204: 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



nor marry. 



Successors 

 of Epicurus. 



Modern 

 Epicureans. 



that he will not marry, or bring up children. He adds, indeed, that 

 circumstances may at times justify a departure from these rules ; but 

 this does not obviate the absurd consequences that evidently flow from 

 them. Accordingly, this doctrine has been severely handled by several 

 ancient philosophers, particularly by Cicero 1 and Epictetus. 8 



Successors. 



The school of the Garden was presided over successively by Her- 

 marchus, Polystratus, Dionysius, Basilides, and others, and the philo- 

 sophy continued to attract numerous adherents. When Greek 

 philosophy was introduced among the Romans, the system of Epicurus, 

 though never so popular as Stoicism, was adopted by many distin- 

 guished men. Horace and Atticus were Epicureans, and the splendid 

 poem of Lucretius must have recommended the system to many. 

 Under the emperors, Pliny the Younger and Lucian of Samosata are 

 known to have been followers of this school. 



In modern times, Epicureanism was resuscitated in France by Pierre 

 Gassendi, one of the most distinguished scholars and philosophers of 

 the seventeenth century, who published an account of the life, and 

 defence of the character, of Epicurus (Lugd. Bat. 1(547). He was 

 the means of forming a sort of modern school, professing the doctrines 

 of the Garden, and which, meeting at first in the salons of Ninon 

 de L'Enclos in Paris, and afterwards at Auteuil, Seaux, and elsewhere, 

 included the most celebrated men and women of that and the succeed- 

 ing age ; among others, Moliere, Madame Scarron, Saint Evremont, 

 the Count de Grammont, Madame de Mazarin, the Duke of Roche- 

 foucault, Rousseau, Hamilton, St. Aulaire, Fontenelle, and Voltaire. 



1 Ep, ad Famil. vii. 12. 



2 Epict. apud Arrianum. iii. 7. 



