriptures comes to them in idleness and to those making vows." Hence St. Basil, epistle 68, refutes Eunomius saying that he has comprehended the truth, indeed God, by proposing to him minute questions about the nature of an ant, and thence concludes: "If truly you have not yet attained knowledge of the nature of the tiniest ant, how do you boast that the incomprehensible patience of God has been comprehended by your imagination?" Furthermore, the causes why all things are difficult for man to understand, and consequently to speak of and explain, are various: The first is that the intellect of man is bound to the body and to phantasy and the senses. Whence he understands nothing unless he has a phantasm of it in his imagination: but he imagines a phantasm of nothing unless he has seen it with his eyes, or heard it with his ear, or perceived it by another sense. But the senses perceive only the accidents of things, as sight perceives color, hearing sound, taste flavor, smell odor, touch heat, etc. The senses therefore do not penetrate into the innermost things, namely their essences, properties and essential differences, which the Angels penetrate. Hence it comes about that man knows very few natures of things, but only their accidents, from which as it were by traces and as it were by shadow, reasoning, he conjectures about the natures and substances themselves to which they adhere. Again, the senses, unless from a distance, do not reach subtle and remote things, such as Angels, souls, air, winds, heavens, sun, moon, stars, which nevertheless he most desires to know and fully understand equally as to speak of them; but he is not able, because speech corresponds to conception and intellect, and therefore does not adequately represent the thing. For the word of the mouth corresponds to the word of the mind, indeed often it does not adequately represent it. For we conceive many things which we are not able to speak of; but our conception does not adequately represent the thing itself, especially as to essence and substance; for this he perceives and conceives only through the veil of accidents. The second is the very agitation of things, their instability, swift rising and setting. For these do not allow long opportunity of them for the eyes to survey them and the other senses to investigate them. Whence Hippocrates at the beginning of the Aphorisms: "Art is long, he says, life is short, time is swift, experiment is dangerous, judgment is difficult." Hence Isidore and Campensis paraphrastically translate, for they do not remain, until it suffices for the eyes, however diligently contemplating, or for the ears most eagerly listening. An example is in the hyacinth gem, which, as Pliny says, lib. xxxvii, cap. ix: "Pleasing at the very first sight, it vanishes before it satisfies, and so does not fill the eyes, that it scarcely touches, withering more swiftly than the flower of its name." The third cause is the depression, dullness, ignorance and blindness of the human soul, especially after sin, of which I have already spoken. Whence Seneca, epistle 89: "If I believe Protagoras, he says, there is nothing in the nature of things except the doubtful; if Nausiphanes, this one thing is certain, that nothing is certain; if Parmenides, nothing exists except the one; if Zeno, not even the one." THE EYE IS NOT SATISFIED WITH SEEING, NOR THE EAR FILLED WITH HEARING. — In Hebrew, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. He draws this maxim from the preceding verse, as if to say: Because all things are difficult to understand and to express, hence the eyes are not satisfied with their contemplation, nor the ears with their hearing, and much less is curiosity, or the desire of seeing and hearing, which is immense in man, satisfied. The reason is that man possesses a rational mind, which is capable of infinite things, because it was created in the image of God, and therefore can be satisfied and filled by nothing except God alone. This insatiability of the eyes and ears in man does not proceed from the sensitive powers themselves, as the Philosophers note, because these are limited in themselves. Whence in brute beasts sight and hearing, indeed the avidity of seeing and hearing, are limited, and are easily satisfied, when through them they obtain food and other things suited to their nature. It proceeds therefore from their conjunction with the intellect and will, which in man is insatiable. The sense is therefore, as if to say: So much are the revolutions of the heavens, winds, sun and rivers, and all other various and difficult things, that they always hold the eyes and ears in their admiration, nor do they fill their desire and their thirst for feeling and knowing. Hence St. Augustine in the Soliloquies, chapter thirty: "When the soul, he says, desires a creature, it has continuous hunger; because although it obtains what it desires from creatures, it nevertheless remains empty, because there is nothing that can fill it except you, O Lord, in whose image it was created." Appropriately to his purpose, Ecclesiastes names the eyes and ears before the other senses, because these two are the noblest and most apt for knowing. Whence sight and hearing are two senses of learning, because they are swifter than the others, most certain and most efficacious. For they perceive at a great distance, and with little alteration of themselves, and with greater impression upon the imagination. Whence also they received their names. "The ears, says St. Isidore, book xi of the Origins, chapter I, received their name from drawing in voices. Whence also Virgil: And I drank in the voice with these ears. Or because the Greeks call the voice itself ἀκήν, from hearing. By alteration of the letter, ears, as if called audes, were named. For the voice, reverberating through their passages, makes a sound, by which they receive the sense of hearing." And a little above: "The eyes among all the senses are nearest to the soul. For in the eyes is all the judgment of the mind: whence also the disturbance or cheerfulness of the spirit appears in the eyes." "The eyes, says Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods, as if sentinels occupy the highest place, from which, perceiving many things, they perform their duty." Hear Olympiodorus: "The senses of hearing and seeing are principal and ruling, and the most rational of the other senses: for they perform their proper operations, useful and necessary to human life, without any satiety. But taste, smell and touch are more quickly fatigued and affected with weariness. The reason is that sight and hearing are more spiritual, while the other senses are more corporeal and gross." Furthermore, the reason why the eyes and ears of men are insatiable, when in brute beasts they are easily satisfied, is, as I have said, the infinite amplitude of the mind, and the desire, which, since it wishes to know infinite things, so as to fill its immense capacity, and cannot know them except it first draws in their species, and thus perceives through the ears and eyes, hence it desires infinitely to see with the eyes and to hear with the ears. This therefore is their vanity in this life, which in the future the immense truth of the vision of God will fill. There is added the meagerness and transience of the things which are seen and heard, which do not satisfy sight and hearing, but rather irritate and torment them. Hence St. Augustine, sermon 23 On the Words of the Apostles: "Temporal goods, he says, do not cease to inflame us with what is to come, to corrupt us with what is arriving, to torment us with what is passing away; things desired wither, things obtained become vile, things lost vanish." A remarkable example is given by Seneca, epistle 73: "Attalus used to employ this image, he says: Have you ever seen a dog catching pieces of bread or meat thrown by its master with open mouth? Whatever it receives it immediately devours whole, and always gapes in hope of the future. The same happens to us: whatever fortune throws to us while we are expecting, we let go without any pleasure, immediately raised up and astonished (others read, attentive) to seize another thing. This does not happen to the wise man: he is full; even if something comes his way, he receives it securely and sets it aside, enjoys the greatest and continuous joy, his own." This is confirmed by that passage in Proverbs xxvii, 20: "Hell and destruction are never filled; so the eyes of men are insatiable." And Ecclesiasticus, cap. xiv, 9: "The eye of the covetous is insatiable; it will not be satisfied until it consume itself by drying up the soul." See both passages cited. Excellently Hugo of St. Victor: "The heart of man," he says, "is not sufficient for the whole world; because all things are difficult, man is not able to comprehend them: and conversely the whole world is not sufficient for the heart of man, because the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." And St. Ambrose, lib. De Bono mortis, cap. vii: "In vain does he receive his soul (as we now speak of the troubles of this life), who builds up worldly things, constructs bodily things. Daily we rise to eat and drink, and no one is satisfied, so that after a moment he hungers and thirsts again. Daily we seek gain, and no limit is set to cupidity. The eye, he says, shall not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. He who loves silver is not satisfied with silver. There is no end to labor, and there is no fruit of abundance. We desire daily to know new things, and what is knowledge itself but the addition of daily pain?" Hear this entire passage from Ecclesiastes graphically explained by our Martin of Roa, lib. II Singular. cap. I: "All things are difficult, man cannot explain them by speech; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing," that is, all things are hard, tedious, avaricious, never give themselves, never grant possession of themselves, nor leave place or power to enjoy them; and thus "man cannot explain them by speech," that is, when he has scarcely tasted them, scarcely received them with eyes, scarcely with ears, he cannot explain what good or evil is in them, or what sort they are. For however attentively the beholding or swiftly the gazing aspect flees them, and they fly past the ears most eagerly listening. "The eye is not satisfied with seeing." Since they are comprehended neither by eyes nor by mind, nor is there one who can explain them by speech. "Nor is the ear filled with hearing." On the contrary, those things which are from God are good, true, and those which satisfy the heart. "I shall be satisfied," says David, "when thy glory shall appear." Hear the Prophet Esdras, lib. IV, cap. x, whom God commands to enter into his temple, and to feed his eyes equally and his ears with splendor, magnitude, and also beauty at his pleasure: "Thou therefore," he says, "fear not, nor let thy heart be afraid; but enter, and see the splendor and magnitude of the building, as much as thy sight of eyes is capable of seeing; and after these things thou shalt hear as much as the hearing of thy ears desires to hear."
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Some from the Hebrew translate assertively, but with the same meaning: that which was, that shall be; and that which was made, that shall be made; the Syriac: that which is the same, is that which was made, and the same shall be made; the Arabic obscurely: what thing forming, forms its own soul by doing the same; the Chaldean: that which was already from ancient times, that certainly shall come to pass afterwards; and that which was made in those first times, that also shall be made at the end of the ages, nor shall you find anything new under the sun here. Eusebius distinguishes shrewdly, lib. XI Praep. Evang. cap. vi: "That which was" from that "which was made," or being from having been made, and by that which is, or was, he understands incorruptible things, such as the sun, the heavens, the elements, Angels: for these have stable being; whence God's name is most stable: "I am who am;" but by that which "was made," he takes corruptible things, which nature or art makes. He proves that nothing under the sun is new by an argument from similitude, as if to say: Just as an incorruptible thing is the same in number as it was and as it shall be, for example the same sun present and future: so a corruptible thing is the same in species as it was made and as it shall be made: for to the passing generation of men and animals another and another continually similar and of the same species succeeds; whence he concludes: Therefore nothing new is under the sun. The Hebrews according to R. Moses, lib. II Ductoris perplex. cap. xxix, and Hugo think that here Solomon asserts the eternity of the world, not from his own, but from the gentiles', and especially from his foreign wives', whose opinion he dared not offend, sentiment. Following these, Cajetan, seduced by his Hebrew Interpreter, thinks Solomon "to argue from the eternity of time, all things to consist in circular motion, both according to being and according to becoming; but Solomon in preaching to speak, and to use an opinion, although false, yet probable according to what is more probable from sensible things. For natural reasons persuade the eternity of the world." But he errs in three ways: first, in that he asserts the opinion about the world's eternity to be probable; second, in saying it is asserted from sensible things, when rather from these the origin and creation of the world is gathered; third, in that he thinks Solomon, indeed the Holy Spirit, who spoke these things through Solomon's mouth, to use a false reason, even if in appearance probable, for the world's eternity, to prove the circulation of all things: for this is unworthy of the Holy Spirit. To this pertains the error of Origen writing on this passage, as Methodius testifies, lib. De Resurrectione, and lib. III Periarchon, who thinks here to be set forth the great year of Plato, by which he himself thought that after twelve (as Cicero testifies, lib. II De Natura Deorum) thousand years all things past would be recalled to be made present, namely that after some ages the same who now live would return, and the same thing which we now do, then also we would repeat and do; indeed the damned in hell would then be saved. For he thought that before this world other worlds had preceded, and after it others would follow, citing to this that passage of Isaiah lxv: "Behold I create new heavens and a new earth." Some think this error was affected to Origen by falsifiers, and inserted into his books, because he himself in lib. IV Contra Celsum seems to condemn it. Be that as it may, it was the error of the Origenists, whom St. Jerome refutes, epistle to Avitus, and St. Augustine, lib. XII De Civitate, cap. xiii. Thus Epicurus, says St. Jerome, asserts that through innumerable periods, the same things and in the same places, and through the same things are done; and Pythagoras thought souls to migrate and remigrate into other and other bodies. Omitting these manifest errors, First, R. Moses, in the place cited, thinks this to be said to signify the eternity of the world on the part after, namely the world henceforth to endure in eternity. But what does this pertain to the scope of Ecclesiastes, namely to prove the world's vanity, that is instability? for to this the world's stability and eternity directly oppose. Second, better on the contrary Eusebius, lib. XI Praep. Evang. cap. v, vi and vii, thinks these things to be said, so that he may note the world's flux, flight and corruption, namely that things of the world with time continually flow and pass away, and others succeed, and in the future shall succeed which in like manner shall flow and pass away, and therefore nothing under the sun is new, but all things grow old, age, and perish. Third, Lyra holds that here, after the circulation of the sun, winds and rivers, three other arguments are proposed to prove the vanity of the world: the first is that all things of the world are obscure for enjoying and knowing, when he says: "All things are difficult," etc.; the second, that they do not satisfy the eyes and heart of man, when he says: "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing;"; the