and
justly."[777] The difference, then, between the philosopher and the
ordinary man is this--that while both seek pleasure, the former knows
how to forego certain indulgences which cause pain and vexation
hereafter, whereas the ordinary man seeks only immediate enjoyment.
Epicurus does not dispense with virtue, but he simply employs it as a
means to an end, namely, the securing of happiness.[778]

[Footnote 775: Id., ib.]

[Footnote 776: "Fundamental Maxims," No. 7.]

[Footnote 777: Ibid., No. 5.]

[Footnote 778: Pressense, "Religions before Christ," p. 141.]

Social morality is, like private morality, founded upon _utility._ As
nothing is intrinsically right or wrong in private life, so nothing is
intrinsically just or unjust in social life. "Justice has no independent
existence: it results from mutual contracts, and establishes itself
wherever there is a mutual engagement to guard against doing or
sustaining any injury. Injustice is not intrinsically bad; it has this
character only because there is joined with it the fear of not escaping
those who are appointed to punish actions marked with this
character."[779] Society is thus a contract--an agreement to promote
each other's happiness. And inasmuch as the happiness of the individual
depends in a great degree upon the general happiness, the essence of his
ethical system, in its political aspects, is contained in inculcating
"the greatest happiness of the greatest number."

If you ask Epicurus what a man shall do when it is clearly his immediate
interest to violate the social contract, he would answer, that if your
general interest is secured by always observing it, you must make
momentary sacrifices for the sake of future good. But "when, in
consequence of new circumstances, a thing which has been pronounced just
does not any longer appear to agree with utility, the thing which was
just... ceases to be just the moment it ceases to be useful."[780] So
that self-interest is still the basis of all virtue. And if, by the
performance of duty, you are exposed to great suffering, and especially
to death, you are perfectly justified in the violation of any and all
contracts. Such is the social morality of Epicurus.

With coarse and energetic minds the doctrine of Epicurus would
inevitably lead to the grossest sensuality and crime; with men whose
temperament was more apathetic, or whose tastes were more pure, it would
develop a refined selfishness--a perfect egoism,