ystem
of Epicurus was borrowed from his predecessors, and there is little that
can be called new in his teaching.

[Footnote 766: Maurice's "Ancient Philosophy," p. 236.]

[Footnote 767: "Ethics," bk. i. ch. vi]

The grand object of philosophy, according to Epicurus, _is the
attainment of a happy life_. "Philosophy," says he, "is the power by
which reason conducts men to happiness." Truth is a merely relative
thing, a variable quantity; and therefore the pursuit of truth for its
own sake is superfluous and useless. There is no such thing as absolute,
unchangeable right: no action is intrinsically right or wrong. "We
choose the virtues, not on their own account, but for the sake of
pleasure, just as we seek the skill of the physician for the sake of
health."[768] That which is nominally right in morals, that which is
relatively good in human conduct, is, therefore, to be determined by the
effects upon ourselves; that which is agreeable--pleasurable, is right;
that which is disagreeable--painful, is wrong. "The virtues are connate
with living pleasantly."[769] Pleasure (edone), then, is the great end
to be sought in human action. "Pleasure is the chief good, the beginning
and end of living happily."[770]

[Footnote 768: "Fundamental Maxims," preserved in Diogenes Laertius,
"Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxx.]

[Footnote 769: "Epicurus to Menaeceus," in Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of
the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxvii.]

[Footnote 770: Id., ib.]

The proof which Epicurus offers in support of his doctrine, "that
pleasure is the chief good," is truly characteristic. "All animals from
the moment of their birth are delighted with pleasure and offended with
pain, by their natural instincts, and without the employment of reason.
Therefore we, also, of our own inclination, flee from pain."[771] "All
men like pleasure and dislike pain; they naturally shun the latter and
pursue the former." "If happiness is present, we have every thing, and
when it is absent, we do every thing with a view to possess it."[772]
Virtue thus consists in man's doing deliberately what the animals do
instinctively--that is, choose pleasure and avoid pain.

[Footnote 771: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x.
ch. xxix.]

[Footnote 772: Id., ib., bk. x. ch. xxvii.]

"Every kind of pleasure" is, in the estimation of Epicurus, "alike
good," and alike proper. "If those things which make the pleasures of
debauched men put a