third, that nothing in them is new, but all things are old and ancient, when he says: "Nothing new under the sun." Fourth, others refer these to sciences and opinions, that is to say, There are no new opinions and sciences, but those which now appear to be born, the same existed formerly, even if they were abolished in time, according to that saying of the Comic poet in the Eunuch: "Nothing is said which has not been said before." "Whence my teacher Donatus," says St. Jerome, "when he expounded this very verse: Let them perish, he said, who said our things before us." To this pertains that saying of Plato, book III of the Republic: "Nothing unheard of." And Aristotle, book I On the Heavens, text 22, and book I of the Meteorology, chapter iii: "It is necessary," he says, "that the same opinions recur infinitely throughout the eternity of the world, which he himself supposes and constantly maintains." But this sense is narrower and less fitting; for Ecclesiastes does not speak of the knowledge or opinion of things, but of things themselves when he says: "Nothing new under the sun," although to sciences and opinions, inasmuch as they themselves are things and real qualities, this maxim can be extended. Fifth and genuinely, Ecclesiastes here returns to the theme proposed at the beginning, namely to prove that all things in the world are vain, from the fact that all things go in a circle and pass away. He proved this from the continuous gyration of the sun, winds and rivers; now he proves the same thing from the gyration of other things, namely that all things with time go and pass away; and therefore after things past succeed things present and future, which likewise will go into the past. Even if therefore future things appear new to those who have not seen things past, they are nevertheless old things seen, and familiar to those who lived formerly: for things past in their similar futures, which succeed, appear new, but are not, because they merely rise again and are reborn; whence Thuanus translates: Namely all things which now we marvel at, those same were seen and heard by ancient ages. And Horace in the Art of Poetry: Mortal deeds will perish; Many things shall be born again which have already fallen, and things shall fall which now are in honor. Thus expound St. Jerome, Olympiodorus, Albinus and St. Augustine, book XII of the City of God, chapter xiii. Ecclesiastes says this to blunt the vanity of men, and their vain curiosity, by which, despising old things, they always long for new things; and therefore they wander about to gather new things, but in vain, since there is nothing new under the sun, because all things go in a circle and return. For this is the theme which he strives to prove from the beginning up to this point; although in the preceding verse he has injected, as it were by parenthesis, another argument of vanity, namely the difficulty of things for enjoying and knowing, and that the ear is not filled with hearing, nor the eye with seeing; yet these verses also can be referred to this, namely to show that ears and eyes, because curious and eager for new things, are not satisfied, because there is nothing new under the sun, that is to say, You labor in vain, O man; you torment and torture yourself in vain, while you wander through all things, so that you might satisfy the curiosity of your ears, eyes and heart eager for new things, when you will find nothing new, even if you turn from East to West, but all things are ancient and old. For this is the condition of an aging world, this is the nature and reason of time and equally of all temporal things, namely that they consist in continuous flux and gyration, and that things past go away, things present succeed, things future follow, which, when they have gone into the past, other things present succeed, and other similar things follow in the future. This is the perpetual circle of time and temporal things, this is the gyration and rotation. Therefore Ecclesiastes, after he has described the circular motion of the parts of the universe, namely of the heavens and the sun, of the air and the winds, of rivers and fountains, now describes the same motion on the part of time, to which all things are subject, and since they revolve and pass away, as if to say: Nothing is stable, nothing is constant under the sun; but all things, equally as time to which they are subject, are circular and pass away. Do you wish therefore to know, O curious man, what you will obtain by all your curious and troublesome labour? Observe the things that have passed and the things that have passed away; for what those obtained, you obtain, nothing else; you seek in vain for new things which do not exist, nor have existed, nor will exist. Whence Gregory of Nyssa: "To the question, he says, the answer is brief: Think what it is that will be in the future, and you will know that which was," as if to say: Men are always troubled by the desire for future things; for they despise present things, as if satiated by possessions: they long for future things, as if curious for new things. Occupied, says Seneca, in lib. III De Benef. cap. iii, with new desires, we do not look at what we have, but at what we seek; not intent on what is, but on what we desire. This vanity of theirs deceives them, because nothing new is done under the sun: the ancients had nothing excellent, we shall have nothing better in the future; from the past therefore you will gather and measure what kind and how great a good time and life will give you; similarly the future will gather from us. Gregory of Nyssa and both Hugos, namely the Cardinal and the Victorine, note that no mention is made here of the present time, but only of the past and the future, because from the present we have nothing except a single indivisible now: wherefore the present immediately passes into the past; it pertains therefore to the past, or to the future, as it were the bond and connection of both, because the present binds the past to the future. Symbolically, certain Rabbis (who think this sense is genuine and literal; but they err) in Galatinus, lib. X, cap. III and IV, understand these things of the new law foreshadowed in the old law, as if to say: That which through so many figures was foreshadowed in the Mosaic law, this in reality is to be fulfilled by Christ in the Evangelical law. Thus R. Barachias there: "What is it, he says, that was? the very thing that will be; as the first redeemer was, that is Moses, so will the last redeemer be," namely the Messiah or Christ. And Procopius in cap. xlviii of Isaiah: "Some seek, he says, how he asserts that he has made new things, when Ecclesiastes teaches that nothing new is under heaven; the mystery of Christ therefore, which is far greater than what is seen in creation, which is also called hidden by Paul, he understood." The Chaldean adds, who in verse 11 thus translates: The memory of past nations does not exist, nor will there be a record of those which will be in the future for those who will live in the times of the reign of the Messiah. Anagogically, Olympiodorus accommodates these things to the merits of the present life and the rewards of the future; for whatever merit has preceded, however great, in the earth, so much reward will follow us in heaven. Again St. Jerome, St. Augustine, XII De Civitate, xiii, and Hugo think that Ecclesiastes speaks (in the mystical and anagogical sense) of the presence and predestination by which those things are already made which will be in the future. "For those, says St. Jerome, who are chosen in Christ before the constitution of the world, already were in former ages," namely in the mind of God and in predestination. Finally Gregory of Nyssa notes that "what was" is said mystically of the soul, because it was created; "what was made" of the body, which was formed from the earth; the soul therefore is said to be future because it was through sanctification: for through this grace lost through the sin of Adam is restored to it; the body truly is said to be what was made through resurrection, by which those who were born and made will rise again, but died; that this may happen happily, the soul and body must return to the state which they previously had, namely to the purity and holiness in which they were created by God in the first man Adam.
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Septuagint, there is not everything (that is, nothing is) new under the sun; who shall speak and say: Behold this, it is new? It has already been in the ages that were before us; Syriac, which have been from eternity, that is from the ancient and first times of the world; Chaldean, for let a thing be given about which someone easily proclaims: Behold, a new thing has been found; yet the memory of old things has sometimes brought this about; Arabic, and everything renewed under the sun cannot speak and say: Consider this thing, because it is new, which has already been done in the past in the ages before us. You will ask, how is nothing new under the sun, when many new things are made through new arts newly invented, when new prodigies occur, when the new Christ gave a new law and new precepts in it, Sacraments and rewards; new also are miracles, about which it is said in Ecclesiasticus xxxvi: "Renew thy signs, and work new wonders?" St. Thomas answers first, I part. Question lxxiii, art. 1, ad 3, that all these things preceded, and were made long ago either in themselves, or in their causes, or in their likenesses: "They preceded, he says, according to likeness, as the souls which are now created. And similarly the work of the Incarnation, because, as it is said in Philippians II: The Son of God was made in the likeness of men. Spiritual glory also preceded according to likeness in the Angels; but corporeal glory in heaven especially the empyrean." Second, St. Jerome restricts these to man, as if to say: Nothing new happens to man; for man alone, he says, can speak and say, as the Hebrew has it: Behold this new thing. Pineda adds, who refers these to the morals of men, as if it were signified that the studies and efforts of mortals toward happiness are not new, nor do men of our age enter upon new paths toward tranquility of mind. All things have already been attempted by the ancients under the sun laboring for happiness, but with fruitless labor. The interpretation of the Thaumaturgus favors this: "What could be done in the future that has not already been accomplished, or is being done by men? What is new that has not yet been discovered by experience, provided it be remarkable and memorable?" Third, plainly and genuinely refer these to nature and art, or to ordinary works which are made by nature or art, as if to say: Nothing new under the sun, that is, nothing new happens in the natural course of things, namely of the heavens, elements, stars, winds, sea, men, animals; likewise in the arts necessary for human life, by which nature is in need, such as the blacksmith's art, agriculture, commerce, clothing-making, baking, etc. Nothing therefore prevents not only new prodigies and miracles from being made, but also wonderful new arts from being invented, such as the art of bombardment, printing, etc., although histories of the Chinese, especially that which was written by our Nicholas Trigautius, relate that both of these existed among the Chinese many centuries before they were invented in Europe, though inferior to the European. Read Polydore Vergil on the Invention of Things, who assigns the inventors of individual arts, namely those known to us and to our age. St. Augustine adds, book XII of the City of God, chapter xiii, that prodigies and monsters which now occur were made long ago, if not the same, certainly similar or related to them. It occurs to the curiosity of idle men, to whom their lot and present state displease, and the alien and remote pleases: wherefore they wish to see another age, and say: Would that I had lived in the age of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, Constantine! or would that I lived in the following age! I would certainly experience many new and better things. Others wish and say: Would that I had seen Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ! or would that I saw kings, pontiffs, heroes following after this age! would that I saw new things which were done under them, or shall be done! For through idleness they imagine wonderful things which never existed nor shall exist! Solomon refutes these, saying: Why do you vainly desire to see past or future things? Be content with the present, because these are similar, indeed the same as past and future things; for nothing is new under the sun. You wish to see Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc.: but they were men similar to ours. You see learned, holy, Apostolic men; think that in them you see Noah, Abraham, Moses. You see the same sun, the same heaven, the same earth which they saw. You see similar trees, plants, grains, fruits, houses, arts and artisans, such as they saw, and such as posterity will see. What therefore do you seek that is new, when nothing in the world is new? For art and nature have produced and will always produce the same things which it now produces. Moreover it is established that supernaturally in the new law many things were done through Christ, and new things are done by Christians, and all things will be new in heaven, according to that passage in the Apocalypse, chapter xxi: "Behold, I make all things new." For the mysteries of the incarnation of the Word, of death, of the cross, of the Eucharist, although they were faintly prefigured by many types of the ancients, were nevertheless in reality entirely new, wonderful, unheard of, when they existed in Christ; Christ therefore, the new man, by a new law and grace made man new. For, as St. Augustine says, sermon 39 On the Seasons: "He who came through the mockery of the cross, to destroy the corruption of the flesh, and to dissolve the oldness of the bond of our death by the newness of his death, by a new commandment made man new. For it was an old thing that man should die, so that it might not always prevail in man, a new thing was made that God should die." This is what Jeremiah predicted in chapter xxxi: "The Lord will create a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall compass a man." Thus Olympiodorus: "Nothing," he says, "is new in the successions of men, animals and plants." And St. Thomas in IV, distinction 48, Question II, article 1, to 1, says that Ecclesiastes speaks of the natural course of things, and of those things which are done by the sun, and depend upon the sun's power. Thus also St. Augustine, book XII On the City of God, chapter xiii. Hence our Josephus a Costa shows in book I On the New World, and Pineda in book IV On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter xv, that the new world, or the Indies, were known to the ancients from Plato, Seneca and others; and this is evident from the fleets of Solomon going to Ophir; but afterwards the path and memory of this journey were obliterated. Wherefore some think that the nautical compass, or lodestone and magnetic virtue, was likewise known to the ancients; for by this, inasmuch as it always tends toward the pole, sailors know the pole and the elevation of the North Pole, and consequently the other three regions of the world; whence they know in what part and region of the world they are, and where they ought to go, so that they may proceed to the place destined for them. However, more authors deny that the nautical compass was known to them; for they wish it to be a recent and new invention: but they grant that other instruments, arts and modes of navigation and of directing their course through the sea were known to them, and especially the astronomy of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, by which, observing exactly the position and motion of the moon, stars and heavenly bodies, they directed their course according to them. See Pineda, book IV On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter xv, verse 4 and following. Certainly that the astrolabe was known to the ancients, and namely to Ptolemy, and was called by him a planisphere, our Clavius teaches at the beginning of the book On the Astrolabe.
