The author reveals a fundamentally significant parallel in the definitions of the method of cognition through a comparison of things and essences, attested in Aristotle's "Eudemian Ethics" (VII, 1245b.13-14) and in Ecclesiastes (Eccl. 7:27). With this particular attention is paid to the consideration of the semantic field of key terms used in the corresponding formulations. The examples of Ecclesiastes's application of the methodology of cognition developed by him demonstrate that his "pessimistic" and "skeptical" statements are only judgments with which sometimes directly opposite premises are compared in the process of his reasoning, which results in rather optimistic conclusions; so that the "inconsistency of Ecclesiastes proves to be only seeming.