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28

To the one sinning he gave the distraction of adding and gathering, to give to the good man before the face of God; for this too is vanity and a striving after wind. The meaning, therefore, of what is written next and the preliminary consideration according to the sequence is this, which we have now briefly set forth. It would be time to take up the text again and to fit the thoughts to the sayings with precision. And I also knew that one event happens to them all. and I said, as the event of the fool happens also to me, then why have I been wise? This is the objection, which he sets against himself, saying: if the event of death is one for both, and virtue does not exempt the one who has become wise from participation in death, my diligence for wisdom has been in vain. But what is the answer of the word to what has been said? I, he says, spoke this superfluously in my heart, because a fool speaks from abundance, for this too is vanity. for there is no remembrance of the wise man with the fool forever. For he condemns how this objection was superfluously and inconsistently introduced, and calls the argument foolish, 5.365 which is not from things stored up nor is brought forth from within, from the treasuries of wisdom, but is like some refuse of the mind being spit out like foam. For a fool, he says, speaks from abundance, and to use the argument in this way is both vain and for no advantage, for the argument has no other purpose than to persuade one not to look at appearances. The objector makes his attack from things that are seen; for death too is among the things that are apparent; saying what, forsooth? The judgment of the virtuous and the wicked life does not consist in this, that only the wicked man must die in the body, while the good man remains unacquainted with bodily death? not knowing in what the immortality of virtue consists and what is the death of those living in evil. For the memory of the wise man, he says, lives forever and is extended through all time, but for the fool, his memorial too has been extinguished. For concerning such men the prophet also says, that "Their memorial perished manifestly and clearly"; for the addition of "with a sound" indicates this. There is not, then, he says, a remembrance of the wise man with the fool forever, but the life of the wise man endures forever through memory, while forgetfulness 5.366 succeeds the fool; for in the days to come all things of the fool are forgotten, speaking thus in the saying: Seeing that in the days to come all things have already been forgotten. If, therefore, the wise man lives by wisdom, and the fool has been made manifest in the death of forgetfulness, how, he says, do you say that the wise man will die with the fool? For this reason he is grieved and ashamed of the things he pursued in this life and says he hates all the things he earnestly pursued for this life, suffering something like one who, having shamelessly gorged himself on poisoned honey out of gluttony, then, when his dainty turned into a bad humor for him, in his vomit might perceive the sensation of the mixed-in poison being spit out together with the honey, and for this reason, from the memory of the unpleasantness, hating the honey, the surfeit of which, on account of the poison, caused the upset. For this reason, the one who filled himself to satiety with the things pursued for luxury, in the vomit of his confession, having loathed and abhorred the shame for his deeds like the quality of some poison, cries out that he hates that life, saying thus according to the text, that And I hated life, because evil to me is the work that is done 5.367 under the sun. For not to anyone else, he says, but to myself have I become evil, by what I have done under the sun. For nothing of what has happened remains for me, but all that was earnestly pursued was a conceit and an impulse of choice. For all things are vanity, he says, and a striving after wind. And in another way he says that the diligence here is worthy of hatred, because one toils not for himself, but for the one after him, whatever he may happen to have diligently accomplished in this life, dockyards, harbors, the