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That is, in a later time. For the Hebrew אחרון acharon, which our translator is accustomed to render as "last," is the same as "later," "following"; the Septuagint, "there is no remembrance of former things, and indeed of the last things, when they shall have been made, there will be no remembrance of them with those who shall be in the last time"; the Chaldean, "there is no remembrance of former generations, nor also of those that are to come later, there will be no recollection with the generations that shall be in the days of the King Messiah"; the Arabic, "there is found no recollection of ages past, nor of those to be made in the end"; Vatablus, "the memory of former things does not endure, nor among posterity will the memory of things that shall be hereafter endure." This maxim can be understood both of all prior and subsequent things. For of all these there is oblivion among those who follow and posterity. Whence our translator renders it in the neuter gender, "but neither shall there be remembrance of those things that are to come"; then properly of men and the sayings and deeds of men, who likewise are immediately consigned to oblivion: whence St. Jerome and the Septuagint render it in the masculine, "but neither shall there be memory of those who are to come." Ecclesiastes says this, first, to meet a tacit objection. For someone will say that many new things are done under the sun, because we have not read or heard of similar things being done in former times. Ecclesiastes answers that those things were done, but consigned to oblivion, because the memory of things passes away and vanishes with the things themselves, especially after many years and centuries. Whence Thuanus renders it: "The oblivion of ancient times, time itself brings on; of things that shall be done hereafter and whenever, scarcely the least fame shall flow to distant descendants." Second, to elude the vain desire in man for fame, memory, and glory among posterity. For since man knows that he must die, and cannot live perpetually, he therefore wishes to live at least in the memory and fame of posterity; but in vain, because this too quickly slips away and perishes. This therefore is a new vanity of human things, which brings about their contempt, namely that man, dying and vanishing quickly, does not even leave his own memory long among posterity, but it is swept away and departs with time. Hence the world in Hebrew is called עולם olam, as if "hidden," or as עולם olem, that is "hiding and concealing," from the root עלם alam, that is "he hides," because the deeds of the former age are hidden and concealed from the following age. See Wisdom v, verses 10 and following. Ecclesiastes speaks of the memory of natural and vain things, which vain men pursue, not of the memory of virtues and works of grace, especially heroic ones; for these endure for many ages, as can be seen in the Martyrology and feasts of the Church, which celebrates annually the memory of Apostles, Patriarchs, Prophets, Martyrs, Virgins, both to honor them and to propose their virtues to the faithful for imitation. Of these therefore Christ said: "Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven," Luke x, 20; and the Psalmist: "The just shall be in everlasting remembrance," Psalm cxi, 6; and Ecclesiasticus, chapter xliv, 14: "Their name liveth unto generation and generation." The just therefore are written in heaven, because their memory and glory shall be perpetual. But the vain and impious are written in earth and water, because their name and fame are immediately trampled upon, erased, and dispersed, according to that of Jeremiah xvii, 13: "They that depart from thee shall be written in the earth"; and Psalm ix, 8: "Their memory hath perished with a noise"; and Proverbs x, 7: "The name of the wicked shall rot." For although Alexander, Julius Caesar, Pompey, Nebuchadnezzar have memory among posterity and fame, yet this is putrid and infamous, namely that they were tyrants, robbers, impious and wicked. Ecclesiastes speaks from the whole class, or of that which happens for the most part and to the majority, although there be an exception in a few, as if to say: All kinds of things, sayings, deeds, animals, men that existed in the former age are consigned to oblivion in the following age, although certain individual men on account of exceptional wisdom, eloquence, or some other gift have posthumous fame through many ages, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. But these are very few, and their memory is thin and rare among a few learned men, and it is stained by the blemish of many errors and vices, such as lusts and the worship of false gods. Whence the Apostle, Romans i, thunders against them, saying: "Who, when they knew God, have not glorified him as God, etc. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, etc. Wherefore God delivered them up to the desires of their hearts, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies" through pederasty and other infamous lusts, which he enumerates there. A living example and mirror of this forgetfulness of former ages is Rome. When I entered that city eighteen years ago, I asked men versed in its antiquities in what part of the City there had once stood the houses and palaces of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Pompey, Scipio, Vespasian, Trajan, etc., and I received the answer that concerning many it was entirely unknown, concerning few there was conjecture that they had been in such a place, but obscure and uncertain. I searched for the ancient statues of heroes, mausoleums, inscriptions, pyramids, temples, basilicas, and from all of them I found scarcely anything intact except the Pantheon of M. Agrippa, but descended into the earth by the ruins of old rubble, and buried for the most part. Where then are the trophies and monuments of Romulus, Numa, Servius Tullius, Tarquin, Collatinus, Brutus, Metellus, Corvinus, Publicola, Torquatus, Camillus? They have vanished as if they had never been; indeed the names of very many are unknown, the memory of few is but slight. The most ancient and noblest Roman families, such as the Cornelii, Lentuli, Fabii, Pisones, Ciceroes, Servii, Scipiones, and all the rest to a man have been so extinguished that nothing whatsoever survives, indeed the name of most is unknown. Assuredly new Rome has buried old Rome, Christian has buried pagan, holy has buried profane, and "Rome buried lies in Rome." Go now, vain mortals, make your names eternal with the Romans, engrave them in marbles, erect them in statues, set them up in colossi; soon the forgetfulness of the succeeding age will blot out all these things. "Alas, how quickly the favor of the dead flows away among men, and appears abandoned," says Euripides in the Ajax, and Ovid, book XV of the Metamorphoses: Time, devourer of things, and thou envious age, Destroy all things. And Horace, book II, epistle 2: What was remembered by the ancient Catos and Cetheguses, Now formless decay presses down, and abandoned antiquity. For indeed we see marbles eaten away by age. "Death comes even to stones and names. As on the seashore heaps piled one upon another conceal the former ones: so also in life the former things are quickly hidden by the succeeding ones," says M. Antonius the Emperor, book VI of his Life; and in book XII: "How ridiculous and strange is he who wonders at the things that happen in life." Tropologically St. Jerome thus translates from the Septuagint, and thus explains it: "There is no memory of the first, and indeed of the last who shall be, there shall be no memory of them with those who shall be in the last:" that is, the sense from the Gospel is that those who are first in this age shall be last of all. And because God, as benign and merciful, remembers even the very least of all, to those who by their vice have deserved to be last, He will not give so great glory as to those who, humbling themselves, wished to be last in the world. It is therefore said in what follows: "There is no memory of the wise with the fool forever." He alludes to the parable of the workers first and last, Matthew xx. On the other hand, others refer these things to the decrees of the ancients and ancestors, which later descendants overturn and obliterate. Agis the king, when a certain old man seeing the ancient laws languish and other corrupt ones creep in, said that the affairs of Sparta were turned upside down, said in jest: If this happens, it happens reasonably; for I myself as a boy heard from my father that his affairs had been turned upside down in his age, and he himself said he had heard the same from his father as a boy. It is therefore not to be wondered at if later things turn out worse than earlier ones; but if sometimes better or similar things should occur. Thus Plutarch in the Laconian.
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Septuagint, to inquire and consider in wisdom concerning all things that are done under the sun. Thus also the Syrian. But the Arabic: I gathering together became king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I turned my heart to seek and to perceive with wisdom concerning all things created under the sun. The Chaldean mixes in much from his own, which I shall presently review. The Rabbis fable that Solomon said these things when, after his fall, having abdicated the kingdom, he became poor and as it were a beggar, and gave himself to the service and teaching of the demon Asmodeus, who presided over treasures. Whence Elias Levita in Tisbi in the word Asmodai, from the Targum thus reads: I Qoheleth, Asmodeus, king of demons, as if Solomon here speaks from the mouth of the demon, or the demon speaks through the mouth of Solomon. Francis George following the manner of the Hebrews, Problem. 82, says these things were said by Solomon: "When he was in the desert in a cave, and was dealing with Asmodeus." But hear the following, which expresses at length the trifling senses of the Rabbis and the Chaldean: "When Solomon the king sat upon the throne of his kingdom, being lifted up too much by prosperous affairs, he transgressed the decree of God, and acquired horsemen, litters and many riders; moreover he gathered together a great quantity of gold and silver; and he joined himself in affinity with foreign nations: wherefore the Lord was greatly moved against him, and sent upon him Asmodeus the king of demons, who deprived him of the kingdom, and drew the ring from his hand; and it came to pass that he wandered and fled throughout the world, and reproved men, and going to the provinces and places of the land of Israel, and not restraining tears thus cried out: I Ecclesiastes, once called Solomon, was king of Jerusalem, and I applied my mind to seek wisdom from the Lord, on that very day when he appeared to me in Gihon, to test me, and to inquire what I thought should be asked of him. And truly I contended with him for nothing else than wisdom, so that I might be able among the honest and the base in all these things which are accustomed to come into use under the sun, to apply judgment and knowledge, and to observe those wicked works of men, an evil thing given by God to men, so that they might destroy themselves in it," etc. Thus the Chaldean version has it, made by Peter Costa and by the Complutensians, although in the Royal Bibles many of these things, because fabulous, have been removed from the Chaldean: omitting these trifles and fables. First, the Rabbis and some Catholics with Hugh of St. Victor, homily 5, hold that these words are of Solomon, repenting of his fall: "Therefore, they say, he did not wish to say: I am king in Jerusalem, because having laid aside the purple of the kingdom he had already descended from his throne, and despising the power which he had held so badly, in the garb of penitence he bewailed his guilt, and therefore he says: I was king." Bede adds at the end of vol. VII, on the judgment of Solomon: "They say, he says, the books of the Hebrews that Solomon was dragged five times through the streets of Jerusalem, for the sake of penitence. Likewise they say that he came into the temple, which he himself had built, with five rods, of which he gave four to the learned in the law, so that he might be beaten by them, who by common counsel said that they would not lay hands on the Christ of the Lord; whence frustrated by them, he was deposed by himself from the kingdom." But this narrative of the Hebrews seems to be a fable fabricated by them in their manner, to assert Solomon's penitence and fame. And it seems to be contrary to Holy Scripture, which relates that Solomon the king endured until death, and then Rehoboam his son succeeded him. More probably others hold that Solomon, retaining the kingdom and scepter, repented, and said these things repenting. Whence Hugh weighs I was king; for this word seems altogether to sound the contempt of the kingdom and the world, as if what he had valued so much before, he now values at nothing, indeed testifies to be nothing: "I was, he says, I am no longer, because although I am the same, I now acknowledge that what I am is nothing." Second, plainly and genuinely, these words are of Solomon in the kingdom and having experienced the vanity of the kingdom and worldly riches; and therefore he says: "I was," so that he might demonstrate that in the past years of the kingdom he had received full experience of this vanity. Therefore Solomon here descends from thesis to hypothesis, that is, from the general vanity of the world to particulars, and in order to confirm them, he asserts that he has experienced all things, and has found vanity in all things. Thus St. Jerome, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus and others. He says therefore: I, Ecclesiastes, that is, a preacher, who preach here to Israel and to the whole world concerning the vanity of the world, that I may draw all from its love to the worship of God, have been king of Israel for many years now, that is, king of the Jewish people, or of the twelve tribes dwelling in their metropolis, namely in Jerusalem: for there indeed upon the royal throne after my father David I sat; wherefore in all these years of my reign I saw many things, heard many things, and by the wisdom given to me by God I examined all things, scrutinized all things, and in all things I recognized mere vanity. "I proposed in my mind to seek and to investigate wisely concerning all things that are done under the sun." First, some think that Solomon here confesses his curiosity, by which he wished to scrutinize and understand all things, even the smallest, too curiously, and therefore he adds: "This (occupation of curiosity) God gave as a bad occupation to the sons of men, that they should be occupied in it." For the curious scrutinize useless things and often harmful ones, such as magical arts, which some not improbably think Solomon learned when he worshipped idols, that is, demons; for, as St. Jerome teaches in the Preface to the Epistle to the Ephesians: Curiosity about magical arts is wont to be joined to idolatry, and to be as it were its appendage. Hence concerning Manasseh turning to idols it is said in IV Kings xxi, 6: "He built altars, etc., and he practiced divination, observed auguries, and made pythons, and multiplied aruspices." Thus also Julian, having become an apostate and worshipping the gods of the gentiles, consulted through magicians and demons about his affairs, and namely about the success of the Persian war, in which he himself perished, as Baronius teaches from Procopius and others. Again, sorcery is wont to be joined to impurity. Whence Quintilian, in Declamation iv: "Sorcery," he says, "is the whole life of a harlot;" and the Author of the fourth book to Herennius: "Our ancestors," he says, "judged that woman whom they condemned as unchaste, they also condemned for sorcery." For, as Apuleius says in book IX: "These are the familiar arts of women;" but Solomon was exceedingly lustful and unchaste. Thus Pineda thinks, in book VII On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter xii. To this pertains the exposition of St. Jerome, whom Albinus, Cardinal Hugo, Dionysius and Arboreus follow, namely that Solomon here accuses his curiosity of investigating, not so much natural things, as those subject to the fortune of God's providence: namely why this man is rich, honored, happy; that one poor, vile, unhappy; why this man is a prince, a prelate, a king; that one a private person, a citizen, a rustic; why the impious are exalted, the pious are brought low and afflicted. Hear St. Jerome: "Ecclesiastes first of all set his mind to seeking wisdom, and extending himself beyond what is lawful he wished to know the causes and reasons why little children were corrected by a demon; why shipwrecks absorbed both the just and the impious equally; whether these and similar things happen by chance, or by the judgment of God? and if by chance, where is God's providence? if by judgment, where is God's justice? Desiring," he says, "to know these things, I understood that superfluous care and solicitude, torturing through various things, was given by God to men, that they should wish to know what it is not lawful to know." Second, others better think that here is treated of verse VII, wisdom, and its lawful use, either acquired by study by Solomon, as Lyran and Cajetan wish; or rather infused by God upon his asking: for by this he wisely investigated all things, both natural and divine, which are done under the sun. Thus Olympiodorus. The Chaldean adds, who translates: I asked nothing else from God than wisdom, that I might be able to apply judgment and sense among the honest and the base in all these things which are wont to come into use under the sun. Third, and most excellently and genuinely, you should take these of wise consideration of the actions and occupations of men, by which various men occupy themselves variously under the sun in this life, as if to say: I Solomon by the wisdom given to me have wisely scrutinized each occupation, business, care and study of men under the sun, that I might see whether in them I could find anything solid, good, joyful and happy; I found no such thing, but rather in all things vanity and affliction of spirit. That this is the meaning is clear from what follows, in which he enumerates at length the individual occupations, pleasures and studies of men in order, and recalls that he found in each through experience nothing but vanity and affliction of spirit. He says: "Of all things that are done under the sun," so that he may show that he has examined all things, with absolutely nothing excepted. Again, so that he may insinuate that he has perceived them exactly and clearly, as if in solar light, that is to say, Just as the sun clearly illuminates and lights up all things, so also I have clearly perceived the same things with the sun illuminating them; indeed, as if standing with the sun's orb raised up, I have looked upon and despised all earthly things placed far below me, as if exiles. Most excellently St. Chrysostom, epistle 3 to Theodore the fallen: "All things," he says, "are shadow, dreams, a race. Life is a race. As if someone holding the summit of a lofty rock should behold the entire sea, and see many of those sailing thereon submerged by the frequent waves of the strait, others dashed against the rock of a steep mountain, some hastening to other shores, some defended from death by the aid of a single plank found from the fragments of a ship, sometimes using only their hands in place of a rudder and oars, but others see turbid waves carrying corpses in manifold and multiple kinds. So it is with one who serves God, when he has separated himself from the tempests and whirlwinds of this life, he stands always in a lofty and safe place, secure. For what can be higher, what safer, than that we bear only one care, how we may please God? You have seen such shipwrecks, avoid the sea and waves, and seek that lofty one navigating such a sea, and occupy the lofty place, immune from the danger of captivity." He Gave This Worst Occupation to the Sons of Men, That They Might Be Occupied in It The Septuagint, because God gave a bad distraction to the sons of men, that