I. THESIS: Vanity of the so-called Absolute Joys of Living.
I 1.[254] The words of the Speaker, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Speaker, vanity of vanities: all is vanity.
3. What profit hath man of all his toil wherewith he wearies himself under the sun?
4. One generation passeth away and another cometh; the earth alone abideth for ever.
5. The sun riseth and the sun goeth down and panting hasteneth back to his place where he rose.
6. The wind sweepeth towards the south and veereth round to the north, whirling about everlastingly; and back to his circuits returneth the wind.
7. All rivers flow into the sea; yet the sea is not full; whence the rivers take their source, thither they return again.
8. The all is in a never-ceasing whirl,
No man can utter it in words;
Rest is not vouchsafed to the eye from seeing,
Nor unto the ear from hearing.[255]
9. The thing that hath been is the same that shall be, and what befell is the same that shall come to pass, and there is no new thing under the sun. 10. If aught there be whereof one would say, "Lo, this is new!"—it was erstwhile in the eternities that were before us.[256]