ls_ two opposite methods of inquiry were possible:

1. _To judge of the quality of actions by their_ RESULTS.

2. _To search for the quality of actions in the actions them selves_.

Utility, which in its last analysis is _Pleasure_, is the test of right,
in the first method; an assumed or discovered _Law of Nature_, in the
second. If the world were perfect, and the balance of the human
faculties undisturbed, it is evident that both systems would give
identical results. As it is, there is a tendency to error on each side,
which is fully developed in the rival schools of the Epicureans and
Stoics, who practically divided the suffrages of the mass of educated
men until the coming of Christ.

EPICUREANS.

Epicurus was born B.C. 342, and died B.C. 270. He purchased a Garden
within the city, and commenced, at thirty-six years of age, to teach
philosophy. The Platonists had their academic Grove: the Aristotelians
walked in the Lyceum: the Stoics occupied the Porch: the Epicureans had
their Garden, where they lived a tranquil life, and seem to have had a
community of goods.

There is not one of all the various founders of the ancient
philosophical schools whose memory was cherished with so much veneration
by his disciples as that of Epicurus. For several centuries after his
death, his portrait was treated by them with all the honors of a sacred
relic: it was carried about with them in their journeys, it was hung up
in their schools, it was preserved with reverence in their private
chambers; his birthday was celebrated with sacrifices and other
religious observances, and a special festival in his honor was held
every month.

So much honor having been paid to the memory of Epicurus, we naturally
expect that his works would have been preserved with religious care. He
was one of the most prolific of the ancient Greek writers. Diogenes
calls him "a most voluminous writer," and estimates the number of works
composed by him at no less than three hundred, the principal of which he
enumerates.[764] But out of all this prodigious collection, not a single
book has reached us in a complete, or at least an independent form.
Three letters, which contain some outlines of his philosophy, are
preserved by Diogenes, who has also embodied his "Fundamental
Maxims"--forty-four propositions, containing a summary of his ethical
system. These, with part of his work "On Nature," found during the last
century among the Greek MSS. recovered at He