r
master as it seems to me is wholly unarmed and defenceless. He abolishes
definitions; he lays down no rules for division and partition; he gives no
method for drawing conclusions or establishing principles; he does not
point out how captious objections may be refuted, or ambiguous terms
explained. He places all our judgments of things in our senses; and if
they are once led to approve of anything false as if it were true, then he
thinks that there is an end to all our power of distinguishing between
truth and falsehood.

But in the third part, which relates to life and manners, with respect to
establishing the end of our actions, he utters not one single generous or
noble sentiment. He lays down above all others the principle, that nature
has but two things as objects of adoption and aversion, namely, pleasure
and pain: and he refers all our pursuits, and all our desires to avoid
anything, to one of these two heads. And although this is the doctrine of
Aristippus, and is maintained in a better manner and with more freedom by
the Cyrenaics, still I think it a principle of such a kind that nothing
can appear more unworthy of a man. For, in my opinion, nature has produced
and formed us for greater and higher purposes. It is possible, indeed,
that I may be mistaken; but my opinion is decided that that Torquatus, who
first acquired that name, did not tear the chain from off his enemy for
the purpose of procuring any corporeal pleasure to himself; and that he
did not, in his third consulship, fight with the Latins at the foot of
Mount Vesuvius for the sake of any personal pleasure. And when he caused
his son to be executed, he appears to have even deprived himself of many
pleasures, by thus preferring the claims of his dignity and command to
nature herself and the dictates of fatherly affection. What need I say
more? Take Titus Torquatus, him I mean who was consul with Cnaeus Octavius;
when he behaved with such severity towards that son whom he had allowed
Decimus Silanus to adopt as his own, as to command him, when the
ambassadors of the Macedonians accused him of having taken bribes in his
province while he was praetor, to plead his cause before his tribunal: and,
when he had heard the cause on both sides, to pronounce that he had not in
his command behaved after the fashion of his forefathers, and to forbid
him ever to appear in his sight again; does he seem to you to have given a
thought to his own pleasure?

However,