Ecclesiastes 2:9

I was great, and increased There is something significant in the repetition of the formula of ch. Ecclesiastes 1:16. The king had surpassed all others in wisdom, he was now surpassing all others in magnificence.

also my wisdom remained with me The thought expressed seems to be, as in Ecclesiastes 2:3, that the seeker, though he plunged into the pleasures of a sensual life, was never altogether their slave. They were for him experiments which he watched as with an intellectual impartiality. Like Goethe, he analysed his voluptuousness, and studied his own faculties of enjoyment.