Chapter IV.
And leaving all these reflections, I considered
and turned in aversion from all the forms of oppression57
which are done among men; whence some
receiving injury
weep and lament, who are struck down by
violence in
utter default of those who protect them, or who should by all means
comfort them in their
trouble.
58
| 58 The text
is, βίᾳ
καταβλημένοι
τῶν
ἐπαμυνόντων
ἢ ὅλως
παραμυθησομένων
αὐτοὺς πάσης
πανταχόθεν
κατεχούσης
ἀπορίας. The sense is
not clear. It may be: who are struck down in spite of those
who protect them, and who should by all means comfort them when all
manner of trouble presses them on all sides. |
And the men who make might their right
59
are exalted to an eminence, from which, however, they shall also
fall. Yea, of the
unrighteous and audacious, those who are dead
fare better than those who are still alive. And better than both
these is he who, being destined to be like them, has not yet come into
being, since he has not yet touched the
wickedness which
prevails among
men. And it became clear to me also how great is the
envy which
follows a man from his neighbours, like the
sting of a
wicked spirit;
and
I saw that he who receives it, and takes it as it were into
his
breast, has nothing else but to eat his own
heart, and tear it, and
consume both
soul and body, finding inconsolable vexation in the good
fortune of others.
60
| 60 Following the
reading of Cod. Medic., which puts τιθέμενος
for τιθέμενον.
[See Cyprian, vol. v. p. 493, note 7, this series.] |
And a
wise man
would choose to have one of his
hands full, if it were with ease and
quietness, rather than both of them with
travail and with the
villany
of a treacherous spirit. Moreover, there is yet another thing
which I know to happen contrary to what is fitting, by reason of the
evil will of
man. He who is left entirely alone, having neither
brother nor
son, but
prospered with large possessions, lives on in the spirit of
insatiable avarice, and refuses to give himself in any way whatever to
goodness. Gladly, therefore, would I ask such an one for what
reason he labours thus, fleeing with
headlong speed61
from the doing of anything good, and
distracted by the many various passions for making
gain.
62
Far better than such are those who
have taken up an order of
life in common,
63
| 63 κοινωνίαν
ἅμα βίου
ἐστείλαντο. |
from which they may
reap the
best
blessings. For when two men
devote themselves in the right spirit
to the same objects, though some mischance
befalls the one, he has
still at least no slight alleviation in having his companion by
him. And the greatest of all calamities to a man in
evil fortune
is the want of a
friend to help and cheer him.
64
And those who
live together both
double the good fortune that
befalls them, and lessen the pressure of
the
storm of disagreeable events; so that in the day they are
distinguished for their frank
confidence in each other, and in the
night they appear notable for their cheerfulness.
65
| 65 The text is,
καὶ
νύκτωρ
σεμνότητι
σεμνύνεσθαι,
for which certain codices read σεμνότητι
φαιδρύνεσθαι,
and others φαιδρότητι
σεμνυνεσθαι. |
But he who leads a
solitary life passes
a species of existence full of
terror to himself; not perceiving that
if one should fall upon men welded closely together, he
adopts a rash
and perilous course, and that it is not easy to snap the threefold
cord.
66
| 66 Jerome cites
the passage in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes [iv. 12]. |
Moreover, I put
a
poor youth, if he be
wise, before an aged
prince devoid of
wisdom, to
whose thoughts it has never occured that it is possible that a man may
be
raised from the
prison to the
throne, and that the very man who has
exercised his
power unrighteously shall at a later period be
righteously cast out. For it may happen that those who are
subject to a
youth, who is at the same time sensible, shall be free
from
trouble,—those, I mean, who are his
elders.
67
| 67 Τοὺς ὅσοι
προγενέστεροι.
The sense is incomplete, and some words seem missing in the text.
Jerome, in rendering this passage in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes,
turns it thus: ita autem ut sub sene rege versati sint;
either having lighted on a better manuscript, or adding something of
his own authority to make out the meaning. |
Moreover, they who are
born later
cannot
praise another, of whom they have had no experience,
68
| 68
δία τὸ
ἑτέρου
ἀπειράτως
ἔχειν. |
and are led by an unreasoning
judgment,
and by the impulse of a contrary spirit. But in exercising the
preacher’s
office, keep thou this before thine eyes, that thine
own life be rightly directed, and that thou prayest in behalf of the
foolish, that they may get understanding, and know how to shun the
doings of the wicked.
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