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CHOPELETH;

ROYAL

OR, THE

ROYAL PREACHER.

BOOK I.

* O vain, deluding world! whose largest gifts Thine emptiness betray, like painted clouds, Or wat❜ry bubbles: as the vapour flies, Dispers'd by lightest blast, so fleet thy joys, And leave no trace behind. This serious truth The Royal Preacher loud proclaims, convinc'd 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 pow'r of words T'express, or thought conceive. b Let ev'ry 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 endless projects rack'd

СНАР. І.

[1]The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem. a [2] Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. b [3] What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

His heated brain, and to the lab'ring mind
Den'y repose? Why such expence of time,
That steals away so fast, and ne'er looks back?

• Could man his wish obtain, how short the space
For its enjoyment! No less transient here.
The time of his duration, than the things
Thus anxiously pursu'd. For as the mind,
In search of Bliss, fix'd to no solid point,
For ever fluctuates; so our brittle frames,
In which we glory, haste to their decline,
Nor stable place can find. The human race
Drop like autumnal leaves, by Spring reviv'd:
One generation from the stage of life
Withdrawn, another comes, and this makes room,
For that which follows. Mightiest realms decay,.

[4] One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever. *

* Thus the words run in our Translation; and as some may be therefore greatly surprised, that we have given so different a turn to the latter part, we shall here transcribe the remark of an anonymous Commentator on this passage. "After all the various accounts, says he, of the word by here rendered for ever, it, in truth, signifies a duration of time, of which we either know not the beginning or end, or perhaps neither. Thus in Job, xxii. 15. it signifies time immemorial. The same term is applied to many of the Jewish Statutes, because they were to continue in force to that unknown period, when the Messiah should abolish them. With respect both to time past and future, Abraham speaking of the Almighty, Gen. xxi. 23. uses the same word, a God, of whose beginning or end he knew not; which, though in strictness it does not express eternity, might serve for it, in those simple and less philosophical ages; or, however, in Abraham's judgment, was enough to distinguish him from the false Gods, the host of Heaven, viz. the Sun, Moon, and Stars, of whose creation he could not be ignorant; as also from those idols, whose beginning was known, or, at least, whose end might be known by an easy experiment. This signification I have pitched upon, because the place requires it; nor is it true that the earth abideth for ever.

Sink by degrees, and, lo! new-form'd Estates
Rise from their ruins. E'en the Earth itself,
Sole object of our pride, our hopes and fears,
Shall have its period, though to man unknown.*

C

d Behold! the Sun his orient lustre sheds, IA. Awhile refulgent; but how soon descends, And leaves the face of Nature wrapt in gloom, Then hastes to bring the smiling Dawn again; With swift career his crooked journey takes. To southern climes; there, restless, back revolves To cheer the frozen North.te See, how the winds From ev'ry point are whirl'd, and still renew

d [5] The sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.te [6] The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north: it whirleth about continually; and the wind returneth again according to his cir cuits.

It likewise appears, from the foregoing instances, that it may be exactly accommodated, to all other places where the word occurs. More-› oyer, it removes that unsufferable uncertainty of signification, which Lexicographers have put upon this word, making it to denote both infinite and finite; at which rate, if one and the same word may signify two contraries, Language serves not to inform, but confound us. Lastly, the word flows naturally from a root which signifies to hide." These reasons have induced me to turn the passage as I have done and, indeed, nothing seems farther from Solomon's intention, than to speak of the permanency, and much less, of the eternal duration of the Earth, where he is treating of the instability of all things under the Sun.

2 4

+ Our version here concludes the 5th verse, and applies the next entirely to the wind, the beginning of which is thus translated, The Wind goeth towards the South, and turneth about unto the North. Now the learned reader need not be informed, that the word Wind does not stand in the original, as placed in our Translation, but evi-, dently begins the 6th verse, which runs thus, The Wind is whirled about continually, and the Wind returneth again, according to its

E

Their circuit. f Rapid torrents rivers fill,
And these their tribute to the Ocean pay,
Whose vast abyss ne'er overswells its bounds;
For straight, in vapours, by the Sun exhal'd,
Or through Earth's secret caverns, it restores
All back again. Thus, in perpetual rounds
Of hurry and disquiet, human life

Is whirl'd, still in pursuit of Happiness,
With ceaseless toil: for, after all our pains,
What progress have we made? When near it seems,
Th'illuding Phantom disappears, or mocks
Our eager grasp. Though cheated, we pursue
The frantic chase, and, at our journey's end,
Have still as far to seek. g Should Heav'n allow
The frail Probationer a larger space

Of life, what from the world could he obtain,

f [7] All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. [8] All things are full of labour, man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

circuits. This is all that was necessary to be said of the Wind; for certainly it would have been very improper to mention only the South and North, when every one knows, it blows from so many different quarters. The foregoing passage, therefore, is not to be applied to the Wind, but the Sun, whose two motions, diurnal and annual, Solomon, no doubt, there alludes to; the former in the Ecliptic, from East to West, from whence proceed the vicissitudes of day and night; the latter in the Zodiac, from the Southern to the Northern Tropic, and so back again, which causeth the difference of seasons. ***Many forced constructions have been put upon the three preceding instances of the Sun, Wind, and Rivers; but nothing, as I apprehend, can be clearer, than that they are here introduced, not to denote the constancy y and invariable regularity of their motions, as som interpreters understand them, which was contrary to Solomon's design; but as emblems of man's perpetual hurry and restlessness, which, after all, leave him just where he was at his first setting out.

Which nothing offers, nor, indeed, has aught
To give, that Man's capacious soul can fill?
No object long can charm the roving eye: sex
And what can satisfy the craving ear, site ol
Greedy of novelty? Chagrin'd and cloy'd

E'en with our pleasures, every scene disgusts: A
For still there's something wanting, which in vain
We seek below. Why dost thou hope to find {
That Bliss in earthly things, which mortal man
Has never found? Shall future ages see

More than the past have seen? The same events,
The same pursuits, have ever been; and those
Who liv'd before us, made the same complaints, !
As those to come shall make. The sons of men
Have nothing new to try: though chang'd the scene,
"Tis the same tiresome round of anxious cares
And fruitless toils. Perhaps the flatt'ring thought,
That sculptur'd marble, or th' historic page,
With lasting glory shall record thy name,

Gives thee some transport. Vain, delusive hope!
Where is that fancied immortality

Of thousands, who once made such mighty noise,
Distinguish'd for their wealth or dignity,

For arts or arms renown'd? Are they not lost

h [9] The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the sun, i [10] Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. j [11] There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

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