Ecclesiastes 2:23

yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night The verse speaks out the experience of the men who labour for that which does not profit. There is no real pleasure, even at the time. The "cares of this world" come together with "the pleasures of this life" (Luke 8:14). We trace the same yearning after the "sweet sleep" that lies in the far-off past as in ch. Ecclesiastes 5:12, perhaps also in the "almond tree" of ch. Ecclesiastes 12:5. So has the great master-poet portrayed the wakefulness of successful ambition, the yearning for the sleep of the "smoky crib," or even of the ship-boy on the mast, the terrible conclusion,

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

Shakespeare, Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. 1.

No "poppies" or "mandragora" can restore that sleep to the slave of mammon or the worn out sensualist.