There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
Two things we are apt to take a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in, and value ourselves upon, with reference to our business and enjoyments in the world, as if they helped to save them from vanity. Solomon shows us our mistake in both. 1. The novelty of the invention, that it is such as was never known before.
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
There is no remembrance of former things,.... Which is the reason why some things that are really old are thought to be new; because either the memories of men fail them, they do not remember the customs and usages which were in the former part of their own lives, now grown old; or they are ignorant of what were in ages past, through want of...
The reason why some things are thought "new," which are not really so, is the imperfect record that exists of preceding ages among their successors. those that . . . come after--that is, those that live still later than the "things, rather the persons or generations, Ecc 1:4, with which this verse is connected, the six intermediate verses being merely illustrations of Ecc 1:4 [WEISS]...