2710. EPICURUS, Syllabus of Doctrines.—
[I send you] a syllabus of the doctrines
of Epicurus:
Physical.—The Universe eternal.
Its parts, great and small, interchangeable.
Matter and Void alone.
Motion inherent in matter which is weighty
and declining.
Eternal circulation of the elements of bodies.
Gods, an order of beings next superior to
man, enjoying in their sphere, their own felicities;
but not meddling with the concerns
of the scale of beings below them.
Moral.—Happiness the aim of life.
Virtue the foundation of happiness.
Utility the test of virtue.
Pleasure active and In-do-lent.
In-do-lence is the absence of pain, the true
felicity.
Active, consists in agreeable motion; it is
not happiness, but the means to produce it:
Thus the absence of hunger is an article of
felicity; eating the means to obtain it.
The summum bonum is to be not pained in
body, nor troubled in mind.—i. e. In-do-lence
of body, tranquillity of mind.
To procure tranquillity of mind we must
avoid desire and fear, the two principal diseases
of the mind.
Man is a free agent.
Virtue consists in, 1. Prudence. 2. Temperance.
3. Fortitude. 4. Justice.
To which are opposed, 1. Folly. 2. Desire.
3. Fear. 4. Deceit.—
To William Short. Washington ed. vii, 141.
Ford ed., x, 146.
(M.
1819)
See Short.
