EPICURUS, a celebrated philosopher of ancient Greece, and the founder of that sect which flourished under his name, was born at Gargettus, a village of At tica, in the 109th Olympiad. Ile was the son of Neo cles and Chxrestrata, of the illustrious family of the Philaides at Athens. At the age of eighteen, he com menced his philosophical studies in this central seat of learning ; during the period when Xenocrates and Aris totle ivere engaged in exploring the most profound mys teries of science, and extending the circle of human knowledge.
Having acquired an high reputation for natural ge nius, extensive learning, and patient investigation, when about thirty years of age, he instituted, at Athens, a new philosophical school, and propounded to crowded audiences the peculiar tenets of a system of physical and moral science, which was different in many essen tial points, from the doctrines that were taught by the most pupulai sages of those times. For the grand out lines of his theory of the universe, indeed, he was in debted to the previous labours of Leucippus and Demo critus, the most ancient atomic philosophers; but from the sublime conceptions and plastic genius of Epicu rus, these broken and discordant features first acquired such a rational form and consistency, as entitled them to the name of a system.
His theory of murals was as much opposed to the rigid maxim of the Stoics, as his life and conversation contrasted with the ascetic habits of the disciples of that TN n celebrated school. In the unibrap:cous walks of a de ligl.tful garden, Epicurus enjoyed the society of his friends, and delivered his instructions to his numerous pupils; whence the institution was denominated the Se/and of Me Garden, as that of Plato was called the Academy, that of Aristotle the Lyceum, that of Zeno the Porch, and that of Antisthenes the Cynosargum.
His manners were easy and affable ; Ills life tempe rate and virtuous. Having devoted his days to the pro pagation of science, he died of an inflammation, occasion ed by a stone in the bladder, after suffering the most excruciating pain with admirable composure and pa tience, in the I27th Olympiad, and the seventy-second year cif his age.
It is unnecessary for us, in this place, to enter into any discussion respecting the physical principles incul cated as we have already-exhibited a view of his cosmological hypothesis in a former article : (See ATOMMAL PHILOSOPHY.) But whatever objections the combined lights of reason and revelation may have af forded us against the principles of that system, it must still be acknowledged to have been the offspring of a bold, vigorous, and scientific mind ; and it is, perhaps, the only rational profane theory, on the subject of cos mogony, which has had sufficient merit to attract re spectable disciples in modern times.
The moral principles promulgated by Epicurus have afforded a theme of reprehension to the ascetic philoso phers of all ages; and, by a singular misconception of the nature and tendency of his opinions, the very name of that illustrious sage has been converted into an epi thet expressive of every thing that is unprincipled, li centious, base, and grovelling, in human conduct and manners. Having assumed, as the basis of his ethical
system, the principle, that pleasure is the chief good of man, it has been unwarrantably supposed, that his doc trines give countenance to habitual intemperance, and even recommend the unrestrained gratification of every illicit passion. Nothing, however, can be more unjust than such a representation of the moral theory of Epi curus. His system, indeed, as we have already observ ed, was directly opposite to that of the Stoical school. •He rejected the absurd doctrine of fatality, which consti tuted the foundation of the philosophy of Zeno, and boldly contended for the free agency of man: a princi ple, without the admission of which it were vain to at tempt to erect any rational system of morality. Dis claiming the external aid of gravity in speech, and of any singular austerity in dress and demeanour, and be ing himself naturally endowed with an affable and cheer ful disposition, he deemed it not necessary for a wise man to be morose, but taught his disciples, on the con trary, to look for pleasure in the pursuit of wisdom, and to consider happiness as the concomitant of virtue. " Wis dom," says Epicurus himself, in his epistle to Menxceus, a is the chief blessing of Philosophy, since she gives birth to all other virtues, which unite in teaching us, that no man can live justly who does not live wisely, conscien tiously, and ustly ; nor, on the other hand, can he live wisely, conscientiously, and justly, without living hap pily ; for virtue is inseparable from a life of happiness, and a life of happiness is equally inseparable from vir tue." Such principles, whether resulting from correct views of human nature or not, cannot surely be consider ed as holding out any encouragement to intemperate con duct, or indulgence in illicit pleasures. " Those," says ..one of his disciples, " whom we call lovers of pleasure, are real lovers of goodness and justice; they are men who practise 'and cult.vate every virtue : for no true pleasure can exist without a good and virtuous life. Woen we assert, then, that pleasure is the chief good, the prime felicity of man, we do not mean the plea sures of the luxurious and the libidinous, the pleasures of the taste, the touch, or any of the •i osser senses, as the ignorant, or those who wilfully mistake our opi nions, maliciously assert ; but what constitutes pleasure with us, is the possession of a body exempt from pain, and a mind devoid of perturbation," Sc. The sum mum bonum of Epicurus, therefore, was nothing else man the mens sans in cornore nano of the Roman poet ; Ile propo sed to conduct mankind to hapiness, not through t,ie de ceitful lab}rinths of sensual but along the pleasant paths of knowledge and of virtue.