The wise man's eyes [are] in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
Ver. 14. The wise man's eyes are in his head.] He judiciously pondereth things past, and prudently ordereth things present, and providently foreseeth to prevent dangers likely to ensue. a The Chinese use to say of themselves, that all other nations of the world see but with one eye, they only with two. b Italians tell us, that, whereas Spaniards seem wise and are fools, Frenchmen seem fools and are wise, Portuguese neither are wise nor so much as seem to be so, they themselves both seem wise, and are so. c This I could sooner believe if from a better mouth than their own. Romani, sicut non acumina, ita non imposturas habent, saith Bellarmine; The Romans (those wittiest of the Italians) are neither very subtle nor very simple.
But the fool walketh in darkness.] He hath neither sight nor light, but is acted and agitated by the prince of darkness, who holds his black hand before the eye of such men's minds and blinds their understandings - dealing with them as Pliny saith the eagle deals with the hart; she lights upon his horns, and there flutters up and down, filling his eyes with dust borne in her feathers, that at last he may cast himself from a rock, and so be made a prey unto her.
One event happeneth to them all.] As did to Josiah and Ahab in the manner of both their dying in battle. They may be all wrapped up together in a common calamity, and sapientes sapienter in gehennam descendant, d the world's great wise men go very wisely down to hell; there, for want of saving grace, fools and wiser men meet at one and the same inn, though by several ways, at one and the same haven, though from several coasts.
a Pροσσω και οπισσω .
b Description of the World, Ec. Of China.
c Heyl., Geog.
d Augustine.