1 mutual advantage of the contracting parties, and expediency the principle which makes their performance obligatory.1 Occasionally Epicurus took higher ground; with the same inconsistency which compelled his adversaries to praise the life he led, so much at variance with the spirit of his precepts. Observation.-A difference is to be observed between the system of happiness adopted by the Cyrenaics and that of Epicurus; who appears to have made his more perfect in proportion as he became gradually more alive to the deficiencies of the former. See DIOG. LAERT. X, 6, 131, 137. CIC. Tusc. Quæst. III, 18; Fin. I, 17. § 155. GULT. CHARLETON, Physiologia Epicureo-Gassendo-Charletoniana, etc. Lond. 1654, fol. GOTTFRID. PLOUCQUET, Diss. de Cosmogoniâ Epicuri, Tub. 1755, 4to. RESTAURANT, Agreement between the Opinions of Aristotle and Epicurus on Philosophy, Lugd. Bat. 1682. 12mo. Physics. He considered the science of Nature as subordinate, in some sort, to that of Ethics; and that its proper end was to liberate mankind from all superstitious terror derived from their conceptions of the celestial phenomena, the gods, death, and its consequences; i. e. from vain apprehensions affecting the living. With these views, Epicurus found nothing which suited him better than the Atomic theory, which he enlarged by adding a great number of hypotheses, and applied to explain different natural phenomena. If we admit the objects presented to our senses to be compound in their nature, we are led to presume the existence of simple uncompounded bodies, or Atoms. Besides weight, form, and volume, and that which he considered to be the primitive movement common to all, viz. a perpendicular, he assigned to them also an oblique motion, without adding any proof. The various mechanical movements of Atoms in vacuo (Tò Kevòv), or space (TÓTOS), have produced aggregates or bodies, and even the universe itself; which is a body, and which, considered as a whole, is immutable and eternal, though variable and perishable 1 Ibid. X, 150, 151. 2 Ibid. X, 135. CIC. Tusc. Quæst. II, 7. SENEC. De Vitâ Beatâ, 13. 3 CIC. Tusc. Quæst. III, 20. 4 DIOG. LAERT. X, 81, sqq.; 142, sqq. LUCRET. I, 147. PLUTARCH. Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum, c. 8, 9. 5 LUCRET. II, 217. Cic. Fin. I, 6. in respect of the parts or worlds of which it is composed.' The world being imperfect, and presenting nothing but scenes of misery, destruction, and death, (imperfections especially observable in Man), cannot be considered the work of an Intelligent Cause. Besides, such an origin is inconceivable, and irreconcileable with the tranquil and happy lot of the Gods. All the appearances of final causes which are observable in the world are purely fortuitous. The soul is of a corporeal nature, as is attested by its sympathy with the body; but at the same time of a nature more refined, involved in one less perfect. Its elemental principles are heat, the æther spirit, and an anonymous matter on which depends its sensibility: this last is situated in the breast, the others dispersed over the body. The soul and the body are united in the most intimate manner: the latter is born with the body, and perishes with it, by the dissolution of its component Atoms. To suppose the soul immortal is to contradict all our notions of the characteristics of an immutable and eternal being. 6 By these and other similar arguments Epicurus would disprove the immateriality of the soul, which Plato had maintained. Death he affirmed to be no evil." § 156. Jo. FAUSTI Diss. de Deo Epicuri, Argent. 