Matthew Poole and continuators on Ecclesiastes 2:12

12 And I turned my self to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly : for what can the man do that cometh after the king ? even that which hath been already done .

Of which see Ch. 1. 17. Being frustrated of my hopes in pleasure, I returned to a second and more serious consideration of my first choice, to see whether there was not more satisfaction to be gotten from wisdom, than what I discovered at my first view.

To find out the truth in this matter, to discover the utmost satisfaction which was possibly to be found in pleasures. So this is added as a reason why he gave over the thoughts of Pleasures, and directed them to another object, and why he so confidently asserted their vanity from his own particular Experience, because he had made the best of them, and it was a vain thing for any private man to expect that from them which could not be found by a King, and such a King, who had so much Wisdom to invent, and such vast Riches to pursue and enjoy all imaginable delights, and who had made it his design and business to search this to the bottom.

That succeeds me in this enquiry.

As by others in former times, so especially by my self. They can make no new discoveries as to this point.

Marginal references: Ch. 1. 13. & 7. 25.; Or, in those things which have been already done.