EPICURUS

a Greek philosopher, founder of the Epicurean school, was born in the Island of Samos 342 B.c., died at Athens 270 B.c. He settled at Athens 306 B.c., and purchased a garden in a favourable situation, where he established a philosophical school. Here he spent the remainder ef his life, living in a simple manner and taking no part in public affairs. His pupils were numerous and enthusiastically devoted to him. His theory of the universe was based on the atomic theory of Demo crit us. The fundamental principle of his ethical system was that pleasure and pain are the chief good and evil, the attainment of the one and the avoidance of the other of which are to be regarded as the end of philosophy. The term ‘Epicurean’ has come to signify one who is indulging his sensual appetites without measure, but this is really due to a misapprehension of the meaning of the word pleasure as used by the philosopher. Epicurus himself was not an ‘Epicurean’ in this sense, for he endeavoured to give a moral tendency to this doctrine. He exalted the pure and noble enjoyments deOr, EPICYCLOIDAL WHEEL rived from virtue, to which he attributed an imperishable existence, as incalculably superier to the pa ing pleasures which turb the peace of mind, the highest good, and are therefore detrimental to happine . Peace of mind, based on meditation, he considered as the origin of all good. It is, however, easy to see that hig use of the word ‘pleasure’ was calculated to produce the mischievous results with which Hpicureanism has been charged. The philosophy of Epicurus_ has, therefore, been violently opposed and frequently misrepresented; but while it is not open to the charges of gro sensualism which haye been brought against it, it cannot be considered as much better than a refinement of sensualism. In ancient times his philosophy appears to have been more popular in Greece than in Rome, although his disciples were numerous in both, and the Latin poem of Lueretius, De Rerum Natura, is a poetical exposition of his doctrines. Epicureanism was resuscitated in France by Pierre Gas send i, and its principles have been profe ed by De la Roc he fou cauld, Rou eau, and Voltaire. Epicurus was a very voluminous writer, but few of his writings are extant, what we po e comprising only some fragments of a Treatise on Nature, two letters, and detached pa ages. Lucretius, Cicero, Pliny, and Diogenes Laertiusare our chief authorities for his doctrines. — BIBLIOGRAPHY: JSange, History of Materialism; W. Wallaee, Epicureanism; Guyau, La Morale ad Epicure; Taylor, Hpicurus; W. Pater, Marius the Epicurean.