after a while Torquatus said--Since
we have found you in some degree at leisure, I should like much to hear
from you why it is that you, I will not say hate our master Epicurus--as
most men do who differ from him in opinion--but still why you disagree with
him whom I consider as the only man who has discerned the real truth, and
who I think has delivered the minds of men from the greatest errors, and
has handed down every precept which can have any influence on making men
live well and happily. But I imagine that you, like my friend Triarius
here, like him the less because he neglected the ornaments of diction in
which Plato, and Aristotle, and Theophrastus indulged. For I can hardly be
persuaded to believe that the opinions which he entertained do not appear
to you to be correct. See now, said I, how far you are mistaken,
Torquatus. I am not offended with the language of that philosopher; for he
expresses his meaning openly and speaks in plain language, so that I can
understand him. Not, however, that I should object to eloquence in a
philosopher, if he were to think fit to employ it; though if he were not
possessed of it I should not require it. But I am not so well satisfied
with his matter, and that too on many topics. But there are as many
different opinions as there are men; and therefore we may be in error
ourselves. What is it, said he, in which you are dissatisfied with him?
For I consider you a candid judge; provided only that you are accurately
acquainted with what he has really said. Unless, said I, you think that
Phaedrus or Zeno have spoken falsely (and I have heard them both lecture,
though they gave me a high opinion of nothing but their own diligence,)
all the doctrines of Epicurus are quite sufficiently known to me. And I
have repeatedly, in company with my friend Atticus, attended the lectures
of those men whom I have named; as he had a great admiration for both of
them, and an especial affection even for Phaedrus. And every day we used to
talk over what we heard, nor was there ever any dispute between us as to
whether I understood the scope of their arguments; but only whether I
approved of them.

VI. What is it, then, said he, which you do not approve of in them, for I
am very anxious to hear? In the first place, said I, he is utterly wrong
in natural philosophy, which is his principal boast. He only makes some
additions to the doctrine of Democritus, altering very little, and that in
such a way that