And we may observe, that there is oftentimes a chain of metaphors in the same paragraph. Of this kind is that elegant description of old age, sickness, and death, which Solomon gives, in exhorting persons to _remember their Creator in the days of their youth_, Eccl. xii. 1-6. _while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened_; by which, it is probable, he intends the impairing the intellect, the loss of those sprightly parts which once they had, or, of the memory and judgment; upon which account men are sometimes said to, out-live themselves. And he speaks of _the keepers of the house trembling_; that is, the hands and arms, designed for the defence of the body, being seized with paralytic disorders; _the strong men bowing themselves_; that is, those parts which are designed to support the body being weakened, and needing a staff to bear up themselves; _the grinders ceasing because they are few_, signifies the loss of teeth; _and they that look out of the windows being darkened_, a decay of sight; their _rising up at the voice of the bird_, implies their loss of one of the main props of nature, to wit, sleep; so that they may rise early in the morning, when the birds begin to sing, because their beds will not afford them rest: _And the daughters of music being brought low_, denotes a decay of the voice and hearing, and being not affected with those sounds which were once most delightful to them. _The almond-tree flourishing_, plainly signifies the hoary head; _the grashopper_ being _a burden_, is either a proverbial speech, importing a want of courage, strength, and resolution to bear the smallest pressures; or, as others understand it, their stooping, when bowed down with old age. _The silver cord loosed_, or, _the golden bowl broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern_, signifies a decay of the animal spirits, a laxation of the nerves, the irregular circulation of the blood, or the universal stoppage thereof; and then the frame of nature is broken, and man _returns to the dust_[45].