Among those, indeed, who controverted the doctrines of Epicurus, there were some who ventured to arraign his personal character, and who had recourse even to falsehood and forgery, in order to vilify and degrade him in the opinion of the people. These attempts, it must be confessed, however unjustifiable, have been too suc cessful; as the vulgar prejudices of mankind, from the age of that philosopher down to the present times, suffi cient:}' evince. But the malicious libels, which were industriously circulated, and too readily believed, against the moral character of Epicurus and his disciples, are abundantly refuted by the concurrent testimony of the most respectable authorities,—of men who, although they might dissent from his principles, yet bore witness to the virtuous tenor of his life, and to the purity and excellence of his precepts.
In reality, both the Stoic and the Epicurean professed temperance and virtue, though from opposite principles. According to the former, virtue consisted in a total sub jection of the passions, and in the constant and habitual practice of austerity and discipline. The Epicurian, on the other hand, assumed pleasure as the chief good, but, at the same time, sought this pleasure in a proper re straint of the desires and passions, and in the attainment of wisdom, and the exercise of virtue. Pain, according to the Stoic, ought to be considered as an object of in diffeience, beneath the regard of a wise man; with the Epicurean on the contrary, it was a great evil, and to be avoided by all means. The theory of the latter sect pre served the influence of the social and moral affections entire ; while that of the former evidently tended to pro duce ascetic apathy and indifference. We shall have no
reason, therefore, to quarrel with the ethical system of Epicurus, if its principles be only understood in the same sense in which he seems to have inculcated them. To teach mankind the true road to happiness, has been the professed object of almost every theory of morals; and of all those means by which we can promote our happiness, it will be readily admitted, that there are none more efficacious than the cultivatign of temperate and virtuous habits, and the exercise of our intellectual faculties and benevolent affections.
The doctrines of Epicurus long continued to be fa voured by the Romans; and his school was found to flourish under the emperors, after other institutions had begun to decay. The most celebrated adherents to this system were the elder Pliny, Celsus, Lucian, and Dio genes Laertesfs The Epicurean theory, however, was not encouraged at Alexandria, which, after the decline of Grecian learning, became the chief scat of literature and science; where the eclectics, who still continued to call themselves Platonists, superseded every other school. In the earlier ages of the Christian church, it fell into utter neglect and obscurity ; but, (luring the lith centu ry, the doctrines of Epicurus again began to receive some encouf agement ; and they were subsequently re vived in the 17th century, by the writings of Gassendi, Du Rondell, and others. See Diogenes Laertius X. G,Issendi and Rondellius, or Du Rondelle, de Vtt. et Mon .Epicuri. Des Couturis, Sur la Morale d'Epicure. Le Blanc de Guillet's French Translation of Lucretius, Pa ris, 1788, 2 vols. 8vo. Brucker, Cudworth, Bayle, Ma son Good's Lucretius. (:)