28

ἁμαρτάνοντι ἔδωκε περισπασμὸν τοῦ προσθεῖναι καὶ συναγαγεῖν, τοῦ δοῦναι τῷ ἀγαθῷ πρὸ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ· ὅτι καί γε τοῦτο ματαιότης καὶ προαίρεσις πνεύματος. Ἡ μὲν οὖν διάνοια τῶν ἐφεξῆς γεγραμμένων καὶ ἡ κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον προθεωρία αὕτη ἐστίν, ἣν δι' ὀλίγου νῦν παρεθέμεθα. καιρὸς δ' ἂν εἴη πάλιν ἐπαναλαβεῖν τὴν λέξιν καὶ προσαρμόσαι δι' ἀκριβείας τοῖς ῥητοῖς τὰ νοήματα. Καὶ ἔγνων καί γε ἐγώ, ὅτι συνάντημα ἓν συναντήσεται τοῖς πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς. καὶ εἶπα ἐγώ, ὡς συνάντημα τοῦ ἄφρονος καί γε ἐμοὶ συναντήσεται, καὶ ἵνα τί ἐσοφισάμην; τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἡ ἀντίθεσις, ἣν αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ ἀντιτίθησι λέγων· εἰ ἕν ἐστιν ἐπ' ἀμφοτέρων τὸ τοῦ θανάτου συνάντημα καὶ οὐκ ἐξαιρεῖται τῆς τοῦ θανάτου μετουσίας ἡ ἀρετὴ τὸν ἐν σοφίᾳ γενόμενον, εἰς μάτην μοι γέγονεν ἡ περὶ τὴν σοφίαν σπουδή. ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὰ εἰρημένα τοῦ λόγου ἀπάντησις ποία; Ἐγώ, φησί, τοῦτο περισσὸν ἐλάλησα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ μου, ὅτι ἄφρων ἐκ περισσεύματος λαλεῖ, ὅτι καί γε τοῦτο ματαιότης. ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι μνήμη τοῦ σοφοῦ μετὰ τοῦ ἄφρονος εἰς αἰῶνα. κατα γινώσκει γὰρ ὡς περιττῶς τε καὶ μὴ ἀκολούθως τῆς ἀντιθέ σεως ταύτης ὑπενεχθείσης καὶ ἄφρονα ὀνομάζει τὸν λόγον, 5.365 ὃς οὐχὶ τῶν ἀποθέτων ἐστὶν οὐδὲ ἔνδοθεν ἐκ τῶν ταμιείων τῆς σοφίας προφέρεται, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τι περίττωμα τῆς διανοίας ἐστὶν ἀφροῦ δίκην ἀποπτυόμενος. Ἄφρων γάρ, φησίν, ἐκ περισσεύματος λαλεῖ, τὸ δὲ οὕτω χρῆσθαι τῷ λόγῳ μάταιόν τε καὶ εἰς οὐδέν ἐστι πλέον, πρὸς οὐδὲν γὰρ ἕτερον τοῦ λόγου τὴν σπουδὴν ἔχοντος, ἢ πεῖσαι μὴ πρὸς τὰ φαινόμενα βλέπειν. ἐκ τῶν ὁρωμένων ποιεῖται ὁ ἀντιλέγων τὴν μάχην· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὁ θάνατος τῶν φαινομένων ἐστίν· τί δήποτε λέγων; οὐκ ἐν τούτῳ τοῦ ἐναρέτου τε καὶ τοῦ πονηροῦ βίου ἡ κρίσις γίνεται, ὡς δέον μόνον τὸν πονηρὸν τεθνάναι τῷ σώματι, τὸν δὲ ἀγαθὸν μένειν τοῦ σωματικοῦ θανάτου ἀπείρατον; οὐκ εἰδώς, ἐν τίνι ἐστὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸ ἀθάνατον καὶ τίς τῶν ἐν κακίᾳ ζώντων ὁ θάνατος. τοῦ μὲν γὰρ σοφοῦ, φησίν, ἡ μνήμη διὰ παντὸς ζῇ καὶ παντὶ τῷ αἰῶνι συμπαρα τείνεται, τῷ δὲ ἄφρονι συναπεσβέσθη καὶ τὸ μνημόσυνον. περὶ γὰρ τῶν τοιούτων φησὶ καὶ ὁ προφήτης, ὅτι Ἀπώλετο τὸ μνημόσυνον αὐτῶν περιφανῶς καὶ ἐκδήλως· τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ τοῦ Ἤχου προσθήκη ἐνδείκνυται. Οὐκ ἔστιν οὖν, φησί, μνήμη τοῦ σοφοῦ μετὰ τοῦ ἄφρονος εἰς αἰῶνα, ἀλλὰ τοῦ μὲν σοφοῦ ἡ ζωὴ διαιωνίζει διὰ τῆς μνήμης, τὸν δὲ ἄφρονα 5.366 διαδέχεται λήθη· ἐν γὰρ ταῖς ἐρχομέναις ἡμέραις τὰ πάντα τοῦ ἄφρονος ἐν λήθῃ γίνεται, οὑτωσὶ λέγων τῷ ῥήματι· Καθό τι ἤδη αἱ ἡμέραι αἱ ἐρχόμεναι τὰ πάντα ἐπελήσθη. εἰ οὖν ὁ μὲν σοφὸς ζῇ τῇ σοφίᾳ, ὁ δὲ ἄφρων τῷ θανάτῳ τῆς λήθης ἐνη φανίσθη, πῶς, φησί, λέγεις, ὅτι ἀποθανεῖται ὁ σοφὸς μετὰ τοῦ ἄφρονος; διὰ τοῦτο τοῖς κατὰ τὴν ζωὴν ταύτην ἐσπουδασμέ νοις αὐτῷ ἀλγύνεται καὶ ἐπαισχύνεται καὶ μισεῖν λέγει πάντα, ὅσα αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν ταύτην διεσπουδάσθη, ὅμοιον πάσχων ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις πεφαρμακωμένου μέλιτος ἀναιδῶς ἐμφορηθεὶς ἐκ λαιμαργίας, εἶτα εἰς χυμὸν αὐτῷ πονηρὸν τῆς λιχνείας μεταβληθείσης ἐν τῷ ἐμέτῳ λάβοι τοῦ ἀνακεκρα μένου φαρμάκου τὴν αἴσθησιν τοῦ συνεκπτυομένου μετὰ τοῦ μέλιτος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῇ μνήμῃ τῆς ἀηδίας μισῶν τὸ μέλι, οὗ ἡ πλησμονὴ διὰ τοῦ φαρμάκου τὴν ἀνατροπὴν κατειργά σατο. τούτου χάριν ὁ μέχρι κόρου τῶν πρὸς τρυφὴν σπουδαζο μένων ἑαυτὸν ἐμπλήσας ἐν τῷ τῆς ἐξαγορεύσεως ἐμέτῳ καθάπερ τινὸς δηλητηρίου ποιότητα τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς πεπραγμένοις αἰσχύνην σικχανθείς τε καὶ βδελυξάμενος μισεῖν βοᾷ τὴν ζωὴν ἐκείνην, λέγων οὑτωσὶ κατὰ τὴν λέξιν, ὅτι Καὶ ἐμίσησα σὺν τὴν ζωήν, ὅτι πονηρὸν ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὸ ποίημα τὸ πεποιημένον 5.367 ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον. οὐ γὰρ ἄλλῳ τινί, φησίν, ἀλλ' ἐμαυτῷ γέγονα πονηρός, οἷς ἐποίησα ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον. ἕστηκε γάρ μοι τῶν γενομένων οὐδέν, ἀλλ' οἴησις ἦν πάντα τὰ σπουδαζόμενα καὶ ὁρμὴ προαιρέσεως. Τὰ γὰρ πάντα ματαιότης, φησί, καὶ προαίρεσις πνεύματος. καὶ ἄλλως λέγει μίσους ἀξίαν εἶναι τὴν ὧδε σπουδήν, ὅτι μὴ ἑαυτῷ τις, ἀλλὰ τῷ μεθ' ἑαυτὸν πονεῖ, ὅπερ ἂν ἐν τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ κατὰ σπουδὴν ἐνεργήσας τύχῃ, νεώρια, λιμένας, τὰς