XI MELIORISM 66 I don't know that I ever heard anybody use the word 'meliorist except myself." GEORGE ELIOT (Life, edited by J. W. Cross, ii. 437). Chapter VII. verses 1-14.-A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool this also is vanity. Surely extortion maketh a wise man foolish, and a gift destroyeth the understanding. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom is as good as an inheritance: yea, more excellent is it for them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defence, even as money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom preserveth the life of him that hath it. Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God hath even made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything that shall be after him. THIS chapter begins the second part of the book. The first part is the revelation of a soul grappling with the mystery of life. He is "under a cloud" due to the times in which he lives, his defective sense of God and a melancholy cast of mind. His worst difficulty is probably himself, with a brooding nature, disposed to take dark views of life. But he is brave and will not submit to the tyranny of temperament. If he cannot be an optimist, he will not be a pessimist.1 The stage he has now reached is a temporary resting-place looking back on the hill he has climbed, looking forward to finer views. The road winds uphill all the way. His journey will take the whole day long-from morn to night. But he knows the worst. With his wide experience of life, his candid estimate of wealth and fame and pleasure, he has already arrived at some half-way conclusions. The thoughts he has turned over and over again in his mind have gained a certain epigrammatic shape, and many of them are in currency 1 "He has often been called a pessimist; but that is a misnomer, because he has an intense conviction that mankind ought to be and could be better if circumstances were more favourable. His sadness would not be so deep if his estimation of the potentialities of goodness in man were less high " (M'Neile, Introduction, p. 15). At one to-day. Ecclesiastes does not go to extremes. time he may have partaken of every dish at the feast, but the reaction from that indulgence did not lead him to the extreme of refusing to be sociable. He knows well the evils of his time, but he will not solace himself by any comparison of an imaginary golden age in the past. He has simply learnt to say of many things, "It is better to do this than that." He has become a "meliorist." 2 Meliorism is the state of mind which avoids extremes. It is rarely enthusiastic, but it can see compensation when others only see losses, and if it cannot make the best, it will not make the worst-it makes the better of life. 66 I Precious ointment to the Oriental mind was a type of its rich fragrant life. Ecclesiastes, whose thoughts rise to higher things, speaks of something better: "a good name is better than precious ointment." Character is better than all other possessions. There is no ascetic disapproval of perfumes, but the discovery of a sweeter fragrance. The best commentary on these words was made by a woman who broke an alabaster box of ointment, very costly, and lavished it upon her Lord. Some called it "waste," but the fragrance of that uncalculating act of love has sweetened the world and given Mary of Bethany an immortal name. When Ecclesiastes goes on to say," and the day of death than the day of one's birth," he does not say that death is better than 1 vii. 10. 2 Cheyne prefers to call Koheleth a "malist." "He is no pessimist, but he lacks the imaginative faculty to sympathise with the Utopian prospects for the future contained in the prophetic visions" (Job and Solomon, p. 102). 3 vii. 1. 1 life, which is sheer pessimism. He is capable of such moods 1 in common with others who may have come under the influence of Buddhist teaching. Herodotus 2 relates that the Trausi, a Thracian tribe, met on the birth of a child and bewailed the woes which were its inevitable portion, whilst they buried their dead with joy, because they had fallen to eternal sleep. Ecclesiastes rises above that settled pessimism. We ought to connect the contrast between birth and death with a good name." The two thoughts hang closely together. This connection reminds us of that saying attributed to Solon, that no man is to be counted happy until he has ended life happily. Death crowns a good name with a lustre which never belongs to the living. 66 66 66 And now we learn something more of the secret of the triumph of Ecclesiastes over temperament. He has not been shut up in himself. He has lived among his fellow-men, been to the house of feasting and the house of mourning, wept with those that wept and rejoiced with those that rejoiced." He has listened to the wise and accepted their rebuke. He has listened to frivolous talk and jesting till it has sounded like crackling nettles under kettles."4 He has seen all aspects of life, and it has saved him from taking onesided views. This is his conclusion: When I think of my fellow-men as I have seen them, feasting and mourning, laughing and crying, thoughtful and jocular, I know where I have seen life at its deepest and best. There is a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to dance and a time to mourn, but to get below the surface of things you must face the realities of life. It is good 1 ii. 17. 3 Herodotus i. 32. 2 Herodotus v. 4. to go to the house of feasting. It is better to go to the house of mourning. It is this way of facing all the experiences of life which makes the wisdom and bravery of Ecclesiastes. Many of us, with far more light on the mysteries of life and death, shrink from any close contact with either. We look at the house of mourning, but we do not go in. We pity the fatherless and widow in their affliction, but we do not visit them. When we read these words we become suspicious of some attempt to rob us of cherished possessions-our cheerful prospects and rosy optimism.2 66 66 66 Ecclesiastes does not speak as a mourner but a comforter. We instinctively respect the philosophy of sorrow. Sorrow remarries us to God," said Dante. "A man's work is not done upon earth so long as God has anything for him to suffer," said Frederick William Robertson. Ecclesiastes speaks as one who has deliberately visited this school and learnt something which has made him a better man. He has faced the realities and seen life and death without a mask. This is one reason among others why it is so good to be in the house of mourning," says Dora Greenwell with her usual quick insight. "It is there more easy to be natural-to be true, I mean, to that which is deepest within us. Is there not something in the daily familiar course of life which seems in a strange way to veil its true aspect? It is not death but life which wraps us about with shroud and cerement." Without reverence for the realities, life is poor indeed. If we have lost it in the 1 These sayings (says Cheyne) supply a convincing proof that Koheleth was not a mere Epicurean. Resignation is the secret of inward peace: "with a sad face the heart may be cheerful." 2 "Our sadness is not sad but our cheap joys," says Thoreau (quoted by Cheyne). 3 Two Friends, p. 38. |