Few Scriptures of the Old Testament are so familiar to the general reader as _Ecclesiastes_; and that mainly, I think, because it addresses itself to a problem which is "yours, mine, every man's." Many more quotations from it have entered into our current speech than have been taken from _Job_, for example, although _Job_ is both a much larger and a much finer poem than this--"the finest poem," as a great living poet has said, "whether of the modern or of the antique world." It is a Book which can never lose its interest for men until the last conflict in the long strife of doubt has led in the final victory of faith; and seems, in especial, to adapt itself to the conditions and wants of the present age. It deals with the very questions which are in all our minds, and offers a solution of them, and, so far as I know, the only solution, in which those who have "eternity in their hearts" can rest. May all who study it, with such help as the following pages afford, find rest to their souls, and be drawn from the heat and strife of thought into the calm and hallowed sanctuary which it throws open to our erring feet. THE HOLME, HASTINGS, _October 1890_. CONTENTS. PAGES I. THE INTRODUCTION 1-66 § 1. _On the Authorship, Form, Design, and Contents of the Book_ 3-32 § 2. _On the History of the Captivity_ 32-66 (1) The Babylonian Period 38-43 (2) The Persian Period 43-66 II. THE TRANSLATION 67-110 § 1. _The Prologue_ 69-70 § 2. _The First Section_: or, The Quest of the Chief Good in Wisdom and in Pleasure 71-76 § 3. _The Second Section_: or, The Quest in Devotion to the Affairs of Business 77-86 § 4. _The Third Section_: or, The Quest in Wealth and in the Golden Mean 87-96 § 5. _The Fourth Section_: or, The Quest Achieved 97-108 § 6. _The Epilogue_ 109, 110 III. THE EXPOSITION 111-335 § 1. THE PROLOGUE 113-126 § 2. THE FIRST SECTION: or, _The Quest in Wisdom and in Pleasure_ 127-141 _(a) The Quest in Wisdom_ 127-133 _(b) The Quest in Pleasure_ 133-137 _(c) Wisdom and Pleasure Compared_ 138-140 _(d) The Conclusion_ 140, 141 § 3. THE SECOND SECTION: or, _The Quest in Devotion to the Affairs of Business_ 142-186