186 GARDENING WITH BRAINS ^ 



ago. In these years, to be sure, slanderous mis- 

 conceptions have become so firmly intrenched 

 that it will probably take another two thousand 

 two hundred years to rout them. Wordsworth 

 voices the general view when he refers to epi- 

 cureans who "yield up their souls to a voluptu- 

 ous unconcern"; while the dictionaries indulge 

 in nonsensical talk about epicures as "given to 

 indulgence in sensual pleasures," or as "pur- 

 suing the pleasures of sense as the chief good." 



There are plenty of persons who do that sort 

 of thing ; but they are not followers of Epicurus. 

 He expressly and emphatically preached the 

 simple life, warning his disciples to abstain 

 from sensual indulgence, so as not to impair 

 their health or dull the edge of refined enjoy- 

 ment. True, he taught that pleasure is the chief 

 good, but he also preached that pleasures which 

 have evil consequences should be rigidly avoided, 

 and this avoidance constitutes, in his doctrine, 

 the greatest of all virtues. 



He taught, also, that mental pleasures are 

 more intense than the pleasures of the body. 

 Don't forget that! 



Decidedly no! Sambo and Jumbo, with all 

 their subtle and stubborn preferences in the 

 matter of fruit, greens, and drink, are not 

 genuine epicures, and that makes them seem 

 quite human, for most humans are not epicures, 

 either. If they were I need not have written 

 my book on Food and Flavor, which is nothing 



