¹⁰ Throughout this experiment, I let myself have anything my eyes desired, and I did not withhold from my mind any pleasure. What was the conclusion? My mind found joy in all the work I did—my work was its own reward! ¹¹ As I continued musing over all I had accomplished and the hard work it took, I concluded that all this, too, was fleeting, like trying to embrace the wind. Is there any real gain by all our hard work under the sun?

¹² I turned my attention to the ways of wisdom and folly and madness. I asked, “What is left for those who come after the king to do? They can only repeat what he has already done.”^[a]