Study Desk

As for the people that haue bene before him, and that come after him, they are innumerable: yet is not their ioye the greater thorow him. This is also a vayne thinge and a vexacion of mynde.

Whan thou commest in to the house of God, kepe thy fote, and drawe nye, that thou mayest heare: that is better then the offeringes of fooles, for they knowe not what euell they do.

Be not hastie with thy mouth, & let not thine hert speake eny thige rashly before God. For God is in heauen, & thou vpon earth, therfore let thy wordes be fewe.

For where moch carefulnesse is, there are many dreames: & where many wordes are, there men maye heare fooles.

Yf thou make a vowe vnto God, be not slacke to perfourme it. As for foolish vowes, he hath no pleasure in them.

Yf thou promyse eny thinge, paye it: for better it is that thou make no vowe, then that thou shuldest promise, and not paye.

Vse not thy mouth to cause yi flesh for to synne, yt thou saye not before the angell: my foolishnesse is in ye faute. For the God wil be angrie at thy voyce, and destroye all ye workes of thine handes.

Yf thou seyst the poore to be oppressed and wrongeously dealt withall, so yt equite & the right of the lawe is wraisted in the londe: maruell not thou at soch iudgmet, for one greate ma kepeth touch with another, and the mightie helpe the selues together.

For oft times they perishe with his greate misery and trouble: and yf he haue a childe, it getteth nothinge.

Therfore me thinke it a better and a fayrer thinge, a man to eate and drynke, and to be refreshed of all his laboure, yt he taketh vnder the Sonne all the dayes of his life which God geueth him, for this is his porcion.

For vnto whom so euer God geueth riches, goodes and power, he geueth it him to enioye it, to take it for his porcion, and to be refreshed of his laboure: this is now the gifte of God.

For he thinketh not moch how longe he shal lyue, for so moch as God fylleth his hert with gladnesse.

Yf a man begett an hundreth children, and lyue many yeares, so that his dayes are many in nombre, and yet can not enioye his good, nether be buried: as for him I saye, that an vntymely byrth is better then he.

For he cometh to naught, & goeth his waye in to darcknes, and his name is forgotten.

All the laboure that a man taketh, is for himself, and yet his desyre is neuer fylled after his mynde.

For what hath the wyse more then the foole? What helpeth it the poore, that he knoweth to walke before the lyuynge?

For who knoweth what is good for man lyuynge, in ye dayes of his vayne life, which is but a shadowe? Or, who wil tell a man, what shal happen after him vnder the Sonne?

It is better to go in to an house of mournynge, then in to a bancket house. For there is the ende of all men, and he that is lyuinge, taketh it to herte.

It is better to be sory then to laugh, for whe the countenaunce is heuy, the herte is ioyfull.

For the laughinge of fooles is like ye crackynge of thornes vnder a pott. And yt is but a vayne thinge.