they might be distracted in it; the Syriac, the Lord gave a bad conversation to the sons of men, that they might be troubled in it; the Arabic, For God gave to the sons of men confusion, that they might be occupied in it; others, that they might be afflicted in it; others, that they might be made gentle in it; others embracing both, that they (to God) with labor, solicitude, gentleness might respond and make satisfaction. Whence Rabbi Haccados translates it, that they might humble themselves, namely before God their creator. For the Hebrew ענה signifies to be afflicted, to be prostrated, to be oppressed, to be humiliated, to be made gentle, to respond gently. Whence from ענה is derived ענין, that is affliction, solicitude, care, humiliation. Our translator renders it, worst occupation, that is most laborious and troublesome, which afflicts man continually, torments, tortures him as if on the rack or in the mill. Others translate it, wretched business. "The Septuagint," says St. Jerome, "Aquila and Theodotion translated περισπασμόν, which the Latin interpreter expressed as distraction, because the mind of man is torn asunder in various solicitudes." The interpreter of Nyssen translates it, distraction, by which the mind is drawn and cut up into various parts as it were: for περισπασμός is distraction, tearing apart, distention, by which someone is drawn, stretched about many things, distended, busied. For this is what περισπᾶσθαι signifies. Moreover περισπασμός can be translated circumflexion, so that it persists in the metaphor of circulation and gyration of ages, times, men and all things, that is to say, In this wheel of earthly occupation, labors and sorrows, men are continually circumflected, rotated and gyrated, like Ixion, as I have said in many places at verse 9. Again the Septuagint, chapter v, 2, translates the Hebrew inian as πειρασμός, that is temptation. You will ask, what is this "worst occupation" given to man by God? First, St. Jerome, whom Albinus, Hugo the Cardinal, Dionysius, Arboreus follow, answers that it is curiosity to know things of little use, indeed forbidden things: "That they wish to know," he says, "what it is not lawful to know," namely that they wish with excessive and difficult, long and proud curiosity to scrutinize all things plainly, both evil and good, which are done under the sun, and there to stop, and not to tend or ascend to the knowledge of the Creator. But God gave this to men both positively, because namely he implanted in man a great zeal for knowledge, to be moderated however by the bridles of discrete reason, but man abuses it for excessive curiosity; and objectively, because namely he set before the eyes and mind of men all things of the world, and, as it is said in chapter III, 11: "He delivered the world to their disputation," as if proposing it to men naturally curious as an enigma to be scrutinized. Secondly, others better understand by this occupation the study, or contemplation of things for the purpose of knowing them and acquiring their knowledge. For God implanted in man this desire of knowing, that He might draw him away from carnal things and lead him to contemplate sublime things, especially heavenly and divine things. This same occupation is most evil and troublesome, because it is most laborious, and thus often exhausts the spirit and strength, weakens the stomach and brain, and diminishes or takes away life. Thus Lyra and St. Cyril, book VII Against Julian, and our Lorinus. They prove it, because the discourse preceded concerning wisdom and wise investigation of things, as if to say, I Solomon gave myself to wise contemplation of things, because God implanted this occupation in man, when He gave him a rational mind eager to scrutinize and know all things. Symmachus favors this, who translated ἀσχολίαν, that is, literary leisure, so called because it is the highest business, as Seneca says in his book On the Brevity of Life, chapters XIII and XIV, rejecting all other external business, and also needing relaxation; whence σχολή is school, concerning whose etymology Ausonius thus sings in eclogue 32: And it is permitted to cease: By Greek name school is called, That just labors may be granted to the toiling muses. Hence again Hugo of St. Victor says this occupation is called by the Septuagint distention, because the occupation of knowledge distends men so that they swell outwardly, become empty inwardly, so that they appear greater without, lose solidity within, being unable to consider themselves. For "knowledge puffeth up (as wind puffs up a skin and bellows), but charity edifieth," I Corinthians VIII, 1. Yet it is less fitting that Solomon's wisdom, given to him by God and most excellent, by which he wisely, usefully and pleasantly contemplated all things that are done under the sun, should be called most evil occupation. That this is the meaning is clear from the Hebrew הוא hu, which is exegetical; for it explains τὸ all that is done under the sun by men through τὸ most evil occupation, so that it is an epexegesis or apposition. Whence from the Hebrew you should translate thus precisely with Vatablus, that I might investigate all that is done under the sun, which is most miserable occupation, which God gave to men that they might be occupied in it, so that it is as a parenthesis. In Latin it could thus be translated, for it is most miserable occupation, which God wished men to occupy themselves with. Or, as the Zurich Bible, which laborious occupation God imposed on men, that it might make them humble. Hence also the Chaldean paraphrast translated, and I saw that all the works of the sons of men are most evil occupation, which God gave to the sons of men sinners, that they might be afflicted in it. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus: "Indeed," he says, "by diligent investigation I observed that the condition of things done on earth is most varied, and I learned first of all that man is born to labor, and is occupied in many things in vain." Then he connects and renders the following verse thus: "For all these lower things distend the mind with a heavy, bitter and abominable spirit." Also clearly Olympiodorus: "God gave laborious occupation to the sons of men for their great utility; in that in acquiring riches, and in obtaining vain glory, and also in those things that gratify the belly and gluttony, one must labor exceedingly. For if we undergo such great labors and straits that we might possess things that are vain, to what degree of wickedness would we progress, if these very things came to us of their own accord while we were idle? Therefore each one is thrust into the mill." For this most evil occupation is like a rack, on which they are stretched, as the Septuagint translates, and like a mill, in which mortals are forced to turn the stone continually. Whence Thuanus thus paraphrastically translates: For indeed this ruler of Olympus gave a mill, for punishment, life to mortals to be turned without end, to be moved without end. And St. Paulinus, epistle 4 to Severus: "Consider," he says, "such a mortal life, and the whole appearance of a beast grinding will occur to you, as that one has his eyes of the body covered with rags, so this one has the eyes of his mind sewn shut with the filth of his life through the errors of his senses, as if around the circuits of the millstones, in laborious miserable station to be turned." In former times those captured in war, namely slaves, were condemned (as Samson was condemned by the Philistines, Judges XVI, 21), to the mill that they might turn the stone, and that this was done in his age St. Augustine writes, epistle 50; and the Saracens still do the same. Such precisely is this mill, this toilsome life, to which all of us are condemned on account of sin like Ixion. And yet there are some "who consider the turning of the mill of business a sweet pleasure," says Blessed Peter Damian, Opuscule XIII On the Perfection of Monks. This toilsome occupation, following Solomon, Sirach depicts graphically in chapter XL, 1: "Great occupation, he says, is created for all men; and a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their coming forth from their mother's womb, until the day of their burial into the mother of all." And then he enumerates the parts or kinds: "Tumult, fluctuation, anger, fury, zeal, fear, contention, death, the sword, oppression, famine," etc. The word occupation signifies, first, that it is not of one hour or day, but continuous, assiduous and perpetual throughout the whole of life; second, that it occupies and engages the whole man, so that he neither wishes nor is able to be free for other things; third, that man, occupied by so many labors and sorrows of this life, and as if overwhelmed, finds no solace in it; and therefore ought to lift up the eyes of his mind to God, and humbly implore His aid and consolation. For this reason indeed it was sent upon him by God as a punishment for sin, so that before God he might humble himself, and as a suppliant seek pardon and aid. Olympiodorus suggests other causes and ends on account of which God sent it upon man, namely that man from this very occupation, so hard and troublesome, might reason thus with himself: Whichever way you turn, whether toward good or toward evil you must labor, the labor and occupation concerning good is to be chosen, which is followed by ineffable pleasure. For it is a wise saying of the Wise Man: "Do not labor without reward;" much more: "Do not make labor the reward of labor," as those do who labor in vice and crime: for by this they bring upon themselves nothing but labors and sorrows. Again, of two evils the lesser is to be chosen; choose therefore occupation and labor concerning virtue, because it is less than labor expended in vice, both on account of the honesty of virtue, and on account of the joy and reward which follows from virtue. Let the Wise Man therefore say to himself: All this mortal life is heavy with sorrow and grief, is a treadmill, is a mill; why therefore should it occupy me? The future life is rich with all joy and jubilation; why therefore should I not long for it? Why should I not devote all my effort to it? Whoever you are that know yourself born and destined for heaven, despise the earth, despise earthly things, live for God, live for heaven, live for eternity. Do you wish to know what all the riches, pleasures, honors of the world are? Hear St. Gregory of Nazianzus responding in his Poem On the Journeys of Life, when he attributes these epithets to them: Down, phantom, dew, and light shadow and vapor, Flowing stream, flux and watery flow, Dreams, wandering ship's traces, wind, Swift flying feather, dust and light air. A circle which with equal motion turns all things, Constant and rotating, fixed and perishing. Whence he concludes: But Christ provided nothing firm here to be, That your steadfast hearts might be touched by love of it. And St. Athanasius in the Synopsis of Holy Scripture, in Ecclesiastes: "All things are vanity, he says, and affliction of spirit, and nothing more than vanity of counsel, and vain striving of will, signifies the eternity of future goods; wherefore, transcending all things, he exhorts that we preserve the memory of eternal things."
1:14
These words depend on verse 12: "I Ecclesiastes," etc. For verse 13 is inserted as it were by way of parenthesis, as I said there; less fittingly do others refer it and restrict it to the following verse, as I shall explain there. The Arabic version translates: And I knew all the arts which are made under the sun, behold all are vain, and distress of spirit. For vanity Aquila translates ἀτμίς, that is, vapor. See what is said at the beginning of the chapter, verse 2. For affliction of spirit the Hebrew is רעות רוח reut ruach, where reut according to different roots is expounded differently by different ones. First indeed, if you derive reut from רוע roa, that is, to be evil, to be broken, to be afflicted, it will be the same as malice (that is, misery), breaking, affliction, as our translator renders it. Hence the Syriac version translates, solicitude of spirit; the Arabic, distress of spirit; the Chaldean, breaking of spirit; or, as Costus translates, annoyance of mind; others, irritation of spirit; others, weariness of spirit; Vatable, breaking of spirit, that is to say, I Solomon, contemplating all the pursuits of men, all occupations and labors, find all things not only vain, that is, undertaken with vain effort, fruitless labor, vain and null outcome; but also to afflict the spirit, that is, the mind of man, to torture and break it: for each single thing brings so many cares, anguishes, hardships, troubles, labors to man, that they seem born for afflicting his soul. Thus St. Jerome: "I found nothing else, he says, than vanity and miseries, that is, miseries of spirit, by which the soul is afflicted with diverse thoughts." Again, others explain malice of spirit thus, that is to say, All things which are in the world are full of a maleficent and as it were poisoned spirit, because they afflict, torture, kill man. Whence the Wonderworker translates, as the Brigantine transfers it, the mind—these lower things distend with a grave, bitter and abominable spirit. Others indeed translate, with a prodigious and accursed spirit, all these lower things are full, so that no one is able to gather them, indeed not even to think how great an absurdity has invaded human affairs, that is to say, An evil spirit, namely the devil, who after man's sin dominates him and this air, mingles himself with all the world's allurements, and makes them appear much more beautiful and delightful than they truly are, and thus entices men to fill themselves with them and to sin, and then pours his venom through them both into the body and into the soul of man, so that he afflicts and torments the body with diseases, the soul with pain and remorse, and with the other penalties of sins. Hence also St. Jerome on the following verse: "All things, he says, which are made under the sun, are overthrown by the devil's judgment and spirit of malignity; while at his instigation sins are heaped upon sins." Secondly, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, deriving reut from רעה raa, that is, to feed, translate νομή, or βόσκησις, that is, feeding or pasture of spirit, that is, of wind. Now feeding can be taken in three ways: first, objectively, that is to say, All the world's honors and allurments are nothing but passing winds, which distend the mind, and cannot feed and satisfy it, according to that in Jeremiah XIV, 6: "The wild asses stood in the high places (where winds blow more), they drew in the wind like dragons;" wherefore such are like the chameleon, which, as Pliny says in book VIII, chapter XXXIII, "always gaping, alone of animals is nourished neither by food nor by drink, nor by anything other than the nourishment of air." Secondly, actively, that is to say, He who pursues the vain riches and honors of the world is like a shepherd who feeds not sheep, but winds, that is, he who attempts a useless and impossible thing. For who can feed and govern winds? according to that in Proverbs XXI, 4: "He that trusteth in lies, he feedeth the winds; and he himself followeth after flying birds." Thirdly, feeding can be taken for depasturing, that is to say, All things of the world are nothing other than depasturing, loss, destruction and consumption of spirit. For just as an ox depastures grass, so those depasture and consume all the powers of the soul, all the spirit, all joy. Third, רעה raa in Syriac-Chaldaic signifies to think: whence רעות reut is translated by Pagninus as thought, by the Septuagint as προαίρεσις, that is free choice and will. There is an allusion to the Hebrew רעה raa, that is to feed or pasture, because thought is the food of the mind, or because the mind feeds and governs its own thoughts, just as a shepherd tends sheep; the sense therefore is, as if to say, All the allurements of the world, which appear to the desirous as excellent, are nothing but their thought and imagination, which desire produces; for from that imagination they imagine themselves to possess great joys, satiety and happiness, which in reality they do not possess: wherefore those allurments feed nothing but their imagination, or rather are in truth nothing other than imaginations and imaginary joys and dreams; for just as one dreaming seems to himself to feast, to drink, to dance, and in reality does not feast, does not drink, does not dance: whence when he awakes, he finds himself hungry, thirsty and weary more than before: so likewise the delights of the world seem to gladden and satisfy the mind, but in reality they do not gladden and satisfy it, nor do they give solid joys to the mind. Whence Plato: "The hopes of mortals," he says, "are dreams of the waking." And Philo, following Plato in his usual manner, in the book On Joseph: "The imaginations of the waking," he says, "are most similar to dreams; they come, they go, they appear, they flee, and before they are grasped they fly away." Again, προαίρεσις is free will, choice, purpose, selection, the judgment of the mind, a sect. It signifies therefore, says St. Jerome, "that each one does what he wishes, and what seems right to him, and men are carried in different directions by free choice: and all things are vain under the sun, while we mutually displease one another in the boundaries of goods and evils." Each one therefore in the world acts according to his pleasure, and follows the guidance of the most corrupt will: from which it comes about that this world is as it were a certain prison of the insane, and each one indeed raging in his own particular errors and false opinions. And what is remarkable, since all are insane, each one thinks only himself wise, the others insane; as it is written in Proverbs XVIII, 2: "The fool receiveth not the words of prudence, unless thou speakest those things which are in his heart." Thus Pineda. Olympiodorus adds, who places the greatest vanity in this, that the pleasure-seekers do not from necessity, but by free choice pursue illicit pleasures, by which they bring upon themselves the eternal torments of hell. To these things προαίρεσις can be translated as presumption of spirit, that is boldness and pride, by which the exalted dare and presume many great things, even forbidden and beyond their strength. Thus St. Augustine, homily 1 On the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount: "Commonly," he says, "the proud are said to have great spirits, and rightly so, since spirit is called wind." But Nazianzenus, oration 10: "Presumption," he says, "of spirit is a certain rash impulse of the mind, and a drawing of man, perhaps on account of an ancient fall, punished as a penalty." Where Elias of Crete expounds Nazianzenus "concerning a soul rashly and inconsiderately impelled to the vanity of the world, and devoted to the labor and hardships of this life on account of the violation of God's commandment." Fourth, others in Pagninus's Lexicon translate reut as society or friendship: for רע rea is indeed a companion or friend, as if to say, While you seek the friendship of men, or the society of creatures, you seek nothing other than friendship and society with spirit, that is with wind, which you cannot see and hold so as to enjoy it, since it passes by more swiftly than speech, and disperses and passes away. From this vanity and affliction of things St. Cyprian collects, book III of Testimonies to Quirinus, chapter XI, that the faithful ought to think only of heavenly and spiritual things, and not attend to the world: as one who has already renounced it in Baptism and confirms it from many testimonies of Scripture. Truly St. Chrysostom, epistle 3 to Theodore the Fallen: "Just as," he says, "in the womb a boy, so in the world we live enclosed in many straits, and being unable to behold the splendor and brightness of the coming age." And indeed Pindar, Pythian ode 8: "Brief," he says, "is the delight of mortals as it grows; likewise it falls to the earth, shaken by an evil counsel; men are of one day. What is anyone? what indeed is no one? a shadow, a dream are men. But when light given by Zeus comes, bright is the light of men and sweet is life."
