The world also, by holding out wisdom, entices to curiosity, and through this makes one vain: whence the Apostle says in First Corinthians three, and draws from the Psalm: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain; because, according to that passage of Jeremiah ten, every man is made foolish by his knowledge. For this is human wisdom, which does not know useful things, but mutable things: and therefore the Lord made it foolish, as is said in First Corinthians one: God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. Foolish wisdom is vain, because it is erroneous: whence it is said in Ecclesiasticus thirty-four: Divination of error and lying auguries and the dreams of evildoers are vanity.
11. From this fourfold vanity of the in terior heart,
man vanishes in a fourfold manner exteriorly.
For first, the vanity of pride renders one un fruitful, a ccording to that passage of Ecclesiasticus six: Do not exalt yourself in your thought like a bull, lest perhaps your strength be crushed, and you be left like a dry tree in the desert, and thus vain as regards the fruit of good work: concerning which, in Jeremiah ten: Vain are their works and worthy of derision; in the day of their visitation they shall perish.
The vanity of avarice renders one busied, and through this subject to many labors: Ecclesiastes four: Considering, I found yet another vanity under the sun: there is one alone, and he has not a second, and yet he does not cease to labor, nor are his eyes satisfied with riches. For riches are foreign gods, concerning which, in Jeremiah sixteen: You shall serve foreign gods, who will give you no rest day or night.
The vanity of lust renders a man adorned, because the lustful are accustomed to ornament themselves outwardly: whence in their person it is said in Wisdom two: Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they wither: and this indeed is vanity, because it is said in the last chapter of Proverbs: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain: t herefore vain, because all the glory and beauty of the flesh is as the flower of grass.
The vanity of worldly wisdom renders one a vain talker. For while the heart errs, the mouth pronounces vain things: First Timothy, chapter one: The end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith, from which some having strayed have turned aside to vain talking, understanding neither what they say nor the things about which they affirm. And because by worldly wisdom they are corrupted and deceived, they wish to seduce others through vain words: whence Titus, chapter one: There are many
disobedient, vain talkers and seducers, especially those who are of the circumcision, who must be rebuked.
Thus therefore from the vanity of exterior things arises the vanity of hearts, and from this arises the vanity of exterior works.
12. According to this, therefore, it is gathered that there is a threefold vanity, namely of mutability, iniquity, and penality, and as Hugh of Saint Victor says, "the first is natural and fitting, the second is culpable because perverse, the third is penal and wretched"; and one has its origin from another, as has been seen. Whoever therefore wishes to withdraw from the vanity of misery, let him abandon the vanity of fault, and whoever wishes to abandon this, let him not look to the vanity of mutable nature, but let him hope in and cling to the divine, and thus he will be blessed. Blessed therefore is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord.
13. Since therefore it belongs to the wise man to teach the way to attain beatitude, this was the chief concern and worthwhile task of the wise Solomon; but because, as is clear from what has been said, for acquiring beatitude it is necessary that eternal things be loved and present things be despised, and furthermore to know how to conduct oneself properly in the midst of a crooked generation,
therefore he produced three books, namely Proverbs, in which he teaches his son to conduct himself wisely in this world; Ecclesiastes, in which he teaches to despise present things; and the Song of Songs, in which he teaches to love heavenly things, especially the Bridegroom Himself.
On the fourfold cause of this book.
14. Thus therefore it is clear what the end of the book of Ecclesiastes is. And since "the end imposes necessity upon those things which are ordered to the end," since the end is the contempt of present things, he treats of them, not in that respect by which they attract, but in that respect by which they are despised: they attract under the aspect of good, but are despised under the aspect of the vain. Therefore it follows from this that the matter of this book is the vanities of present things, or the things themselves insofar as they are vain, to speak more precisely, because he proves vanity as a quasi-property in things, first proposing, second proving, third concluding. Whence he proceeds by persuading and proving that threefold vanity which was spoken of above, namely of nature, fault, and misery.
And from this is clear the mode of treatment, or the form. For it has a singular mode of treatment among the other books: for it proceeds as a preacher, setting forth the opinions of various persons, now of the wise man, now of the fool, so that from the opinions of many the one truth may shine forth in the minds of the hearers. - From the foregoing it is concluded who the efficient cause ought to have been. For in this book pleasures, riches, honors, and curiosities are taught to be despised as vanities. And because one is not believed concerning the contempt of such things unless he is experienced—
for a poor man who has not had riches is not believed concerning the contempt of them, because he has not experienced them, and
therefore does not recognize them —
it was necessary that the author be such a one who had experience of all these things, namely one who was powerful, wealthy, given to luxury, and curious, that is, wise. We have neither read nor heard of any other who possessed these things in such great excellence as Solomon did.
Therefore he above all others was the more fitting author of such a book.
It is therefore clear what is the material, formal, efficient, and final cause of this book.
But according to these four causes, four particular questions may be raised.