1685, 4to. J. CONR. SCHWARZ, Judicium de Reconditâ Theologia Epicuri. Comment, I, II, Cob. 1718, 4to. Jo. HENR. KRONMAYER, Diss. (præs. GOTTL. STOLLE) de Epicuro, Creationis et Providentiæ Divinæ assertore, Jen. 1713, 4to. JOH. ACHAT. FEL. BIELKE, Diss. quâ sistitur Epicurus atheus contra Gassendum, Rondellum, et Bælium, Jen. 1741, 4to. + CHPH. MEINERS, Dissertation on the Character of Epicurus, and the Contradictions in his Theory of the Divine Nature: Vermischte Schriften, II, p. 45, sqq. Theology. Such a system, as the ancients themselves 1 DIOG. LAERT. X, 39, 43, sqq., 73, sqq. LUCRET. II, 61, 8qq. 2 Ibid, X, 139. 76, 77. LUCRETIUS, V, 157. 235; III, 855, 984. CIC. De Nat. Deor. I, 9-16. 3 LUCRET. IV, 821. 4 DIOG. LAERT. X, 63, sqq.; LUCRET. III. 31, sqq.; 95, sqq.; 138.188. 204, sqq. SEXTUS EMP. Hyp. Pyrrh. 187, 229. LUCRET. III, 324, sqq., 396, sqq., 426, sqq. DIOG. LAERT. 64, sqq. 6 Ibid. III, 807, sqq. 7 DIOG. LAERT. X, 139. Cf. 124, sqq. LUCRET. III, 670, sqq. remarked of it, approaches Atheism rather than Theism ;' and accordingly some Stoics, among others Posidonius, treated Epicurus as a disguised Atheist; but it may be nearer the truth to look upon him as an inconsistent Theist, who asserted the existence of the Gods, and enlarged upon. their attributes with all the hardiness of Dogmatism. He concludes that they exist, from the universality of religious representations and conceptions; which according to his system of cognition are the Effluence of corresponding real objects. The Gods are compounded of Atoms, and bear the human shape, the most perfect of all figures, their substance being analagous to that of our bodies, without being altogether the same: they are eternal, imperishable, and supremely happy: as such they are worthy of our worship, although they inhabit the space intermediate between the Worlds, in a state of repose and indifference, in which their felicity consists, and without exerting any influence over the affairs of this lower region. 157. Epicurus had a great number of disciples, among whom we remark Metrodorus and his brother Timocrates, Colotes (the same against whom is directed a treatise of Plutarch), Poly anus, Leonteus and his wife Themista, all of Lampsacus; add to these another Metrodorus of Stratonicea, who subsequently went over to the Academy and the friend and confident of Epicurus, Leontium, the noted courtesan of Athens; next came Hermachus of Mitylene, the successor of Epicurus; and, at a later period, Polystratus, Dionysius, Basilides, Apollodorus, Zeno of Sidon, Diogenes of Tarsus, Diogenes of Seleucia, Phædrus and Philodemus of Gadara, etc. His school subsisted for a long time without undergoing any important modifications: of which the reason probably was, the spirit of the system itself, and the deference entertained by his followers for their master. He had, besides, guarded his doctrines against any considerable innovation by founding them on 1 PLUTARCH. Non posse suaviter vivi sec. Epicur. c. 8. 2 CIC. De Nat. I, 30-44. 4 Idem, X, 9. 3 DIOG. LAERT. X, 22, sqq. 6 SEN. Ep. 33. Who are the real Epicureans and real Sophists? (See Diog. Laert. X, 26). formal propositions, or general maxims (Kuptet dóğı). If on the one hand this system had a tendency to extinguish all that is ideal in the human soul, on the other it fortified it against superstition; with the loss, it is true, of all belief derived from the understanding. IV. Zeno and the Stoics. Authorities: The Hymn of Cleanthes, and the Fragments of Chrysippus and Posidonius; Cicero; Seneca; Arrian; Antoninus; Stobæus; Diogenes Laertius, VII; Plutarch, in several of his Treatises against the Stoics; Simplicius. Modern Works. HEMINGII FORELLI Zeno Philosophus levitèr adumbratus. Exercitatio Academica, Ups. 1700, 8vo. JUSTI LIPSII Manuductio ad Stoicam Philosophiam, Antwerp, 1604, 4to.; Ludg. Bat. 1614, 12mo. THOM. GATAKERI Diss. de Disciplinâ Stoicâ cum Sectis aliis collatâ. Prefixed to his edition of Antonin., Cambridge, 1653, 4to. FR. DE QUEVEDO, Doctrina Stoica, in ejus Opp. tom. III, Bruxell. 