1:15
The Hebrew has it word for word: what is depraved or perverted cannot be reconciled by anyone; and diminution or defect cannot be numbered. Thus Vatablus. Others: curvedness cannot be straightened, and defect cannot be numbered; others: what is curved cannot be rectified, and what has a defect cannot be numbered or come into number; the Septuagint: the perverted cannot be adorned, and the diminution cannot be numbered; others: the perverted cannot be composed, restored, fitted, prepared, amended, suitably arranged, equalized. For all these things are signified by the Hebrew תקן takan, namely to correct, raise up and fit what is distorted, curved, oblique or depraved, to compose it, to reduce inequality to equality, curvedness to straightness, deformity to conformity and suitability, so that the parts agree and consent with one another. Whence the Hebrews translate it as regulate or rectify; the Arabic: the perverted cannot be straightened, nor can the diminished be aggregated. Our translator shrewdly and clearly turned both from neuter to masculine, namely the perverted into the perverted ones, and by diminution or defect understands the defect of wisdom, namely foolishness which is in the foolish. Whence he translates it as the foolish. For these are diminished not in head but in brain, that is in sense and wisdom. Whence also the Syriac translates it: the disturbed cannot be confirmed; and the foolish cannot be numbered. The Chaldean is added, whose version I shall recite below. For foolish the Hebrew is חסרון chesron, that is defective, maimed, needy; likewise defect, want, poverty. It is a frequent metonymy among the Hebrews, by which the abstract is put for the concrete, namely defect for those deficient in sense. Again it is an amplification: for the foolish man lacks wisdom, and consequently all goods, so much so that he himself can be called chesron, that is very poverty itself; just as Ebion the heresiarch was called as it were אביון ebion, that is poor from the utmost poverty, which he himself as if zealous for perfection displayed, or rather because he thought most poorly of Christ, denying his divinity, as St. Ignatius says in his epistle to the Philadelphians: "If anyone, he says, confesses Jesus Christ to be a mere man, etc., he is destitute of sense, by the name Ebion." For chesron the Septuagint translates ὑστέρημα, that is defect. Thus also Symmachus: "Defect, he says, cannot fill up the number." Wherefore the Complutensian and Royal editions less correctly translate ὑστέρημα as posterity: Posterity, they say, cannot be numbered; for the Hebrew chesron and the Greek ὑστέρημα signify defect, want, poverty, and the posterior parts of him who is deficient and overcome, not progeny or posterity. Now if with the Hebrew and others you read in the neuter: the perverted cannot be reconciled, nor can defect be numbered: first, some think this is said against those who thought the world made by chance, and therefore imperfect; then the sentence ought to be read with interrogation in this manner: What is found in this world that is imperfect and perverted, or such that it ought to be amended? What moreover also is lacking in the whole world, so that it ought to be added and numbered? St. Jerome from this passage refutes those heretics who introduced certain natures that would not receive healing: For indeed, he says, straight things receive adornment, and curved things correction, nor is anything called perverted except what is depraved from the straight. Secondly, others on the contrary hold that these things pertain to the vanity of sublunary things, concerning which the preceding verse speaks, and they explain and confirm it from the fact that all these things, especially after the sin of Adam, have been corrupted and made imperfect in his punishment, diminished, deficient, evanescent, which no one can restore so that they are full and absolute in all their parts and their proper measure; no one can perfect or obtain them so as to enjoy them happily: because what in them is corrupted cannot be corrected; what in them is lacking (as very many things are lacking), does not come into account: for what is not, but is lacking, cannot be estimated and reckoned. Most excellently St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in his oration On the Care of the Poor: "Nothing in human affairs is stable by nature, nothing equal, nothing sufficient, nothing remaining in the same state; but all things revolve as it were on a wheel, bringing diverse changes often on single days, even on single hours, so that to unstable winds, and to the traces of a ship cutting through the sea, and to the deceptive dreams of night, whose grace is brief, and to those things which children fashion in play in the sand, more trust should be placed than in the present prosperity of men. Wherefore they act prudently, who because they do not trust in present things, take counsel for their future by their reason; and on account of the unstable condition of human happiness, they embrace benignity and mercy, which never fails." Hence again the defects of sublunary things cannot be reckoned because they are very many and innumerable, and yet although they abound with so many defects and wants, they present and promise an abundance and plenty of things, which would satisfy and fill the desire of man, just as in Proverbs IX, 13, that harlot "foolish and clamorous, full of allurements, and knowing nothing at all;" or, as the Septuagint reads, a woman unwise and bold, and in need of a morsel, yet ambitiously and falsely invites to sweet bread. In no other way does the world, lacking bread, worn out by hunger, consumed by thirst, lie about a splendid and sumptuous banquet, rich and full of all delights. This therefore is their vanity. Thus Pineda. To this are added those who refer the former part of the verse to the uncontrollable perversity and malice of things' stubbornness, but the latter part to the multitude of fools obstinately gaping after them, as if to say: All things in the world are vain, that is, troublesome, absurd, perverse; to which is added the vanity and folly of men, gaping foolishly after them, and corrupting both themselves and those things themselves more. Whence the Thaumaturgus translates: "And so to such a great disorder of things has it come, that neither can the world be repaired to a complete good state, nor can it be thought how greatly human affairs are involved in absurdities." And St. Jerome, who conglomerates various senses here: "So much malice," he says, "is contained in the capacity of this world, that the world can scarcely return to a complete good state: nor can it easily receive order and its perfection, in which it was first created. Otherwise: All things being restored to completeness through penance, the devil alone will remain in his error. For all things which are done under the sun have been overturned by his judgment and by the spirit of malice, while at his instigation sins are heaped upon sins. Finally, so great is the number of seducers, and of those who have been snatched from the flock of the Lord by him, that it cannot be comprehended by reckoning." Moreover, all things have been corrupted through sin, both by God, so that it might be to man a punishment and a scourge, as is evident from Genesis cap. III, 18; and by the devil, because he shows to man the appearance of those things more alluring than it truly is, so that he might entice him to sin, as I said in the preceding verse; and by the concupiscence of man, which abuses them and corrupts and perverts them, so that he might delight and satisfy himself in them more. For gluttony has invented new allurements of dishes, new mixtures, new seasonings and these innumerable, by which the simple nature of food is corrupted and perverted. Lust has invented new and portentous lusts. Pride has invented new titles, new pomp, new arrogance. Curiosity has invented new forms of garments, new apparatus of horses and carriages, finally newness of all things. Third, some refer this saying to the depravation of human nature through sin, as if to say: God created man, namely Adam, whole and upright, both in nature and in holiness and grace. For original justice not only sanctified Adam, but also perfected human nature in him, which is imperfect in itself, and so to speak maimed, inasmuch as in it the sensitive appetite often resists reason and mind, from the fact that the human soul is partly animal, having the same carnal appetites which animals have; partly rational and spiritual, having the same spiritual appetites which angels have; this, I say, adverse and as it were maimed nature of man, conflicting and warring within itself, original justice healed, corrected, perfected, subjecting all appetites to reason and mind. But when this justice was taken away through sin, man relapsed into the natural imperfection of his nature, so that sense rebels against reason, concupiscence against will, appetite against law. Solomon therefore says that this depravation of nature is so great that it cannot be corrected and restored by any man or angel, and that its defects, propensities to all vices, miseries and afflictions are so many and so great that they cannot be enumerated by any; therefore grace of Christ is necessary to restore all of them: for this heals all of them inchoately in this life, and will heal them perfectly in future glory. Philosophers perceived this depravation of nature: but they were ignorant of its cause, namely original sin. Whence some impiously accused God, who had created man so miserable; others accused nature, as if it were a stepmother, not a mother to men, as Cicero, lib. III De Republica, whom St. Augustine cites, lib. IV contra Julian. cap. XII. Hence the Nyssene thus explains it, as if to say: The vanity already mentioned happened not from nature, not from God, but from man's choice, as the Septuagint translates it. Because our spirit, freely departing from its adornment and integrity, became perverted, maimed, distorted; and "what is perverted cannot be adorned," that is, this corruption and depravation of man through sin is not fitting, nor does it accord with the nature originally instituted by God and adorned with original justice, and as it were directed by the rule of reason and God's law. Fourth, the Donatists wrongly argue from this passage that baptism conferred on one who believes badly, or administered by one who believes badly, namely by a heretic, is perverted, and therefore cannot be restored, but ought to be iterated and conferred anew. Hear Parmenianus objecting to St. Augustine, lib. II Contra Parmen. cap. XVI: "He who believes badly cannot obtain the sacrament of baptism; because it is written: A perverted thing thou canst not make straight." To which St. Augustine responds: "A perverted thing thou canst not make straight; because the Sacrament which he had received would not have been made straight for him, if he persisted in perverted faith, but rather unto punishment: yet the sacrament itself through itself, even in the perverted man, whom it did not adorn, but judged, remained whole, and therefore in no way was the holiness of that sacrament to be violated, even though the perversity of that man was to be corrected." Fifth, Pagninus in his Lexicon translates and explains it in the formal sense, that perversity can never be rectitude, that is, vice can never be virtue; or, as the Greeks in the Catena: "The perverted and fallen into malice, while he is in malice, cannot receive virtue," namely in the composite sense so long as he persists in malice. Cajetan, however, says: what is twisted cannot be fitted; which he himself takes not only of morals, but also of physical things, e.g., "that a lamb is snatched by a wolf, that crops are destroyed by rains or by heat;" for no one can restore a lamb torn by a wolf, or restore crops scattered by rain or burned by heat. But this sense is foreign, futile and impertinent. Wherefore the sense noted in the second place is especially the genuine one, then the third. But according to the Vulgate, which has, the perverse are corrected with difficulty, and the number of fools is infinite. Various connection and meaning of this sentence occur. First, some think it to be an occupation by which Solomon meets a tacit objection. For someone will say: If all things in the world are vain, and they afflict a man indulging himself, why then do rational men, seeing and hearing this vanity, nevertheless obstinately cling to it? He responds that the cause is the perversity and foolishness of men ensnared and maddened by the allurements of the world, by which, like unbridled and raging horses, they rush into their own destruction and precipices; for these very things, being blinded by cupidity, they do not see, occupied by their concupiscence they do not perceive, but afterwards they feel the punishment and repent too late. Here Solomon concludes: Therefore, not to them, as being unwise, but to me, the wise one, who with calm and right judgment have examined all things and judged all things to be vain, give credence. Second, both Hugo the Cardinal and Victorinus and Lyra think this aphorism should be connected to the preceding: that it completes that, as if that vanity of which in the preceding verse, here only that is understood which wise men, especially rulers and kings, such as Solomon was, experience in governing, namely the difficulties of correcting the desires and vices of subjects, in that the perverse are corrected with difficulty. But this meaning constrains the preceding aphorism too narrowly concerning the vanity of things, since that in itself is indefinite, broad and general. To this are added others who connect this aphorism to verse 13, and there take by occupation the worst study of knowledge and mental speculation, as if to say: Not only in his knowledge and speculation is there vanity and affliction of spirit, but also in practice: for in vain would a wise man wish to correct the morals of perverse men, and therefore he is afflicted. Third, others think that here the vanity of things is proved from the vanity and perversity of men, who, depraved by their foolish desires, decline from their end and happiness, and cast themselves into eternal torments. For what is more vain than to wander from one's end? What is more foolish, what more miserable, than to bring upon oneself perpetual fires? Others, on the contrary, think that the cause of the vanity of things is here attributed, not to God the creator, but to choice, as the Septuagint has it, and to the perversity of men, who distort the good things created by God by their abuse into evil, and corrupt them, and thus "vitiate the harmonious concert of the world, and make it discordant," say the Fathers in the Greek Catena. Fourth, the Chaldean refers these things to those dying in sin; for these indeed after death cannot repent and be corrected: "A man," he says, "whose ways are perverse in the world, and dies in them, and turns to repentance, does not have the power of correcting himself. And a man failing in the law and precepts in his life, after his death does not have the power to dwell with the just in the paradise of delights." But this meaning is more mystical than literal. To this is added that exposition of St. Jerome among others reviewed a little before, namely concerning the wicked, whose leader and author is the devil, who, incapable of repentance, remains in his error. And that of the Greek Catena: "The perverse and fallen into malice, while he is in malice, cannot receive virtue; and he who is destitute of the grace of God can by no means be numbered among the pious worshippers of God." Fifth and genuinely, the Ecclesiastes here assigns, by way of example, one among other notable vanities and afflictions of spirit, which the Ecclesiastes, that is, a wise man and preacher, especially a ruler and king, to whom the care of the commonwealth and the salvation of subjects falls, wonderfully afflicts and torments, namely that from his office and at the same time from zeal he most earnestly desires to reform the commonwealth, and to lead subjects from the love of perverse vanity and vain things to the chaste love of true good, namely God, virtue and happiness, yet he cannot achieve this by all his labor and effort except in few, because most are perverse, who allow themselves to be corrected with difficulty, and the number of fools, serving vain and foolish desires, is infinite, according to that of Jeremiah XIII, 23: "If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, so