THE GARDENS OF EPICURUS 15 



I have often wondered how such sharp and violent 

 invectives came to be made so generally against 

 Epicurus, by the ages that followed him, whose 

 admirable wit, felicity of expression, excellence of 

 nature, sweetness of conversation, temperance of life, 

 and constancy of death, made him so beloved by his 

 friends, admired by his scholars, and honoured by the 

 Athenians. But this injustice may be fastened chiefly 

 upon the envy and malignity of the Stoics at first, 

 then upon the mistakes of some gross pretenders to 

 his sect (who took pleasure only to be sensual), and 

 afterwards, upon the piety of the primitive Christians, 

 who esteemed his principles of natural philosophy more 

 opposite to those of our religion, than either the 

 Platonists, the Peripatetics, or Stoics themselves : yet, 

 I confess, I do not know why the ace ~ : *en by 



Lucretius of the Gods, shcuiu . "ire 



impious than that given by Homer, who mak< :em 

 not only subject to all the weakest passions, but 

 perpetually busy in all the worst or meanest actions 

 of men. 



But Epicurus has found so great advocates of his 

 virtue, as well as learning and inventions, that there 

 need no more ; and the testimonies of Diogenes 

 Laertius alone seem too sincere and impartial to be 



