Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
Ver. 13. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly,] i.e., Philosophy and human wisdom, though it cannot perfect the mind, nor make a man happy, yet it is as far beyond sensuality and brutishness as light is beyond darkness. Those that seek for the philosopher's stone, though they miss their end, yet they find many excellent things by the way. So philosophers, politicians, moralists, though they missed the "pearl of price," yet they sought out other "goodly pearls" (with that wise merchant, Mat 13:45), for the which they have their just praise and profit: