best only a system of probability, for an induction can
only be certain when every one and all of the individual things have
been examined and demonstrated to agree with the universal. If one
single exception among myriads of examples be discovered, the induction
is destroyed. But how shall we be sure, in any one case, that we have
examined all the individuals? therefore we must ever doubt. As to the
method of definitions, it is clear that it is altogether useless; for,
if we are ignorant of a thing, we cannot define it, and if we know a
thing, a definition adds nothing to our knowledge. In thus destroying
definitions and inductions they destroyed all philosophical method.

[Sidenote: The doctrines of Epicurus.]

[Sidenote: Tranquil indifference is best for man.]

But if there be this impossibility of attaining knowledge, what is the
use of man giving himself any trouble about the matter? Is it not best
to accept life as it comes, and enjoy pleasure while he may? And this is
what Epicurus, B.C. 342, had already advised men to do. Like Socrates,
he disparages science, and looks upon pleasure as the main object of
life and the criterion of virtue. Asserting that truth cannot be
determined by Reason alone, he gives up philosophy in despair, or
regards it as an inferior or ineffectual means of contributing to
happiness. In his view the proper division of philosophy is into Ethics,
Canonic, and Physics, the two latter being of very little importance
compared with the first. The wise man or sage must seek in an Oriental
quietism for the chief happiness of life, indulging himself in a
temperate manner as respects his present appetite, and adding thereto
the recollection of similar sensual pleasures that are past, and the
expectation of new ones reserved for the future. He must look on
philosophy as the art of enjoying life. He should give himself no
concern as to death or the power of the gods, who are only a delusion;
none as respects a future state, remembering that the soul, which is
nothing more than a congeries of atoms, is resolved into those
constituents at death. There can be no doubt that such doctrines were
very well suited to the times in which they were introduced; for so
great was the social and political disturbance, so great the uncertainty
of the tenure of property, that it might well be suggested what better
could a man do than enjoy his own while it was yet in his possession?
nor was the inducement to such