2709. EPICURUS, Doctrines of.—[continued].
I am an Epicurean. I
consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines
of Epicurus as containing everything rational
in moral philosophy which Greece and
Rome have left us. Epictetus indeed, has
given us what was good of the Stoics; all beyond,
of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and
grimace. Their great crime was in their calumnies
of Epicurus and misrepresentations of
his doctrines; in which we lament to see the
candid character of Cicero engaging as an accomplice.—
To William Short. Washington ed. vii, 138.
Ford ed., x, 143.
(M.
1819)