you also may do well, when you have learned evil." For they are perverse who have put on the habit of malice by sinning, and have become hardened in it. The sense therefore is, as if to say: I, Ecclesiastes, king of Israel, have considered all things that are done under the sun, all the customs of men, all their pursuits, and I have seen vanity and affliction of spirit in all things, and among others I have seen one remarkable thing, which afflicts and grieves me and those like me, kings and rulers especially, namely that by all my preaching, all my laws and commands, all my labour and effort, I profit little and with few; because a much greater part of mankind, enticed by the false and deceptive appearance of vanity and vain riches, delights and honours, pursues these things perversely and obstinately and does not wish to be corrected; wherefore the number of the foolish, intent upon the vain and silly allurements of the world and intoxicating and maddening themselves with them, is innumerable. He calls them foolish not physically, but ethically, those who err and rave not in speculative but in practical truth, namely the impious enslaved to their desires, who judge perversely about things to be done, while they prefer vain goods to true, brief things to eternal, earthly things to heavenly; for this is a great foolishness. Again he calls foolish those who in acting are precipitate, rash, bold, furious; such as are often the powerful and the rich, who are intent upon and abound in the vain riches of the world. The Eugubine attempts, in book VII of his Perennial Philosophy, chapter IX, to dissolve the argument of Cotta against providence in Cicero, namely that, since there is so great a number of the foolish, the world does not appear to have been made by God for them, and therefore to have come into being by chance, not from Him. For he contends to show that there has been a great multitude of the good in every age, a very great multitude of sinners repenting, few prodigiously wicked: very few are those who, if they live most depravedly, do not eventually acknowledge and confess God at some time. A more successful way of responding to the Eugubine succeeds, by granting that there are more wicked, but that one good is valued by God more than a thousand wicked. Thus Lorinus. Finally God made the world primarily for Himself, that He might display in it His power, wisdom and goodness; secondarily for angels and men, especially the good, but also for the wicked, namely that these, recognizing the goodness of the Creator toward them from the world, might love Him, and thus obtain His grace and glory: but if they be unwilling, let them feel His justice and vengeance, in which equally as in the mercy shown to the good, God is glorified. Moreover, how small is the number of the wise, that is of the good and those to be saved, how great truly of the foolish, that is of the impious and the reprobate, is evident from that saying of Christ: "Many are called, but few are chosen," Matthew XX, 16; and from this: "Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!" Matthew VII, 13. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 40 to the People: "How many, he says, do you think there are in our city (Antioch, in which there were more than a hundred thousand men) who are saved? It is indeed grievous what I say; yet I will say it. In so many thousands a hundred cannot be found who are saved, and even of these I doubt." He adds the reason: "For what great malice is there in the young, I ask? what great torpor in the old? no one cares for children, no one has zeal," etc. See the words of James chapter II, 13. What Prelate, observing this, does not weep, does not afflict himself? How it afflicted Paul, the foolish blindness of the Jews resisting the Gospel and his salvation. Hear him pathetically pouring out his grief, Romans IX, 1: "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites," etc. Anagogically, the sons of Israel, that is the faithful and holy, are numbered by God alone and are inscribed in the book of life: but the sons of Esau, that is the unfaithful and wicked, are not counted, nor do they come into the number of God, but shall be written in the book of death and the devil. Hear the Fathers in the Chain of the Greeks: "The number of God by which He numbers the saints signifies a certain spiritual and definite ordering: For He who numbers, says he, the multitude of the stars. By this same number the Lord also commands Moses to number the sons of Israel. But what does David say concerning men? There the creeping things whose number is not. And in the Proverbs Solomon says: For many pierced with wounds hath he cast down, and those whom he hath slain are innumerable. What therefore is now said ὑστέρημα, that is defection, and those who are slain, and those who are called creeping things, are of the same condition, namely that which in no way agrees with the spiritual number." St. Jerome has similar things, when he says that males, that is the strong and noble, are numbered by God; but females, that is the soft and effeminate, do not come into the number. Morally, learn here how great is the force of habit, whether for good or for evil: for just as those accustomed to acting well are with difficulty perverted, so the perverted accustomed to acting badly are with greater difficulty converted. "For a long time, says Seneca, epistle 59, we have lain in vices, it is difficult to be cleansed. For we are not merely stained, but infected, lest we pass from one image to another: thus stupidity holds us so persistently." St. Jerome, or rather Rabanus (for he is the author of this Commentary), explaining that passage of Jeremiah XIII, 23: "If the Ethiopian can change his skin," etc., says forcefully: "For whatever is learned is not of nature, but of study and of one's own will, which by excessive habit and love of sinning is in a certain way converted into nature." And St. Chrysostom, II Corinthians IV: "Great is the tyranny of habit, and so great that it compels just as nature does." For habit binds man and as it were constrains him with bonds to that to which he has become accustomed, to repeat and to pursue, and thus it seems to be converted into nature. Whence Isaiah chapter V, 18: "Woe, says he, to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with the rope of a cart." And St. Augustine, having experienced this himself, book VIII of the Confessions, chapter V: "I was bound, says he, not by iron of another, but by my iron will. My will held me captive, and from it he had made me a chain and constrained me: for from a perverted will lust was made; and when lust is served, habit was made; and when habit is not resisted, necessity was made." See St. Bernard, sermon On the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The same St. Augustine in the Enchiridion, chapter LXXX: "Sins, says he, however great and horrible, when they have come into habit, are believed to be either small or nothing, so much so that they seem not only not to be hidden, but even to be preached and spread abroad." And St. Gregory, book IV of the Morals, chapter XVIII: "As many times as a man is bound by wicked frequenting, so many as it were bonds he is bound to his mind." AND THE NUMBER OF FOOLS IS INFINITE. — τὸ and is often causal among the Hebrews, and has the same force as for, because. He gives therefore the reason why the perverted are with difficulty corrected, namely because they are foolish: and this first, because they sin; for sin is the height of foolishness, because it prefers sense to reason, desire to virtue, the creature to the Creator, that is a penny to a million, a grain to a harvest, a drop to the sea, a globe to the whole heaven. What is more foolish? Second, because by repeating sins, they induce in themselves their habit and as it were necessity. Third, because they obstinately persevere in them, and gradually praise them, and do not esteem sins, but virtues. Fourth, because they do not allow themselves to be corrected, but scorn and mock those teaching and admonishing what is right. Hence by Solomon this moral foolishness is called "poverty of heart," and the foolish are called "lacking in heart," that is deprived of mind, that is of the right use of reason and mind, namely destitute of true prudence and sound judgment of mind, as is clear from Proverbs chapter X, 13 and 21. Thus Rehoboam by Ecclesiasticus chapter XLVII, 28, is called "the foolishness of the nation, and diminished in prudence." Otherwise, R. Haccados among Galatinus, who translating from the Hebrew, "the poverty of men cannot be numbered," thus explains it: Very many men are poor, who have not experienced the vanity of riches and delights; whence they think those to be a great good, and esteem themselves happy if they can obtain them; but they err, because they judge perversely of things unknown to them, of which they have no experience, just as the blind do of colors. Wherefore no credence should be given to them, but to me Solomon, who am most wealthy, and have had all abundance of human things, and having experienced and examined all things in them, I have found no happiness, but mere vanity. Yet this sense is weak and cold. Morally, learn here, first, that prudence and virtue make a man wise, but imprudence and cupidity make him foolish and stupid, as Solomon calls both throughout here and in Proverbs, and by these names distinguishes them: I have reviewed the causes there. The philosophers learned the same through a shadow, indeed from Solomon, as is evident from Socrates and Plato throughout the Dialogues and from Aristotle, lib. III and IX of the Ethics. Truly Dionysius, oration 20, thus defines it: "A fool is he who is not master of his own mind; for he is tossed about and easily drawn by any slight occasion and conversation." And Seneca, epistle 9, teaches: "The wise man is content with himself, needing nothing, and yet many things are necessary for him; on the contrary, the fool needs nothing: for he knows how to use nothing, but lacks everything." The same, epistle 15: "What life, do you think, should be called foolish? Ours: whom blind cupidity hurls into things harmful, certainly never to be satisfied: if anything could suffice for them, it would have; we do not consider how pleasant it is to ask for nothing; how magnificent, to be full, and not to depend on fortune. The life of the fool is ungrateful, it is anxious, it is wholly directed toward the future." Secondly, learn hence that concupiscence is mere and great foolishness; for it makes its followers foolish. This is evident in anger, which deprives man of reason and makes him rage like a madman; in lust, which drives wise men mad, as it drove Solomon, Samson, David mad: for love is blind and senseless, and therefore makes lovers senseless, as we see in harlots and girls captivated by love of some youth, losing reason with judgment, and as if bereft of mind, and mad with love; in pride, which puffs up the proud, so that they think themselves wiser, richer, more powerful than all, even if they are most foolish, poorest and most vile. Is not that voice of the king of Babylon foolish, as a new Lucifer: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High?" Isaiah XIV, 13. And that of Pharaoh: "The river is mine (the Nile fertilizing Egypt), and I have made myself," Ezech. XXIX. Thus in avarice, sloth, gluttony, envy and other vices, and in the very avaricious, gluttonous, slothful, envious, etc., you will find many sayings equally foolish and stupid deeds, so that if you judge sincerely, you ought to say that they seem to be out of their minds, foolish, delirious. Thirdly, hence gather that the multitude should not be followed, for this is of fools; but the few, for this is of the wise: "The number of fools," he says, "is infinite:" infinite, that is, greatest and as it were innumerable, as the Hebrew has it. Again "infinite" syncategorematically, because continually each year, indeed each day, new fools arise and succeed, and such will succeed always, as long as this life of men in the world shall endure. This is what the old saying expresses: "Speak as the many, be wise as the few." For the common people often judge wrongly about things, especially those to be done, hold erroneous opinions, have depressed spirits, and are immersed in earthly things; they abound in vices and scandals, and are devoid of wisdom and true virtue, as I have shown by many sayings of the Fathers and examples in Numbers, chapter XI, 4, and chapter XX, 3. For this reason wise men, such as the Essenes, Ascetics and Anchorites were of old, fled the crowds and cities, and conversed in solitude with few saints, indeed with God and angels. Hence St. Antony used to say: "Water is nourishment to fishes, but solitude brings adornment to monks; and fishes indeed, when they touch the earth, lose their life; but monks, when they enter cities, lose monastic gravity." Thus Sozomen relates it, book I of his History, chapter XIII. The philosophers saw this through a shadow, among whom Seneca, in his book On the Happy Life, chapter II: "When the question is about the happy life," he says, "it is not necessary that you answer me in the manner of those who secede. This part seems to be the greater; for this reason it is the worse. Things are not managed so well with human affairs that better things please the many. The mark of the worst is the crowd. Let us seek what has been done best, not what is most customary, and what constitutes us in the possession of eternal happiness, not what is approved by the crowd, the worst interpreter of truth." The same, epistle 7: "What do you ask me to think you should especially avoid?" he says. "The crowd. You have not yet safely entrusted yourself to it: I certainly confess my weakness; I never bring back the character which I have taken out. Something of what I have composed is disturbed, something of those things which I have fled has returned. What happens to the sick, whom long infirmity has so affected that they can never go out without injury, this happens to us whose minds are infected by long disease. The company of many is hostile. No one does not either lend us some vice, or imprint it, or smear it upon us without our knowing. Certainly the greater the people with whom we mingle, the more danger there is." And after several intervening passages: "The tender mind must be withdrawn from the people, and one not very tenacious of what is right. It is easy to pass over to the many. To Socrates, Cato and Laelius, a multitude unlike them could have shaken their mind, so much so that none of us, when we are most perfecting our talent, can bear the assault of vices coming with so great a retinue. One example of luxury or avarice does much harm. A delicate table-companion gradually enervates and softens. A wealthy neighbor stirs up desire, a malicious companion, though to one candid and simple, has rubbed on rust. What do you think will happen to these character traits, against which a public assault has been made? It is necessary either to imitate or to hate. But both must be avoided, lest either you become like the wicked because they are many; or an enemy to many because you are unlike them. Withdraw into yourself as much as you can; associate with those who will make you better. Admit those whom you can make better." He finally confirms this very thing with examples: "Democritus," he says, "is one to me in place of a people, and a people in place of one. Well also did he, whoever he was (for the author is disputed), when it was asked of him why he applied such diligence to an art that would reach very few: 'Few are enough for me,' he said, 'one is enough, none is enough. Excellent this third.' Epicurus, when he wrote to one of his companions in study: 'This,' he said, 'I write not to many, but to you; for we are sufficiently great theater to each other.' These things, my Lucilius, must be stored in the mind, so that you may despise pleasure coming from the assent of many. Many praise you. Do you have anything when you please yourself? If you are one whom many understand, let your goods look inward." And again, epistle 8, setting himself as an example: "I have withdrawn," he says, "not only from men, but also from things, and first from my own things. I am engaged in the business of posterity. I write down for them something which can be of benefit. Salutary admonitions, like compositions of useful medicines, I commit to writing, having experienced that they are efficacious in my wounds."
