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Sunday
Today’s Hebrew Scriptures reading is the famous “vanity of vanities” passage from Ecclesiastes, supposedly written by King Solomon. The observation that “all is vanity” inspired Samuel Johnson’s Vanity of Human Wishes, his greatest poem. It’s a devastating satire that points out how our endless pursuit of wealth and power fails to bring us happiness.
First, here’s an excerpt the reading:
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14)
Vanity of Human Wishes is too long to share in its entirety so I’ve just picked out some of the highlights. Lest you become overwhelmed by the grim picture that Johnson paints, I promise you a happy ending.
The poem begins with the poet surveying the entirety of humankind and finding everywhere the same anxious toil and ceaseless strife:
Let observation with extensive view,
Survey mankind, from China to Peru;
Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life;
Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate,
O’erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate…
Some of the passages apply directly to those who are willing to sell out American democracy to line their pockets:
How rarely reason guides the stubborn choice,
Rules the bold hand, or prompts the suppliant voice,
How nations sink, by darling schemes oppress’d,
When vengeance listens to the fool’s request.
And:
But scarce observed, the knowing and the bold,
Fall in the gen’ral massacre of gold;
Wide-wasting pest! that rages unconfined,
And crowds with crimes the records of mankind;
For gold his sword the hireling ruffian draws,
For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws;
Wealth heaped on wealth, nor truth nor safety buys,
The dangers gather as the treasures rise.
Johnson pours out special scorn upon those who seek to attach themselves to the rich and powerful. He has his own version of “Everything Trump Touches Dies,” Rick Wilson’s observation that everyone who hitches his or her wagon to the man is destroyed:
Unnumber’d suppliants crowd Preferment’s gate,
Athirst for wealth, and burning to be great;
Delusive Fortune hears the incessant call,
They mount, they shine, evaporate, and fall.
On ev’ry stage the foes of peace attend,
Hate dogs their flight, and insult mocks their end.
Johnson doesn’t only focus on those who sell their souls for earthly gain. Even good people will experience unhappiness as they learn that “all is vanity.” “Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,” he asks, “roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?”
Not necessarily, he reassures us. After all, we still have prayer:
Inquirer, cease, petitions yet remain,
Which heaven may hear, nor deep religion vain.
Still raise for good the supplicating voice,
But leave to heaven the measure and the choice.
In other words, pray but don’t attempt to dictate how the prayer is to be answered. Rather, put yourself into the hands of God:
Implore his aid, in his decisions rest,
Secure whate’er he gives, he gives the best.
What should we pray for? Johnson provides a list:
Pour forth thy fervors for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions, and a will resigned;
For love, which scarce collective man can fill;
For patience, sov’reign o’er transmuted ill;
For faith, that panting for a happier seat,
Counts death kind nature’s signal of retreat…
With these, we may in the end find the happiness that cannot be achieved through wealth and power. John concludes,
These goods for man the laws of heaven ordain,
These goods he grants, who grants the pow’r to gain;
With these celestial wisdom calms the mind,
And makes the happiness she does not find.
When he speaks of “celestial wisdom,” Johnson may have in mind the figure of Wisdom (Sophia) in Proverbs, who is personified as a woman who “calls aloud in the street” and who loves those
who love me,
and those who seek me find me.
With me are riches and honor,
enduring wealth and prosperity.
My fruit is better than fine gold;
what I yield surpasses choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,
bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me
and making their treasuries full. (Proverbs 8:17-21)
Johnson’s poem, like the Ecclesiastes passage, starts out with grim news but then follows it up with this heavenly reminder. We all need such reminding in these dark days.
