So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
Ver. 9. Also my wisdom remained with me.] Outward things are dead things, and cannot touch the soul, a lively spirit, unless by way of taint. Solomon, if not at first, yet at length, was fearfully tainted by them, making good that of the poet -
“Stultitiam patiuntur opes …
Ardua res haec est, opibus non tradere mores,
Et cum tot Croesos viceris, esse Numam.”
- Martial.