1:16
Hebrew, and my heart hath seen much wisdom and knowledge. So also the Septuagint, Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic and others. The Zurich Bible, But I turned my mind to this kind of reasoning: Behold I have accomplished great things, and have increased wisdom above all, etc. Hitherto Ecclesiastes hath proved his theme, namely that all things of the world are vanities, by generic and universal reasons; now he proves the same by specific and particular reasons: wherefore from the whole class of things he descends to individual species of things, and in them demonstrates vanity. This therefore is an induction, by which he proves the vanity of individual things, and thence induces and gathers that all things under the sun are vain, nor can any of them satisfy and make blessed the mind of man. But he begins with wisdom, both because that excels other things in dignity, and appears to have more truth and less vanity; and because philosophers placed their whole study and all their glory in wisdom. Whence Seneca, On the Brevity of Life: "Without the study of wisdom," saith he, "there can be no true and solid happiness of mind;"; and finally and chiefly, because Solomon was most zealous for wisdom, and sought and obtained it from God before all things, and through it he studiously contemplated all the occupations, studies and cares of all men, as he himself saith verse 13, and in that contemplation he fed and delighted his mind: wherefore in it he seemed to himself to be a great wise man and blessed. But turning back upon that very thing and his consideration of it, he found that vanity and great affliction of spirit were present in it also. He therefore saith: I SPOKE IN MY HEART. — First, the sense is, as if to say, Avoiding the crowd of the perverse and foolish, of which the preceding verse speaks, I withdrew into the secret place of my heart, and there conversing with wisdom itself, through it I carefully surveyed, considered, and weighed all things. "A man is said to speak in his heart," saith Olympiodorus, "when he applies his mind to thinking, disputes with himself and reasons." Secondly, to speak in the heart denotes great attention of the heart, that is of the mind, to that which a man speaks to himself and thinks, such as the thoughtful, sad and melancholic have. Thirdly, it denotes affection and pathos, namely either great joy and applause, or sadness and trouble. Both are here noted in Solomon, as if to say, I spoke in my heart, rejoicing in secret and applauding myself for such great wisdom infused into me from heaven; but while through it I inspect the vain and troublesome studies of men, I inflicted trouble and affliction of mind upon myself, as I shall presently show more fully. Thus Anna with a bitter heart and weeping abundantly, and praying attentively spoke in her heart: "Because out of the abundance of my sorrow and grief I have spoken," saith she to Heli, I Kings i, 13 and 16. BEHOLD I AM BECOME GREAT. — Great in wealth, great in power, great in spirit, great in empire, great in works and the building of the temple, great in wisdom, great in tables and dishes, great in retinue and pomp of horses, chariots, servants and soldiers, great in fame and glory: for Solomon was the wisest of all kings, the richest, the most powerful, the most luxurious, the most magnificent, the most famous, the most glorious, as is evident from III Kings x and xi. Whence he was called "a great king and king of kings," as Eusebius testifies, lib. IX of the Preparation, last chapter. Both Hugos the Cardinal and Victorinus think these things are said by Solomon in boasting and vain self-complacency. Others better judge that these are said by him from candor of mind and gratitude toward God. Whence he does not say: I have made myself great, but "I am become great," namely by God. The Interpreter reads with the Septuagint הוגדלתי hogdalti in hophal passive, that is I was magnified: now they read הגדלתי higdalti in hiphil active, that is I magnified; namely myself, or rather my wisdom, as follows. Whence the Chaldean translates, I increased and added wisdom above all the wise men who were before me (others, who preceded me) in Jerusalem; others, I magnified and increased wisdom, etc.; others, I proceeded and excelled all the wise; Vatablus, I have accomplished great things. AND I SURPASSED ALL IN WISDOM WHO WERE BEFORE ME IN JERUSALEM. — In Hebrew, over Jerusalem, that is, who presided over Jerusalem and Judaea either as kings, like David and Saul; or as judges and princes, like Othoniel, Gideon, Samson, Jephte, Heli, etc.; or as doctors and lawyers, or as priests and pontiffs: wherefore, since I excelled them in wisdom, I surpassed all the other kings and philosophers of the world by the same measure; because the Jews, especially the lawyers and pontiffs, were wiser than all philosophers. Whence in III Kings III, 12, Solomon hears from God: "I have given thee a wise heart, so that no one before thee hath been like to thee, nor shall there arise after thee;" Solomon was therefore wiser than the whole race of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David and the other Patriarchs and Prophets, although St. Jerome denies this in this place. Let it be in a certain kind, for example in prophecy, he was surpassed by the Prophets, in psalmody and sanctity by David. And soon God adding the rest: "I have given thee, he says, riches and glory, so that no one hath been like to thee among kings, in all the days before." For "I surpassed in wisdom," in Hebrew it is, I added wisdom, that is to say, The wisdom divinely implanted in me I greatly increased through experience and daily contemplation of things. Thus Olympiodorus. Whence Symmachus translated it, I exceeded exceedingly in wisdom. How great the wisdom of Solomon was, he himself explains at length in Wisdom cap. VII, 17 and following. See Sixtus Senensis under the word Solomon, and Pineada, lib. III On the Affairs of Solomon. AND MY MIND HATH CONTEMPLATED MANY THINGS WISELY, AND I HAVE LEARNED. — "Hath contemplated," through speculation and meditation; "I have learned," through experience. Hence Origen in the Preamble to the Canticle teaches that the wise men of the Greeks drew their philosophy from Solomon: for they were later than him, as Clement testifies, lib. V Stromata. For in natural science, namely in matters physical, ethical, economic and political, Solomon surpassed all men: in the supernatural and divine he was surpassed by Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles.
1:17
The Syriac: disturbance of spirit; the Septuagint: choice or presumption of spirit; others: provocation of spirit; Aquila: feeding of wind. See the remarks on verse 14. That interpretation of Cajetan is foreign to the sense: "It is handed down here," says he, "the fruit of knowledge, that the very study of knowing is a breaking of spirit, or the principal reason for breaking the spirit. For the ignorant pursue their own spirits and are driven by their own impulses." For this is truth not vanity, utility not harm and worthlessness, holy stability not quarrelsome levity; whereas on the contrary Solomon here asserts that knowledge brings vanity and harm. For errors the Hebrew is holeloth, which the Septuagint translates as parables; the Syriac and Arabic, proverbs; our translator and Aquila, errors; Theodotion, fallings; Cajetan, tricks, or entanglements of works and affairs, by which many entangle themselves so that they cannot extricate themselves; others, insanities; Arias, trifles; Fonteius, rages; Vivianus, arrogance; Thuanus, mad stirrings of the heart; the Chaldean: "and I gave my heart to know wisdom and folly of the kingdom, and knowledge and understanding I proved, and I knew that this also is a breaking of spirit to a man who labors diligently to find them." For folly the Hebrew is sichlut, which if you write it with samech, signifies folly; but if with sin (which has the same value as samech), signifies prudence and understanding, as the Septuagint and Chaldean translate it, namely that vain lovers of worldly things, while they think themselves wise in seeking them, become fools before God and rave. For as St. Paul says: "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God," I Corinthians III, 19. By repeating, Ecclesiastes exaggerates and inculcates his study in investigating wisdom and knowledge, so as to show that he has thoroughly examined both, and in both has found vanity and affliction. For prudence and doctrine, the Hebrew is wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom, says St. Augustine and the theologians, is knowledge of the highest things, namely divine and heavenly things: knowledge, however, is of natural and human things, especially concerning morals and things to be done. To wisdom he opposes errors, that is false opinions of the ancients, whether philosophers or heretics, says R. Haccados, such as heresies concerning God and His providence, omnipotence, omniscience, etc. To knowledge he opposes folly, by which one judges foolishly about things to be done, and acts foolishly, while pursuing vice before virtue, indeed in place of virtue. Again, wisdom can be taken as practical, for supernatural prudence, for rightly knowing, worshipping, loving God through the theological virtues: knowledge, however, for natural prudence for living honorably through the moral virtues, by which one becomes brave, temperate, chaste, just, etc. Conversely, by errors understand superstitions, idolatry and false worship of gods, opposed to the true worship of God: by folly, however, imprudence and incontinence of living: by gluttony, lust, fraud, theft, etc. For Solomon throughout the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Wisdom understands by wisdom and knowledge not so much the speculative as the practical, namely ethics, which conforms morals to rightly worshipping God, and to legitimately loving oneself and one's neighbor equally, according to the norm of right reason and divine law: and this especially Solomon regarded and pursued, so as to teach the same to others, as he does in these books. The sense therefore is, as if to say: With the highest study I have applied myself to investigate wisdom and knowledge, both speculative and especially practical, and to distinguish it from errors and folly, that is, so as to distinguish and separate from those contrary vices the virtues both respecting God and respecting man and neighbor; so that in this way I might trace the path to true happiness of soul, and know what in this life could make man blessed and happy. But after long study and examination, I found that in these also there is their own vanity and affliction of spirit, because "in much wisdom is much indignation; and he that addeth knowledge, addeth also labor:": for to knowledge and study is joined labor and pain: wherefore he who adds knowledge adds also pain, both because as long as knowledge lasts, labor also lasts; and because as study increases, so likewise increases the weariness, labor and pain of the head and whole body, as the vital spirits fail.
