and desolate; but then err not on the other side, going into folly and
licentiousness,--a course which naturally tends to cut off life itself.
It is the narrow way of philosophy: as said the old Latins, "Medio
tutissimus ibis," "midway is safety"; but Solomon is here again, as we
have seen before, on a far higher moral elevation than any of the
heathen philosophers, for he has one sheet-anchor for his soul from the
evils of either extreme, in the fear of God.

As for the despairing, hopeless groans of "vanity," we, with our
God-given grace, learn to feel pity for our Author, so for his moral
elevation do we admire him, whilst for his sincerity and love of truth
we learn to respect and love him. See in the next few verses that
clear, cold, true, reason of his, confessing the narrow limits of its
powers, and yet the whole soul longs, as if it would burst all bars to
attain to that which shall solve its perplexity. "Thus far have I
attained by wisdom," he says, "and yet still I cry for wisdom. I see
far off the place where earth can reach and touch the heavens; but
when, by weary toil and labor, I reach that spot, those heavens are as
inimitably high above me as ever, and an equally long journey lies
between me and the horizon where they meet. Oh, that I might be wise;
but it was far from me."

Now, in our version, the next verse reads very tamely and flat, in view
of the strong emotion under which it is so clear that the whole of the
book was written. "That which is far off and exceeding deep, who can
find it out?" The Revised, both in text and margin, gives us a hint of
another thought, "That which is, or hath been, is afar off," etc. But
other scholars, in company with the Targum and many an old Jewish
writer, lift the verse into harmony with the impassioned utterances of
this noble man, as he expresses in broken ejaculatory phrase his
longings and his powerlessness:

"Far off, the past,--what is it?
Deep,--that deep! Ah, who can sound?
Then turned I, and my heart, to learn, explore.
To seek out wisdom, reason--sin to know--
Presumption--folly--vain impiety.

He _must_ unravel the mystery, and turns thus, once more, with his sole
companion, his own heart, to measure everything,--even sin, folly,
impiety,--and more bitter even than that bitter death that has again
and again darkened all his counsel and dashed his hopes, is one awful
evil that he has found.

One was nearest Adam in the old creat