1671, 4to. Jo. FR. BUDDEI Introduct. in Philos. Stoicam. edition of Antonin. Lips. 1729, 8vo. Prefixed to his DAN. HEINSII Oratio de Philos. Stoicâ; in suis Orationib. Ludg. Bat. 1627, 4to., p. 326, sqq. DIETR. TIEDEMANN, System of the Stoic Philosophy, Leips. 1776, 3 vols. 8vo.; and in his Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, vol. II, § 427, sqq. JOH. ALB. FABRICII Disputatio de Cavillationibus Stoicorum, Lips. 1692, 4to. SCHMIDT, Stoicorum grammatica, 1839. MEYER, Commentatio in qua doctrina Stoicorum ethica cum christiana comparatur, 1823. 158. Zeno was born at Cittium, in Cyprus; his father Mnaseas being a rich merchant. Having received a good education, chance, added to his own inclinations, caused him to attend the Socratic schools. He became a hearer of the Cynic Crates, Stilpo and Diodorus Cronus the Megareans, and the Academicians Xenocrates and Polemo, for several years. His object was to found a comprehensive and tenable system of human Cognition which might oppose itself to Scepticism; and, in particular, to establish rigid 1 LUCRET. III, 14. Cic. Fin. I, 5—7; II, 7. DIOG. LAERT. X, 12, 13. 2 LUCIAN. Alexander. 3 About 340 B.C. principles of Morality, to which his own conduct was conformable. In the Portico (σToά), at Athens, he formed a school, distinguished for a succession of excellent thinkers and lovers of virtue; a school which became memorable for the influence it possessed in the world, and its resistance to vice and tyranny. Zeno died after Epicurus. His system was extended, developed, and completed in the course of a long rivalship with other schools, particularly that of Epicurus and the New Academy. Its principal supporters were Persaus or Dorotheus of Cittium,3 Aristo of Chios, who founded a separate school approaching that of the Sceptics, Herillus of Carthage; and lastly, the pupil and worthy successor of Zeno, Cleanthes of Assos." Next came the disciple of the last, Chrysippus of Soli or of Tarsus, the pillar of the Portico; then his disciple Zeno of Tarsus, and Diogenes of Babylon, who with Carneades and Critolaus went as ambassador to Rome about 155 B.C.; still later came Antipater of Tarsus or Sidon,10 Panatius of Rhodes, who succeeded him at Athens, but also taught at Rome, 1 About 300 B.C. 2 Between 264 and 260 B.C. 3 SUIDAS, S. v. Persæus and Hermagoras. 4 GODOFR. BUCHNERI Diss. Hist. Philos. de Aristone Chio, Vita et Doctrina noto, Lips. 1725, 4to. Jo. BEN. CARPZOVII Diss. Paradoxon Stoicum Aristonis Chii: 'Oμolov εἶναι τῷ ἀγαθῷ ὑποκριτῇ τὸν σοφόν, novis Observationibus illustratum, Lips. 1742, 8vo. 5 We must not confound him with Aristo of Ceos, the Peripatetic, § 150. 6 Persæus, Aristo, and Herillus flourished about 260 B.C. GUILL. TRAUGOTT KRUG, Herilli de Summo Bono sententia explosa non explodenda, Symbolar. ad Hist. Philos. Partic. III, Lips. 1822, 4to. (Cf. CIC. De Offic. I, 2.) 7 Flourished about 264 B.C. Hymn of Cleanthes to the Supreme Being, in Greek and German, with a statement of the principal Doctrines of the Stoics, by HERM. HEIMART CLUDIUS, Gött. 1786, 8vo. GR. C. FR. MOHNIKE, Cleanthes the Stoic, Greifswald, 1814, 8vo. J. FR. HERM. SCHWABE, Specimen Theologiæ Comparativæ exhibens Κλεάνθους ὕμνον εἰς Δία, Jen. 1819. 8 CIO. Acad. Quæst. IV, 24. DIOG. LAERT. VII, 183. He was born 280, died 212 or 208 B.C. J. FR. RICHTER, Diss. de Chrysippo Stoico Fastuoso, Lips. 1738, 4to. GE. ALBR. HAGEDORN, Moralia Chrysippea e Rerum Naturis petita, Altd. 1695, 4to. JOH. CONR. HAGEDORN, Ethica Chrysippi, Norimb. 1715, 8vo. About 212 B.C. 10 About 146 B.C. |