1:18
Thus the corrected Codices of Rome read. Others read from the Hebrew, and sorrow; both are true, and the matter comes to the same thing: because all labor is sorrow, and all sorrow is labor. Aquila translated it, and torment. The Septuagint translate the Hebrew מכאוב macob as scourges, Psalm XXXI, 10. The Zurich Bible translates, he who increases knowledge, at the same time increases what torments him. For indignation in Hebrew is כעס caas, that is, anger, indignation; the Syriac, fury; the Septuagint, knowledge; the Arabic, for in the multitude of wisdom is multiplied learning, and what is increased in learning is increased in sorrow. The Chaldean takes these things concerning the anger of God: "For a man," he says, "who multiplies knowledge, if he has sinned, unless he turns to repentance, multiplies anger before the face of the Lord; and he who adds knowledge and dies in his youth, adds sorrow to those near him." But Costus thus translates the last part from the Chaldean, he brings together in himself the envy and anger of the Lord, from whom he had been increased in knowledge: and if he should die in the beginning of his age, he increases with himself internal disturbance of mind. The author of the Greek Catena: "He who," he says, "inquires into the causes of deeper things, and does not find them, he adds labor. This does not happen at all to those who study perfunctorily." You will ask, how in much wisdom is much indignation, and in knowledge sorrow? For, as St. Thomas teaches, III, Question XXXVIII, article 4: "in the contemplation of truth, the greatest delight consists. But every delight mitigates sorrow, and therefore the contemplation of truth mitigates sadness or sorrow, and all the more, the more perfectly someone is a lover of wisdom: and therefore men from the contemplation of divine things, and of future beatitude in tribulations rejoice, according to that of James I, 2: Count it all joy, my brethren, when you shall fall into divers temptations," etc. Thus St. Thomas. The Chaldean responds by indignation being understood as the anger and vengeance of God, as if to say, God is indignant at the wise, who, although they know what they ought to do, nevertheless do not do it; but live perversely, and do not do penance. Thus also Rabbi Solomon, and in part St. Jerome, Olympiodorus, Albinus, although they lean more toward another opinion. Again, others understand indignation, that is, the anger and envy of rivals, who envy the wise their wisdom, fame and honor, as if to say, When someone by studying becomes wise and learned, he stirs up against himself the envy of others, who bear it ill that he is preferred to them in learning and fame; wherefore they detract from his wisdom and fame, and depress it. Hence they rush forth and are seized just as ships without restraints, and are furious rather than strong." But truly others better understand indignation of the wise man himself, and sorrow of the one who knows. First therefore: "In much wisdom is much indignation and sorrow," says St. Thomas in the place cited to 1, either on account of the difficulty and defect in finding truth, or because through knowledge man knows many things which are contrary to his will, and thus on the part of things known, knowledge causes sorrow; but on the part of the contemplation of truth, delight." For the study of wisdom calls the mind away from all pleasures of the senses, and gathers and forces it wholly to contemplation. Hence the studious and contemplative, by contemplating, consume the best spirits, and call the natural heat from the stomach to the brain for contemplation: by which it happens that the stomach, destitute of heat, is unable to digest food, but transmits undigested food and crude juices of it to the liver and members, from which are generated catarrhs, flatulence, fevers, cacochymia, migraine, and many other diseases, and sometimes hectic and consumption, or dropsy from an abundance of phlegm, and this is the reason why most learned men suffer from the stomach, as St. Gregory, St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome, St. Bernard, etc. suffered. "Labors are the companions of knowledge," says Nyssenus, and he adds that Solomon did not devote himself to pleasures before "having tasted a more austere and severe life, when he had distinguished himself, and was alien from laughter, grave and constant, through which wisdom's discipline is especially acquired by the studious;" but wearied of this severity, he loosened the reins to pleasure and concupiscence. There are added the nocturnal vigils and studies of the studious, abstinence and fasting, varied and manifold reading, which dry out, inflame and attenuate the brain, so that immediately it is stirred into bile. Secondly, because those who are very studious and wise either are born, or become melancholic, morose, and gloomy through study and assiduous speculation, as Aristotle teaches, section XXX Problem, chapter 1, where he teaches that the greatest wise men and philosophers were melancholic, and thus no great genius existed without a mixture of madness (for melancholia is a certain form of insanity). Again, ingenious men, on account of the multitude, fervor, and swiftness of spirits, says Pineda, with wisdom also added, which does not require a long space for deliberating about things, are more hasty and indignant, which Aristotle said is found in those in whom "much and hot black bile," and indeed very flatulent matter is present, who become "hasty and ingenious lovers, prone to every outburst and desire, some even more talkative." On this matter Plato discourses wisely, book II of the Republic, and in the Theaetetus: "It is," he says, "very difficult to find a man ingenious at the same time and more gentle than others: for the acute and keen, the retentive and teachable, are for the most part precipitous into anger and impulse: that chapter VII, verse 8: 'Calumny troubles the wise man.' Thirdly, because in the sciences there are innumerable tricks, obscurities, contradictions, difficulties, which make the studious man gloomy, morose, and angry, especially when he sees himself laboring in vain, and not attaining truth, when he sees so many opinions and doctrines fighting among themselves, and in them he discerns not what is true and certain, but all things doubtful and entangled. Again, the more he knows, the more new questions and difficulties unknown to him he observes arising, and thus the more he knows, the more he perceives himself to be ignorant: which thing brings him trouble and bile. Moreover, when he sees his own opinion contradicted by others, and it confuted, he is afflicted. Thus St. Jerome, Thaumaturgus, Albinus, Olympiodorus, Vatablus. Hear St. Jerome: "The wise man grieves that wisdom lies hidden both in the deep and in the profound, nor does it present itself to minds as light to sight, but through certain torments and intolerable labor, through constant meditation and study it comes forth." You may see therefore wise men amid their very vigils and lucubrations as it were bursting forth and indignant, against those very difficulties of things to be known, which they are either unable to attain or overcome, and what is wont to happen in a longer conflict and struggle, now they despair of victory, now again they attack and fight, now weary and exhausted they stop and desire to rest a little, now again they rise up and renew the struggle with the knowledge of most difficult things. Thus Pineda. Therefore, although doctors have great knowledge of things, yet it is not so much full science as learned ignorance. For doctors, the more they proceed in investigating the knowledge of things, the more they discover themselves to be learnedly ignorant, or ignorantly learned, because they can scarcely perceive clearly any of the natures of things, but only their accidents, which are apparent to the senses. Fourthly, because knowledge puffs up and makes a man swollen and proud: but the proud are prone to anger, especially when they see themselves opposed or contradicted either by reasons or by men, or obstacles placed against their pretension, so that they cannot obtain the firm assertion of their opinions or the rewards which they had presumed through it. Again, the wise man seems to deserve honor and eminence: wherefore when he is despised, mocked, or refuted by the less wise or by rivals, he thinks a grave injury is done to him, and therefore he grieves, becomes impatient and grows angry. See Plato in the Theaetetus. Thus both Hugo the Cardinal and Victorinus, Lyran, Cajetan and others. Thus we see very learned men to be prone to anger, impatience and anxiety, and to be stirred to it by a slight word. Fifth, the wise man is indignant with himself, when he sees his own blindness and weakness for investigating so many and so great truths of hidden things, even ethical and practical ones, and when he feels far greater difficulty in accomplishing them in deed. Whence St. Jerome and Olympiodorus: "The more," they say, "one shall have attained wisdom, the more is he indignant that he is subject to vices, and far removed from the virtues which it requires; and therefore he grieves over his sins, knowing that to whom more is given, more is required of him, and the powerful shall suffer torments powerfully." He adds further from the acquisition of knowledge a recognition of the nobility of his own soul; whence he is indignant at being occupied with inferior things, which are less worthy of him. To these things is added the vicious disgust of some over the most noble study of Sacred Scripture, just as the Hebrews once were nauseated over divine food. Again, an honest nausea and abomination toward foul pleasures, on account of having tasted the sweet flavor of spiritual things. Finally, anger with indignation against himself, against the demon, against vices, against all those things which provoke us to sin, if much wisdom be present, that is, knowledge of divine things, and much skill in living well. The same judgment holds concerning the indignation and just sorrow which we feel against the sins of others. "If I have made you sorrowful," said the Apostle, "who is he that can make me glad, but he who is made sorrowful by me?" II Corinthians, chapter II, 2. Thus Lorinus. Again, the wise man is angry with disciples and others whom he sees destitute of wisdom and prudence, and often incapable of discipline and incorrigible. For he sees the greater part of mankind vicious, indulging their concupiscence and vices, spurning the wholesome admonitions of wisdom and the precepts of virtues, which thing afflicts and torments the wise man especially when he is a rector and teacher, such as Solomon was, very greatly. Sixth, St. Jerome, epistle 30, speaking of Fabiola, places sorrow in the desire of knowing: "O good Jesus," he says, "with what fervor, with what zeal was she intent upon divine volumes? etc. Nor truly was she satisfied with the desire of hearing, but adding knowledge she added sorrow, and as if pouring oil upon flame, she desired the fuel of greater ardor." There is added St. Gregory of Nazianzus, who in his Apology thus explains, as if to say: As much pleasure as one draws from studying, from what he finds, so much sorrow does he bring back from what he cannot attain: just as one thirsting who is torn away from waters he has tasted: for he cannot hold in his hands the water which he thinks he has; or just as one illuminated by the splendor of lightning, immediately upon its disappearance is abandoned by it. Finally, Ecclesiastes most especially and principally intends to signify here that the study of wisdom and knowledge, both speculative and practical, is vain, laborious and afflictive, when it consists solely in speculation and knowledge of natural and ethical things, namely of virtues and vices, and does not pass over into the very operation and exercise of virtues themselves, so as to become practically practical. For virtue and true wisdom and knowledge, which gives rest and satisfaction to the soul, is situated not in dry speculation, but in honest action and operation; if it lacks this, it is vain and mere fatigue of the mind, because it is destitute of its own end and fruit, which is honest action and life that leads to happiness. This is what Solomon properly regards here, namely that bare wisdom and ethical knowledge do not satisfy, nor make honest, nor make blessed the man, but only the fear and love of God and the study of virtues; all other things are vain. Whence, in chapter XII, verse 13, concluding he says: "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is all man." Olympiodorus adds that men are not born wise, but become so by study and labour. Again, once wisdom has been acquired, it stimulates and torments man, so that what he knows through wisdom must be done, he may accomplish in deed, namely that he resist his concupiscences, that he undertake the arduous labours of virtue, in which he feels great difficulty and affliction of spirit, like Ezekiel, who, in chapter III, verse 3 and 14, by God's command ate a scroll, in which were lamentations, song and woe, and it was in his mouth as sweet as honey, but afterwards it became bitter in the indignation of his spirit; and like St. John, who, in the Apocalypse chapter X, verse 9, took the book in his mouth sweet as honey, but which made his belly bitter. Such is knowledge, which delights at first, but afterwards generates sorrow and labour. Now hear Olympiodorus: "He says that wisdom and knowledge are not vanity, but a choice of spirit, warning us that by no means by the benefit of fate are we born or become wise men, but by desire for wisdom and labour, and obtaining wisdom sought from the Lord God. But if anyone still desires to have more of knowledge, let him add, he says, also laborious studies. Or understand it thus: Whoever has acquired knowledge and understanding and abandons it, is far more worthy of punishment; therefore whoever adds to knowledge, adds also to sorrow." Tropologically, you may understand these things of self-knowledge: for man, contemplating himself and his own infirmities, and much more considering how to act rightly (which is true wisdom and knowledge), sees so many and such great things, that he conceives great sadness and anger against himself, as the Author explains at length in the book On Soul and Spirit, found in St. Augustine, volume III, chapter XLIX. "Whoever adds knowledge, adds also sorrow: because, he says, the more man understands his evils, the more he sighs and groans: for meditation begets knowledge, knowledge begets compunction, compunction begets devotion, devotion perfects prayer;" which he then pursues at length. And St. Gregory, in the 28th book of the Morals, chapter XXIV: "Whoever adds knowledge, adds also sorrow; because the more man begins to know what he has lost, the more he begins to mourn the sentence of his corruption which he has found. For he considers whence and whither he has fallen: that from the joys of paradise to the hardships of present life, from the society of angels he has come to the cares of necessities. He weighs in how many dangers he now lies, he who formerly disdained to stand without danger; he mourns the exile which he suffers as condemned, and sighs for the state of heavenly glory, which he could enjoy securely, if he had been unwilling to sin." You therefore, O studious one, O religious one, O master, O doctor, who have spent many years in dry speculation, consumed your life, exhausted your strength; consider, I beseech you, how far you are from true wisdom, if you by no means join virtue to knowledge of human and divine things, and knowing the method of disputation, you are ignorant of the way of humility and perfect charity. For if true wisdom (as Lactantius said) cannot come to anyone without knowledge and virtue, how shall I call you wise, whom knowledge puffing up holds demented, and charity building does not retain in its fellowship. If wisdom (as the Nazianzen says) does not lift you up to the love of God, and does not make you from servants already friends and sons, by what reasoning shall I consider you wise, whom true love of God does not know as a servant, and Christ recognizes neither as friend nor as son. Therefore another way must be taken to true wisdom which will make you blessed, namely the way of humility, charity, contempt of the world, etc., as the repentant doctor Lanfranc did, the antagonist and vanquisher of Berengar the heresiarch, who, captured by robbers in the Alps and treated shamefully, when he bore this injury with impatience, came to himself and accusing and punishing his own foolishness, gave himself to monastic life in the monastery of Bec, so that he might learn true wisdom, namely patience, where he lay hidden unknown for many years; finally recognized, he was made Prior, soon Abbot, then Archbishop of Canterbury, and left as his successor his disciple St. Anselm in the year of the Lord 1060. Thus Trithemius, tract. De Viris illustr. ordinis S. Benedicti, cap. XCIX. Anagogically St. Augustine, lib. IV De Trinitate, cap. 1, teaches that knowledge of one's infirmity adds sorrow to one's pilgrimage, and this from desire of the heavenly homeland and its Creator: "He preferred, he says, knowledge to knowledge, he preferred to know his infirmity rather than to know the walls of the world, the foundations of the earth and the heights of the heavens: and in adding this knowledge he added sorrow, the sorrow of his pilgrimage from desire of his homeland and his blessed God his Creator. In this kind of men in the family of Thy Christ, O Lord my God, if I groan among Thy poor, give me to answer from Thy bread those who do not hunger and thirst for justice, but are satisfied and abound: yet their phantom satisfies them, not Thy truth, which in rejecting they recoil and fall into their own vanity. Certainly I feel how many fictions the human heart produces. And what is my heart, except a human heart?" And St. Gregory in Ezech. book I, homil. 10: "The mind, he says, which the Holy Spirit fills, he moves into bitterness for temporal things and delight in eternal things, etc. It contends with itself concerning those things which it recalls having done badly, and it displeases itself, when he who created all things has already begun to please it. It yearns for things above, now it tramples all earthly things beneath the contempt of the mind." And shortly after: "Therefore it disdains to be subject to temporal things, and ardently sighs for eternal things. Whence also rightly through Solomon it is said: Because in much wisdom is much indignation, and he who adds knowledge adds sorrow. For those knowing heavenly things, we disdain to subject our mind to earthly things. And while we begin to know more of those things which we have done badly, we are angry with ourselves, and in much wisdom there is much indignation: because the more we advance in knowledge, the more we are indignant with ourselves concerning perverse work. And with knowledge sorrow grows; because the more we know eternal things, the more we grieve that we are in the misery of this exile, or as in another translation it is said: And he who adds knowledge, adds sorrow. For when we begin to know what are the heavenly joys, the more, so that we might be able to escape the snares of our errors, we labor in weeping. In much wisdom therefore there is much indignation, because if we already know eternal things, we disdain to covet temporal things. If we already know eternal things, we despise ourselves, having done this, which could separate us from the love of eternity. Conscience reproves itself, accuses what it did, condemns by penance what it accuses, there is contention in the soul, bringing forth peace with God." Therefore he who adds knowledge, namely of things above, adds sorrow, namely of things below and earthly; for, as St. Isidore says, lib. III Sentent. cap. XX: "As much as anyone is able to know the things above which he desires, so much ought he to grieve more acutely concerning the lowest things to which he clings."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
1:19
Bartholomew (Gr. Bartholomáios, Bartholomaeus), Apostle, Saint
… Eccl., 1, 9; PL 21, 478, and Socrates, Hist. Eccl. 1, 19; PG 67, 125) or Arabia Felix (thus Ps.-Jerome: PL 23, 722, L. S. Tillemont and M. Meinertz, Einleitung in das N. T., 4th ed., Paderborn 1933, p. 190). According to a legend of the …
1:33
… paragraphs, naturally, and in the breadth and depth of the questions; but the criterion is single and the division into four parts is single according to this concept: Christian doctrine can be reduced to the knowledge and practice of wisdom and justice (Eccl. 1, 33); wisdom comprises the theological virtues and the Sacraments; hence the first four parts: 1) faith = the Creed; 2) hope = the Pater; 3) charity = Commandments and 4) = Sacraments. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.