Ecclesiastes 2:10

whatsoever mine eyes desired From such a life the idea of self-denial, even of self-control, was absolutely excluded. Money and power were but means to the end, and the end proposed was the gratification of the "desire of the eyes," not identified with the "lust of the flesh," but closely allied to it (1 John 2:16), in all its restless cravings. It was not altogether a fruitless effort. Such joy as these things could bring he had in abundant measure. It was for a time his "portion." Like the rich man in the parable of Luke 16:25 he had his "good things," and could not complain that the experiment failed as through imperfect apparatus. He also was tasting of the "tree of knowledge of good and evil," and found that it was "good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise" (Genesis 3:6).