which Epicurus has
adorned with the name "tranquillity of mind--impassibility,"
(ataraxia).[781]

[Footnote 779: "Fundamental Maxims," Nos. 35, 36.]

[Footnote 780: Ibid., No. 41.]

[Footnote 781: It is scarcely necessary to discuss the question whether,
by making pleasure the standard of right, Epicurus intended to encourage
what is usually called sensuality. He earnestly protested against any
such unfavorable interpretation of his doctrine:--"When we say that
pleasure is a chief good, we are not speaking of the pleasures of the
debauched man, or those which lie in sensual enjoyment, as some think
who are ignorant, and who do not entertain our opinions, or else
interpret them perversely; but we mean the freedom of the body from
pain, and the soul from confusion" ("Epicurus to Menaeceus," in Diogenes
Laertius, "Lives," bk. x. ch. xxvii.). The most obvious tendency of this
doctrine is to extreme selfishness, rather than extreme sensuality--a
selfishness which prefers one's own comfort and case to every other
consideration.

As to the personal character of Epicurus, opinions have been divided
both in ancient and modern times. By some the garden has been called a
"sty." Epicurus has been branded as a libertine, and the name
"Epicurean" has, in almost all languages, become the synonym of
sensualism. Diogenes Laertius repels all the imputations which are cast
upon the moral character of his favorite author, and ascribes them to
the malignity and falsehood of the Stoics. "The most modern criticism
seems rather inclined to revert to the vulgar opinion respecting him,
rejecting, certainly with good reason, the fanatical panegyrics of some
French and English writers of the last century. Upon the whole, we are
inclined to believe that Epicurus was an apathetic, decorous, formal
man, who was able, without much difficulty, to cultivate a measured and
even habit of mind, who may have occasionally indulged in sensual
gratifications to prove that he thought them lawful, but who generally
preferred, as a matter of taste, the exercises of the intellect to the
more violent forms of self-indulgence. And this life, it seems to us,
would be most consistent with his opinions. To avoid commotion, to make
the stream of life flow on as easily as possible, was clearly the aim of
his philosophy."--Maurice's "Ancient Philosophy," p. 236.]

To secure this highest kind of happiness--this pure impassivity, it was
necessary to get rid of all sup