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delighting the lovers of wisdom eternally. But the phrase, *wisdom excels folly*, is not stated comparatively; for things that are mutually destructive, like light and darkness, and wisdom and folly, are not compared. For there is no gladness in evil things, but to the choice of the one choosing, he connected the excellence, instead of 'rather,' and incomparably well does he act who prefers wisdom to folly. *The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walks in darkness.* The head is the preeminent part, and the highest of the whole body; but the feet are the lowest, and touch the earth. When, therefore, the ruling mind is purified, it looks to the things above, and not to the things on the earth, having its eyes in its head; but when reasoning turns to earthly things, it has its eyes in its feet, wallowing in the mire of the earth. Otherwise: Christ is the head of the Church; if the wise man gazes upon Him, walking as He also walked, he has his eyes in his head; but the fool walks in darkness, always looking down, and having his ruling faculty darkened. *And I also perceived that one event happens to them all. Then I said in my heart, As it happens to the fool, so it happens even to me; and why was I then more wise?* The wise man, exercising everything by himself, speaks the opposition of the contraries from his own person. Finding then various 93.501 things to be common, which indeed he also calls events, such as being sick, being healthy, being rich, being poor, and especially the death over all, assuming the person of the adversary, he says: If these things are common to both the wise and the foolish, what need is there to pursue the labors of virtue, and become wise? Then refuting the argument, and showing the profit of wisdom, he adds, and says: *And I then spoke what was superfluous in my heart, because a fool speaks from abundance, that this also is vanity.* Having set down the fool's objection as from his own person, he resolves it again from himself, and says, *And I spoke what was superfluous in my heart*; that is, I knew that such a thought is vain and superfluous, and it is of a foolish mind to utter such things. For the fool, having his mind inflamed and heated, brings forth the words of folly through his mouth; because *a fool speaks from abundance*, that is, from the abounding foolishness in him. Then he also teaches the reason, refuting the fool's objection; and says: *For there is no remembrance of the wise with the fool for ever.* For even if the different things in this life, he says, happen to be common to the wise and the foolish, yet in the age to come the wise man has an ever-memorable and unending enjoyment; but of the fool even the memory is wiped out, according to what is said in the Psalms: *Their memorial has perished with a sound*; that is, they are not even worthy of remembrance with God. *Because already in the days that are coming, all things have been forgotten.* In the age to come, he says, all the events in this life, whether sickness, or health, or wealth, or poverty, come to be forgotten. Then adding the conclusion of the solution, he says: *And how shall the wise man die with the fool?* How then, he says, will you say, O fools, that because of the common end of all men, the wise man has nothing more than the senseless? when the remembrance of the wise man is perpetual with God, but that of the fool no longer is? For even if the occurrences in this life are common, yet in the one to come, each one's work will follow. *And I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun is evil to me, for all is vanity and a choice of spirit.* For this reason the Wise Man says, I hated the toilsome life, and my labor, which I labor at for the things under the sun; for he calls the painful and wearisome life of sinners an evil work. Here also the Wise Man hates the mortal life, and seeks the one that abides forever; and having assumed the person of the fool, he said that *The work that is done under the sun is evil to me;* for the wise man does not endure to labor for the things under the sun.

