FROM EPICURUS TO CHRIST CHAPTER I THE EPICUREAN PURSUIT OF PLEASURE I SELECTIONS FROM THE EPICUREAN SCRIPTURES EPICUREANISM is so simple and transparent a principle that it scarcely needs an interpreter. The more subtle teaching of the other prophets will require to be introduced by explanatory statement, or else accompanied by a running commentary as it proceeds. The best way to understand Epicureanism, however, is to let Epicurus and his disciples speak for themselves. Accordingly, as in religious services the sermon is preceded by reading of the Scriptures and singing of hymns, we will open our study of the Epicurean principle by selections from the scriptures and hymns of the sect. First the master, though unfortunately he is not so good a master of style as many of his disciples, shall speak. The gist of Epicurus's teaching is contained in the following passages. "The end of all our actions is to be free from pain and fear; and when once we have attained this, all the tempest of the soul is laid, seeing that the living creature has not to go to find something that is wanting, or to seek something else by which the good of the soul and of the body will be fulfilled." "Wherefore we call pleasure the alpha and omega of a blessed life. Pleasure is our first and kindred good. From it is the commencement of every choice and every aversion, and to it we come back, and make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good thing." "When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal, or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood by some who are either ignorant and prejudiced for other views, or inclined to misinterpret our statements. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of drinking feasts and of revelry, not the enjoyments of the fish and other delicacies of a splendid table, which produce a pleasant life: it is sober reasoning, searching out the reasons for every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which great tumults take possession of the soul." Yet while pleasure is thus of the mind, it by no means excludes the pleasures of the body. He says, "I am unable to form any conception of good from which we have eliminated the pleasures of eating and drinking, the pleasures of music and eloquence, and the pleasures of shape and pleasant movements." Thus, pleasure, in Epicurus's use of the term, is neither mere abstract intelligence, in contrast with which bodily joys are low and degrading; nor is it mere sensuous satisfaction, from which reason is excluded. It is sense controlled by reason for the fuller satisfaction of sensuous ends. This control of reason will manifest itself chiefly in the limitation of desires to what is simple, natural, and easily attainable, and the limitation of effort to the comparatively few things that are really worth while. Says Epicurus: "Thou must also keep in mind that of desires some are natural, and some are groundless; and that of the natural some are necessary as well as natural, and some are natural only. And of the necessary desires, some are necessary if we are to be happy, and some if the body is to remain unperturbed, and some if we are even to live. By the clear and certain understanding of these things we learn to make every preference and aversion, so that the body may have health and the soul tranquillity, seeing that |