Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Vanity of vanities - As the words are an exclamation, it would be better to translate, O vanity of vanities! Emptiness of emptinesses.
True, substantial good is not to be found in any thing liable to change and corruption.
The author referred to in the introduction begins his paraphrase thus: -
"O vain deluding world! whose largest gifts
Thine emptiness betray, like painted clouds,
Or watery bubbles: as the vapor flies,
Dispersed by lightest blast, so fleet thy joys,
And leave no trace behind. This serious truth
The royal preacher loud proclaims, convinced
By sad experience; with a sigh repeats
The mournful theme, that nothing here below
Can solid comfort yield: ' tis all a scene.
Of vanity, beyond the power of words
To express, or thought conceive. Let every man
Survey himself, then ask, what fruit remains
Of all his fond pursuits? What has he gain' d,
By toiling thus for more than nature' s wants
Require? Why thus with endlness projects rack' d
His heated brain, and to the laboring mind,
Repose denied? Why such expense of time,
That steals away so fast, and ne' er looks back?
Could man his wish obtain, how short the space
For his enjoyment! No less transient here
The time of his duration, than the things
Thus anxiously pursued. For, as the mind,
In search of bliss, fix' d on no solid point,
For ever fluctuates; so our little frames,
In which we glory, haste to their decline,
Nor permanence can find. The human race
Drop like autumnal leaves, by spring revived:
One generation from the stage of life
Withdraws, another comes, and thus makes room
For that which follows. Mightiest realms decay,
Sink by degrees; and lo! new form' d estates
Rise from their ruins. Even the earth itself,
Sole object of our hopes and fears,
Shall have its period, though to man unknown."
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