the sun itself; if all that I have said is derived from the
fountain of nature; if the whole of my discourse forces assent to itself
by its accordance with the senses, that is to say, with the most
incorruptible and honest of all witnesses; if infant children, and even
brute beasts, declare almost in words, under the teaching and guidance of
nature, that nothing is prosperous but pleasure, nothing hateful but
pain--a matter as to which their decision is neither erroneous nor
corrupt--ought we not to feel the greatest gratitude to that man who,
having heard this voice of nature, as I may call it, has embraced it with
such firmness and steadiness, that he has led all sensible men into the
path of a peaceful, tranquil, and happy life? And as for his appearing to
you to be a man of but little learning, the reason of that is, that he
thought no learning deserving of the name except such as assisted in the
attainment of a happy life. Was he a man to waste his time in reading
poets, as Triarius and I do at your instigation? men in whose works there
is no solid utility, but only a childish sort of amusement; or to devote
himself, like Plato, to music, geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy?
studies which, starting from erroneous principles, cannot possibly be
true; and which, if they were true, would constitute nothing to our living
more agreeably, that is to say, better. Should he, then, pursue such
occupations as those, and abandon the task of laying down principles of
living, laborious, but, at the same time, useful as they are?

Epicurus, then, was not destitute of learning; but those persons are
ignorant who think that those studies which it is discreditable for boys
not to have learnt, are to be continued till old age.

And when he had spoken thus,--I have now, said he, explained my opinions,
and have done so with the design of learning your judgment of them. But
the opportunity of doing so, as I wished, has never been offered me before
to-day.

Second Book Of The Treatise On The Chief Good And Evil.

I. On this, when both of them fixed their eyes on me, and showed that they
were ready to listen to me:--In the first place, said I, I intreat you not
to fancy that I, like a professed philosopher, am going to explain to you
the doctrines of some particular school; a course which I have never much
approved of when adopted by philosophers themselves. For when did
Socrates, who may fairly be called the parent of philoso