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Ecc_4:9 Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
Ver. 9. Two are better than one.] Friendly society is far beyond that wretched "aloneness" of the covetous wretch; {Ecc_4:8} he "joins house to house and land to land, that he may live alone in the midst of the earth." {Isa_5:8}
“Quin sine rivali, seque et sua solus amato.” - Horat.
Let him enjoy his moping solitariness, if he can. "It is not good for man to be alone," saith God; {Gen_2:18} and he that loves to be alone is either a beast or a god, saith the philosopher {a} Man is æùïí ðïëéôéêïí , a sociable creature - he is "nature’s good fellow," and holds this for a rule, Optimum solarium sodalitium. There is great comfort in good company: next to communion with God is the communion of saints. Christ sent out his apostles by two and two. {Mar_6:7} He himself came from heaven to converse with us; and shall we, like stoics, stye up ourselves, and not daily run into good company? The evil spirit is for solitariness, God is for society. {b} He dwells in the "assembly of his saints"; yea, there he hath a delight to dwell, calling the Church his Hephzibah, {Isa_62:4} and the saints were David’s Hephzibam, "his delight." {Psa_16:3} Neither doth God nor good men take pleasure in a stern, froward austerity, or wild retiredness, but in a mild affableness and amiable conversation.
{a} Aristot., Polit. i.
{b} Dupla et compaginata pleraque fecit Deus, ut coelum et terram, solem et lunam, marem et feminam. - Orig. in Gen. i. Vide Erasm. in Adagio. Sõí ôå äõ åñ÷ïìåíù