THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. JULY, 1861. ART. I.EPICURUS AND EPICUREANS. 1. HEGEL'S Geschichte der Philosophie. 2. LEWES. Biographical History of Philosophy. 3. FENELON. Lives of the Ancient Philosophers. 4. ERSCH und GRUBER. Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste. Art. Epikuros. 5. Dictionnaire de la Conversation et de la Lecture. 1854. Art. Epi cure. 6. Encyclopédie Catholique. 1846. WE have placed this promiscuous list of books at the head of our paper, not with any purpose of criticising them, but in order that we may have the benefit of their united and emphatic testimony to the truth of the portrait we shall attempt to draw. It will be perceived at a glance, that they represent the most various and repugnant schools of thought. There is Hegel of "Ewige Nichts" celebrity, prophet of a God who comes to consciousness in Humanity; and Lewes, disciple of Comte, and grand expositor of the Philosophie Positive; and Fénelon, saintly Archbishop of Cambray, whose faith was full in the Roman Catholic Church. The first Encyclopædia we mention the noble one of Ersch and Gruber- gives a full, minute, and studiously impartial account of the subject of our sketch, fortified with abundant references and quotations; the next deals with the theme after the neat French manner, gracefully, truthfully, and knowingly, dropping some valuable. hints in regard to the modern schools of Epicurean philosophy; the last of the three, a work edited by a French abbé 5TH S. VOL. IX. NO. I. 1 VOL. LXXI. and a comité d'orthodoxie, or orthodox committee, very tersely, quietly, gravely, and with admirable feeling, reports the judgment which living members of the Roman communion have the grace to pass on the great atheist and materialist of antiquity. A verdict pronounced with such entire and cordial unanimity by such authorities could hardly be made stronger by any additional force of hands or voices, though we could, if necessary, produce them to almost any extent. These consenting, these are enough. We shall proceed without further apology or defence to describe the old teacher and his teaching according to the best information within our reach, feeling, it must be confessed, some little awkwardness, in talking to Americans of this fast generation about an old Greek who lived and died, and produced an immense number of books which lived and died also, many a century before America itself was heard of; and yet conscious that what we write will have its meaning and interest for all who may trouble themselves to read it. For, according to a familiar but deep saying, human nature is substantially the same in every age, and the philosopher is simply a man who studies human nature, reports what the human heart contains, and gives expression, in theory and doctrine, to certain felt beliefs of universal man; while the ancient differs from the modern philosopher chiefly in this, that he wore a toga instead of a sack, sandals instead of gaiter shoes, and ate his dinner, supposing him so fortunate as to have one, with the primitive fingers in place of the artificial and then uninvented knife and fork. The beard is no longer a distinction. Moreover, every ancient school of philosophy has its representative among ourselves. The modern Athens cannot, and surely would not, disown her Platonists and Aristotelians, who, though they reside in Cambridge or Concord, belong of course to Boston. Whoever frequents our reform meetings has often seen, in leading orators, very passable specimens of those whom the stern prophet of moral law instructed beneath the Porch. Our Socratic head has disappeared, to our sorrow; but many are the followers he has left behind him, to cherish his memory, extend his doctrines, and sustain his method. As for the Peripatetics they exist still, beyond all peradventure, in the troubadours of the lyceum, who are always on the move, dropping wisdom or something else among the multitude. But where is the disciple of Epicurus? If we should name him, he would not be recognized. The sage of the garden alone is childless; for his legitimate offspring are anxious to disown him, and those who claim to be his offspring he would disown. Perhaps the best way to recover the dropped link of this genealogical chain will be to bring out first the portrait of the old Epicurus, and then see whether in anything modern we can trace the family likeness. This we will proceed to do as faithfully as circumstances will permit, endeavoring to secure ourselves against the mistake of making the ancient sage sit for his likeness to those whom we may think his modern disciples. This is the real danger. For in exhibiting Epicurus we are intensely conscious that we are exhibiting new foes under an old face, that we are showing up opinions and sentiments of to-day only under an aspect so remote and strange that they may be contemplated without passion, weighed without partiality, and criticised without sensitiveness. The subject is almost too practical and fresh to be honestly treated. And yet for this very reason we have taken it up. Little Oliver Proudfoot, in the story, sets up a wooden Turk in his back yard, and hacks away at it with his broadsword an hour daily, finding this satisfaction in the performance, that he thereby vents his hatred of all Turks, practises himself in the use of his weapon, and keeps his foolish head safe from the blows of a living foeman, which might be inconvenient. The clergyman, once a week, solemnly exhumes the ancient Pharisees, and upon the ghostly backs of those long-suffering unfortunates discharges a shower of blows, faintly hoping that the listening Pharisee, whose patience is less perfect, will take warning from the mysterious flagellation. Why should not we too set up our man of straw? We will do so. The reputed father of the most popular sect in the world was born, some say, at the island of Samos, others in the Athenian township Gargettus, 342 years B. C., six years after the death of Plato. His mother was an honest witch or sorceress, dium or mesmerizer we should call her, who earned a scanty me subsistence by practising hocus pocus upon invalids and insane people, after the manner which those unscientific days of medicine tolerated better than we do. She perhaps gave her son that hatred of evil spirits which was so conspicuous in his after life. From his father, who was a schoolmaster, the lad inherited that somewhat dry intellect which busied itself to such purpose in translating, spelling, and parsing the universe after the most approved rules of grammar. The boy was inquisitive and witty. Reading Hesiod, at twelve years old, with his teacher, he comes to a verse which suggests that all things proceeded from chaos. "And whence came chaos?" asked the boy; "how began the beginning?" The teacher of course could not answer the question, and the young sceptic applied to others. Finding them all equally ignorant, and discovering thus early the truth that every man at last must answer his own questions, he determined to get a solution for himself. He sought, and became a philosopher, -a self-taught philosopher, as he boast The method of study that Epicurus pursued indicated the spirit of his philosophy. An industrious honey-bee, he winged his flight from one flowering city to another; from the blooming gardens of Athens to the purple vineyards of Samos; back to Athens at the age of eighteen to suck the juices distilled from the elder schools of wisdom; away again to Colophon, which had the grace to boast of giving birth to Homer; off to Mitylene, fruitful and fair; to Lampsacus, famous for its blushing roses and its unblushing women, where, in luscious pleasure-grounds, he lingered several years, availing himself likely enough of the tempting opportunities offered by the gay city for maturing his system and qualifying himself to be an instructor of youth in his favorite doctrine of happiness. At the age of thirty-six he is once more in Athens, the head of the school over which he presided until his death. Pleasantly suggestive of his genial creed was the spot he selected, the famous garden. It is as hard to find now as the site of Eden;-the location of these earthly paradises is not long remembered;-but we may suppose it to have been a space within the city walls, of moderate extent and uneven surface, purchased for eighty minæ, (about $1,500,) the proceeds of the |