reasons be insufficient to convince you, listen to Solomon, than whom no man had a greater share of worldly happiness. What are the words in which he tells us the result of his experience? "Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, and all is vanity."[1] Do not hesitate to accept his testimony, for he speaks from experience. Do not imagine that you can find what he could not discover. Consider how limited any one's knowledge must be compared to his; for was there ever a wiser, a richer, a more prosperous, a more glorious monarch than this son of David? Who ever enjoyed a greater variety of amusements? All things contributed to his pleasure, yet he gives this result of his almost unlimited prosperity: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." Can you, then, expect to realize what Solomon found impossible to attain? You live in the same world, and your resources for happiness are certainly not better than his. His pursuit of pleasure was constant, but in it he found no happiness, but rather, as St. Jerome supposes, the occasion of his fall. As men more readily accept the lessons of experience than those of reason, God may have permitted Solomon to drink so deep at the fountain of pleasures to teach us how worthless they are, and to save others from a similar misfortune. How long, then, O sons of men! will you be dull of heart? Why will you love vanity and seek after lies?[2] Wisely does the Psalmist term them vanity and lies, for if there were nothing
