Ecclesiastes 2:2

I said of laughter, It is mad The choice of a word cognate with the madness of chap. Ecclesiastes 1:17, gives a special emphasis to the judgment which the man thus passes on himself. There was as much insanity in this form of life as in the other. He was plunging into madness with his eyes open and might say,

"Video meliora proboque,

Deteriora sequor."

"I see the better, yet the worse pursue."

Ovid, Metamorph. vii. 20.

In each case the question might be asked "What does it work? What is its outcome?" And the implied answer is "Absolutely nothing."