The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-03-12


ing the confessions of an aged king, dIsguatad
with life so as TO reach 10y every kind of path
| the deduction All Is vanity"-is indicated with
rare felicity; but II is not followed w with SUI
| ilcicnt rcrsistcncy. The author loses himself
| In reflections whose link with the main thcmo
you cannot trace. As with the book Of job
| II needs not n little effort and good will on tho
readers part TO redress into unity such I'm.
bridlcd diecursvcncss. The lack Of unlty ~,
also the defect exhibited in u most agt,rt.-
waited degree by the Song Of Solomon. Tho
Greeks alone knew how to fashion logical poi
| fcctly consecutive and self-consistcnt worky,
| The SiG,pip d,nHtdrdt et Wu1n was u discovery
| Of the Greek genius. Every Hellenic compost
ton IL II temple wherein all the parts tuno-
tions ono Of another. 80 truly that You may TO-
store the whole by means OF a single fragment
Certainly. 1t is not so with the book of Eecle-
siastes. Entire chapters might be lopi.d of
without defacng the work considered IA. IA
whole.
Neither is the authors philosophy very strict
iy concatenatcd. Tho deduction from his
| premises ought to be impicty. Theodorus Of
| Cyrene. who has 10 much in common with him,
| does. In fact. arrive at atheism. But thcro liz
| something touching In Cohelet's inconsistency
| From two or three passages, where you fancy
he Is about to drop into sheer materalsm ho
suddenly bounds aloft with a noble accent. NJ
R6nan thinks this mode OF philosophizing is
| tho true one. You will never silence
| the objections Of the materialst. There
| 10 no example Of n thought q feeling
being produced without the medium OF
n brain. with a brain in dccom-
| position. On the other hand man will never
| succeed in pcrsuading himself that his fate Is
Identical with an animals. Even though this
were capable Of demonstration you would not
believe it. 1t Is this that should embolden us
| to give our thought free wing. Necessary be-
| liefs are beyond harming. Mankind will lsten
| to us only in proportion as our speculative sys-
| tens match with their duties and their in
| stncts. Let us say what we really think For
| all our agnosticism woman will not the less 20
on singing her happy lullaby. infancy will 10
| got whit more anxious youth not a Jot
| less exhilarated; the virtuous man will ro-
main vrtuous. the Curmclito will con-
tinue to lacerate his flesh, the mother
to fulfil her duties. tho bird to war
Bile, the bee to gather honey. In HE
widest follies Cohoct does not loso sight OF
Gods Judgment Let us do like him Amid
the absolute 1uidity of things let us uphold tho
Eternal. Without it We should be neither at
liberty nor comfortably situated to discuss it.
The worst sufferers on the morrow Of the day.
when men believe in God no more will be tho
atheists themselves. Thinkers never speculate
more unrcstrainedly than when they know
that their speculatons entail no practical re-
suits. Ring out. church bells. at your will The
louder ye ring. the more freely / will permit
myself to hint that your peal bears with II no
plain meaning. Did fear could ever silence
! YOU ah, It's then should grow timld and die
Greet.
What particularly attracts US in Eccio ststss
| is the authors personality Nobody was ever
more natural or more simple. His cgoism ~
| 50 candidly avowcd that it fails TO shock us.
| He must certainly have been IL iovabe man. l
should have had a thousand times more conf
| dcncc in him than in all the hasbfiDt. his CON
temporarics. skcptics good nature IL the
most trustworthy and stable it rests upon a
| thorough recognition of the supreme truth. ~
eLp@a. 1t would seem that Cohcct never
married IT'S the worst structure upon his
| time. He would have been sure to find III ou
| day women. at once charming and tat icss
| guileful than he conccives them. TO console and
| love him. Women are seldom 8ngerrd 10y the
| harsh things SAID Of their sex. A show on i'll
| humor toward them they interpret AZ proof
| that men think a good deal about them.
| Women only feel positive disdain and aver
! sion for the man who they can live con-
tcntedly without them. You do not altogether
offend them by telling them that for you
| erergtitu.g has lost its SAVIOR.
1t Is in this respect that Cohclet IL such n
profoundly modern book In it the pessim,sm
| of our own day finds the subtlest expression.
| The author seems to us like a resigned Scho-
penhauer far superior. however to him WHOM q
stroke of i'll luck drove to waste his days in Ger.
man beer cellars. Cohclct. like men OF Ronius
| in our own time. looks on sorrow with CLEAN
OF mirth and on mirth with n twnge Of sad
ness. lie draws hard and fast
clusions; he huctuates between his
| contradictions; he loves life. though no dotccts
| its vanity. Above all. he never attitudIniXee
He does not pique himself on the effect no is
| producing: does not turn one eye upon himself
while casting his middleton at existence He
is perfectly sincere in saying that he nnds
everything frivolous and empty. Ono likes ~
conceive him as "a man OF exquisite refinement
and high brceding-as 1t were the ancestor OF
some opulent Partisan Jew. gone aatray in the
Palestine OF the time of Jesus or OF the Macca-
bees.
In fact the author OF Ecclesiastee is essen.
TALLY and prominently. the modern jew. Togo
from him TO Henri Hcine is but passing from
ono room to the next. When you compare him
with Elias. with jeremiah. with Jesus, with
John Of Gischala. you can scarcely comprehend
how one and the same race can have produced
such diverse indviduulitics. When you com
pare him. on the other hand with tho modern
lsraelite with whom the great commercial cities
Of Europe have been familiar for half u century
you perceive IA singular resemblance. Wait two
thousand years. he seems 10 say, nhtli
tho Roman arrogance is worn out I'LL
barbarism has passed away. and you thah
see how this son Of the prophets, th1s
brother of the zealots, this cousin ol Chrls,
will comport himself like an accompsl'I mHn
of tho world: with what ease he Will gh' lhN
the folds OF modern civilization; how promptly
he will protect himself from dynHstic and i'uda!
prcjudiccs; how well he will seize tho secret o,
enjoying world he did not fashion, OF cullng
the fruits OF fields he did not till. OF supplantng
tho clown who persccutes him, OF rendering
himself Indispensable to the simpleton vino dig
dams him. It's for him-would you b"'irNrt
that Clovis and hs Franks struck such Dough-
ty blows with their swords that the race of Calet
spun it's web of statocrait for thousand y'aTs
that Philip Augustus conquered at Bou'in1s,
and Condo Mt Rocro Oh the lucky stand