a course lessened by extravagant
dissipations when courtesans and cooks, jesters and buffoons, splendid
attire and magnificent appointments had become essential to life.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, who understood the condition of things
thoroughly, says, "There was not, in my time, in Athens, one great or
noble mind." In such a social state, it is not at all surprising that
Epicurus had many followers, and that there were many who agreed with
him in thinking that happiness is best found in a tranquil indifference,
and in believing that there is nothing in reality good or bad; that it
is best to decide upon nothing, but to leave affairs to chance; that
there is, after all, little or no difference between life and death:
that a wise man will regard philosophy as an activity of ideas and
arguments which may tend to happiness; that its physical branch is of no
other use than to correct superstitious fancies as to death, and remove
the fear of meteors, prodigies, and other phenomena by explaining their
nature; that the views of Democritus and Aristotle may be made to some
extent available for the procurement of pleasure; and that we may learn
from the brutes, who pursue pleasure and avoid pain, what ought to be
our course. Upon the whole, it will be found that there is a connexion
between pleasure and virtue, especially if we enlarge our views and seek
for pleasure, not in the gratification of the present moment, but in the
aggregate offered by existence. The pleasures of the soul all originate
in the pleasures of the flesh; not only those of the time being, but
also those recollected in the past and anticipated in the future. The
sage will therefore provide for all these, and, remembering that pain is
in its nature transient, but pleasure is enduring, he will not hesitate
to encounter the former if he can be certain that it will procure him
the latter; he will dismiss from his mind all idle fears of the gods and
of destiny, for these are fictions beneficial only to women and the
vulgar; yet, since they are the objects of the national superstition, it
is needless to procure one's self disfavour by openly deriding them. It
will therefore be better for the sage to treat them with apparent
solemnity, or at least with outward respect, though he may laugh at the
imposition in his heart. As to the fear of death, he will be especially
careful to rid himself from it, remembering that death is only a
deliverer from the miseries of life.