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σοφίας ἐραστὰς ἀϊδίως εὐφραίνοντα. Τὸ δὲ, περισσεία ἐστὶ τῇ σοφίᾳ ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀφροσύνην, οὐ συγκριτικῶς κεῖται· τὰ γὰρ ἀλλήλων ἀναιρετικὰ, ὡς τὸ φῶς καὶ τὸ σκότος, καὶ ἡ σοφία καὶ ἡ ἀφροσύνη, οὐ συγκρίνονται. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τῶν κακῶν εὐφροσύνη, ἀλλὰ τῇ αἱρέσει τοῦ αἱρουμένου, τὸ περιττὸν συνῆψε, ἀντὶ τοῦ, μᾶλλον, καὶ ἀσυγκρίτως καλῶς ποιεῖ ὁ τὴν σοφίαν προκρίνων τῆς ἀφροσύνης. "Τοῦ σοφοῦ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἐν κεφαλῇ αὐτοῦ· καὶ ὁ ἄφρων ἐν σκότει πορεύεται." Ἡ κεφαλὴ ἐξοχὴ τυγχάνει, καὶ τὸ ἀνώτερον παντὸς τοῦ σώματος· οἱ δὲ πόδες κατώτατοί εἰσιν, καὶ τῆς γῆς προσάπτονται. Ὅταν τοίνυν ὁ ἡγεμὼν νοῦς κεκαθαρμένος ᾖ, τὰ ἄνω σκοπεῖ, καὶ οὐ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχων· ὅταν δὲ περὶ τὰ γήϊνα ὁ λογισμὸς στρέφηται, ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν ἔχει καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς, περὶ τὴν γῆν ἰλυσπώμενος. Ἄλλως· Κεφαλὴ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ὁ Χριστός· πρὸς ἣν εἰ ὁ σοφὸς ἀτενίζει, περιπατῶν καθὼς κἀκεῖνος περιεπάτησε, ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχει· ὁ δὲ ἄφρων ἐν σκότει πορεύεται, κάτω νεύων ἀεὶ, καὶ ἐσκοτισμένον ἔχων τὸ ἡγεμονικόν. "Καὶ ἔγνων καί γε ἐγὼ ὅτι συνάντημα ἓν συναντήσεται τοῖς πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς. Καὶ εἶπα ἐγὼ ἐν καρδίᾳ μου, Ὡς συνάντημα τοῦ ἄφρονος καί γε συναντήσεταί μοι· καὶ ἵνα τί ἐσοφισάμην;" Πάντα καθ' ἑαυτὸν γυμνάζων ὁ σοφὸς, τὴν τῶν ἐναντίων ἀντίθεσιν ἐξ οἰκείου λέγει προσώπου. Εὑρὼν τοίνυν διάφορα 93.501 κοινὰ τυγχάνοντα, ἃ δὴ καὶ συναντήματα καλεῖ, οἷον τὸ νοσεῖν, τὸ ὑγιαίνειν, τὸ πλουτεῖν, τὸ πένεσθαι, καὶ ἐξαιρέτως τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θάνατον, τοῦ ἀντιδίκου τὸ πρόσωπον ὑποδὺς, φησί· Εἰ ταῦτα κοινὰ τοῖς τε σοφοῖς καὶ ἄφροσι, τίς ἡ χρεία τοὺς τῆς ἀρετῆς μετιέναι πόνους, καὶ γίνεσθαι σοφόν; Εἶτα ἀπελέγχων τὸν λόγον, καὶ δεικνὺς τὸ τῆς σοφίας κέρδος, ἐπάγει, καί φησι· "Καὶ ἐγὼ τότε περισσὸν ἐλάλησα ἐν καρδίᾳ μου, διότι ἄφρων ἐκ περισσεύματος λαλεῖ, ὅτι καί γε τοῦτο ματαιότης." Τεθεικὼς τοῦ ἄφρονος τὴν ἀντίθεσιν ὡς ἐξ οἰκείου προσώπου, ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ πάλιν ἐπιλύει, καί φησι, Καὶ ἐγὼ περισσὸν ἐλάλησα ἐν καρδίᾳ μου· ἀντὶ τοῦ, Ἔγνων ὅτι ματαία καὶ περιττὴ ἡ τοιαύτη ἔννοια, καὶ ἄφρονος λογισμοῦ τὸ τοιαῦτα φθέγγεσθαι. Ὁ γὰρ ἄφρων ἐκζέσας καὶ ὑποθερμήνας τὴν διάνοιαν, διὰ στόματος τοὺς τῆς ἀφροσύνης ἐκφέρει λόγους· διότι ἄφρων ἐκ περισσεύματος λαλεῖ, τουτέστιν, ἐκ τῆς πλεοναζούσης ἐν αὐτῷ ἀνοίας. Εἶτα καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν διδάσκει, ἀπελέγχων τοῦ ἄφρονος τὴν ἀντίθεσιν· καί φησι· "Ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι μνήμη τοῦ σοφοῦ μετὰ τοῦ ἄφρονος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα." Εἰ γὰρ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷδε, φησὶ τῷ βίῳ διάφορα, κοινὰ τυγχάνουσι σοφῶν καὶ ἀφρόνων· ἀλλ' εἰς τὸν μέλλοντα αἰῶνα ὁ μὲν σοφὸς ἀείμνηστον ἔχει καὶ ἀτελεύτητον τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν· τοῦ δὲ ἄφρονος καὶ ἡ μνήμη ἐξαλείφεται, κατὰ τὸ ἐν Ψαλμοῖς εἰρημένον· Ἀπώλετο τὸ μνημόσυνον αὐτῶν μετ' ἤχου· ἀντὶ τοῦ, Οὐδὲ μνήμης ἄξιοι παρὰ Θεῷ τυγχάνουσι. "Καθότι ἤδη ταῖς ἡμέραις ταῖς ἐπερχομέναις τὰ πάντα ἐπελήσθη." Ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι, φησὶ, τῷ ἐπερχομένῳ, πάντα τὰ ἐν τῷδε τῷ βίῳ συναντήματα, εἴτε νόσος, εἴτε ὑγεία, εἴτε πλοῦτος, εἴτε πενία, εἰς λήθην ἔρχονται. Εἶτα τὸ συμπέρασμα τῆς λύσεως ἐπάγων, φησί· "Καὶ πῶς ἀποθανεῖται ὁ σοφὸς μετὰ τοῦ ἄφρονος;" Πῶς οὖν, φησὶν, ἐρεῖτε, ὦ ἄφρονες, ὅτι διὰ τὴν κοινὴν πάντων ἀνθρώπων τελευτὴν, οὐδὲ πλέον ἔχει ὁ σοφὸς τοῦ ἀνοήτου; ὅπου γε τοῦ μὲν σοφοῦ ἡ μνήμη διηνεκὴς παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ, τοῦ δὲ ἄφρονος οὐκέτι; Εἰ γὰρ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷδε τῷ βίῳ συμπτώματα κοινὰ, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι τὸ ἑκάστου ἔργον ἐπακολουθήσει. "Καὶ ἐμίσησα ἐγὼ τὴν ζωὴν, ὅτι πονηρὸν ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὸ ποίημα τὸ πεποιημένον ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον, ὅτι πάντα ματαιότης, καὶ προαίρεσις πνεύματος." ∆ιὰ τοῦτό φησιν ὁ Σοφὸς, Ἐμίσησα τὴν ἐπίμοχθον ζωὴν, καὶ τὸν ἐμὸν πόνον, ὃν μοχθῶ διὰ τὰ ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον· πονηρὸν γὰρ ποίημά φησι τὴν ἐπίπονον καὶ μοχθηρὰν τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν ζωήν. Ἐνταῦθα δὲ καὶ ὁ Σοφὸς μισεῖ τὴν ἐπίκηρον ζωὴν, καὶ τὴν ἀεὶ μένουσαν ἐπιζητεῖ· καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἄφρονος ὑποδὺς πρόσωπον, ἔφη, ὅτι Πονηρὸν ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὸ ποίημα, τὸ πεποιημένον ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον· οὐ γὰρ ὁ σοφὸς ἀνέχεται μοχθεῖν διὰ τὰ ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον.