E P I 
snoft efteemed, is that by Mrs. Carter, publifhed in 1758, 
ivith notes. 
E'PICURE, f. [ cpicureus , Lnt.] A follower of Epi¬ 
curus; a man given wholly to luxury.—The epicure 
buckles to ftudy, when fhame, or the defire to recom¬ 
mend hrmfelf to his miflrefs, (hall make him uneafy in 
the want of any fort of knowledge. Locke. 
Then fly falfe thanes, 
And mingle with the Englifti epicures. Shahcfpcare. 
EPICU'RE AN, adj. Luxurious; contributing to luxury: 
Tie up the libertine in a field of feafts, 
Keep his brain fuming; epicurean cooks, 
Sharpen with cloylefs fauce his appetite. Shakefpeare. 
Containing, or attached to, the dodtrines of Epicurus.— 
The Epicurean dodtrine, as explained by Lucretius, though 
widely different from the Peripatetic in many things, is 
almoft the fame in this. Reid. 
EPICURE'AN, f. One of the Epicurean fedt.—Thus 
the atomift or Epicurean pleading for a vacuum. Shaftejbury. 
EPICUREANISM, f. An attachment to Epicurean 
dodtrines.—Thefe lines can never be tortured into Epi¬ 
cure anifm. Ja. Harris. 
To EPPCURI 5 E, v. a. [from Epicurus.'] To devour 
like an epicure. Not vfed: 
While I could fee thee full of eager pain 
My greedy eyes epicuris'd on thine. Flatman. 
E'PTCURISM, f. Luxury; fenfual enjoyment; grofs 
pleafure.—Some good men have ventured to call munifi¬ 
cence, the greateft fenfuality, a piece of epicurifm. Calamy. 
EPICU'RISM, J. [accented on the third fyllable.] 
The principles of Epicurus.—The firft book of the En¬ 
quiry ends with a fentence far remote from irreligion and 
epicurifm... J. Warton’s Pope. 
EPICU'RUS, one of the greateft philofophers of his 
age, born at Gargettus, near Athens, in the third year of 
the 109th olympiad, or 342 before Chrifl. His parents 
were among the number of Athenian citizens who were 
fent to colonife the ifland of Samos, after it had been fub- 
dued by Pericles. Here he is laid to have early imbibed 
a tafte for literature and philofophy, and to have attended 
on different mafters at Samos, and the neighbouring iiland 
of Teos; from whence he removed to Athens. In that 
city he continued the profecution of his ftudies till he 
was twenty-three years of age ; after which he improved 
liimfelf, and enriched his mind by travelling. He firft 
opened a fchool at Mitylene, which he continued for 
about a year, and then removed it to Lampfacus, where 
lie was attended with difciples from Colophon and other 
places. After four years, he became diffatisfied with the 
narrow fphere in which he moved, and determined to fix 
his refidence at Athens; to which city he returned when 
jhe was about thirty-fix years old. Upon his arrival at 
Athens, he purchafed for his fchool a pleafant garden, 
■where he taught his fyftem of philofophy to a great num¬ 
ber of difciples. Hence the Epicureans were called “ the 
philofophers of the garden.” In the ftate of luxurious 
refinement which then prevailed at Athens, the new fyf¬ 
tem came recommended, to young minds efpecially, with 
much more powerful attractions than the very fubtle and 
fevere fyftems taught in other fchools; and the garden 
was foon crowded with fcholars from all the cities of 
Greece and Afia, and even from Egypt. Epicurus dif- 
carded all unnatural feverity ; was difting'uifhed by a cap¬ 
tivating addrefs, and great urbanity of manners ; and held 
it out as the profeffed defign of his dodtrine, to lead men 
to true pleafure, by natural and eafy fteps, in the paths 
of virtue. By thus rendering fmooth the brow of phi¬ 
lofophy, it is not a matter of wonder that his dodtrines 
became exceedingly popular. From the opening of his 
philofophical fchool at Athens, Epicurus confined him- 
felf to that city, except when he.paid occafional vifits to 
his friends in Ionia ; and lived there in a ftate of celibacy, 
for the fake of profecuting his ftudies with lefs inter- 
Vo l. VI. No. 397. 
E P I 857 
ruption. His condudt, according to the confeftion of the 
moll candid enemies to his opinions, was ft richly moral, 
and exemplary for temperance and abftemioufnefs; and 
lie conftanlly inculcated upon his followers the pureft 
manners, and the careful government of their paflions, 
as the beft means of enjoying a tranquil and happy life. 
Through the intenfenefs of mental application, his con- 
ftitution became enfeebled towards the clofe of his days, 
and he was afflidted with the ftrangury, and a dyfen- 
tery. Finding that his end was approaching, he be¬ 
queathed his garden, and the buildings belonging to it, 
to his friend Hermachus, who was his immediate fuc- 
celfor in his fchool, and after him to the future profeffors 
of his philofophy. He died in the feventy-third year of 
his age, while exhorting his furrounding difciples not to 
forget the dodtrines which he had taught them. No 
perfon’s memory was ever held in higher refpedt by his 
followers than that of this philofopher. They not only 
celebrated his birth-day, but the whole month in which 
he was born, as a perpetual feftival. So great was the 
regard for his authority, that his fchool was never di¬ 
vided ; and his followers formed a fort of philofophical 
republic, exempt from difputes and mifunderftandings, 
regulated by one judgment, and animated by one foul. 
Epicurus has notwithftanding been accufed of impiety; 
of infolence and contempt ; of being addidted to the 
vileft and moll fcandalous vices; and of being an enemy 
to all manly purfuits. But the greater part of thefe ac- 
cufations is to be aferibed either to envy and calumny, 
or to mifconception and mifreprefentations of his princi¬ 
ples. His dodtrine was warmly attacked by the philofo¬ 
phers of the different fedts, and particularly by the Stoics- 
They obferved that he difgraced the gods by reprefent- 
ing them as inactive, given up to pleafure, and uncon¬ 
cerned with the affairs of mankind. But he refuted all 
the accufations of his adverfaries by the purity of his 
morals, and by his frequent attendance on places of pub¬ 
lic worfhip. When Leontium, one of his female pupils, 
was accufed of ppoftituting herfelf to her mafter and to 
all his difciples, the philofopher proved the falfity of the 
accufation by filence, and an exemplary life. Of all the 
philofophers of antiquity, Epicurus is the only one whofe 
writings deferve attention for their number. He wrote 
no lefs than three hundred volumes, according to Dio¬ 
genes Laertius ; and Chryfippus was fo jealous of the 
fecundity of his genius, that no fooner had Epicurus 
publiftved one of his volumes, but he immediately com- 
pofed one, that he might not be overcome in the number 
of his produdtions. Epicurus, however, advanced truths 
and arguments unknown before ; but Chryfippus faid,. 
what others long ago had faid, without (hewing any thing 
which might be called originality. The followers of Epi¬ 
curus were fo numerous, that his dodtrines were rapidly 
diffeminated over the world; but, when the gratification 
of the fenfe was fubftituted to the pradtice of virtue, the 
morals of mankind were undermined and deftroyed. Even 
Rome, whofe auftere fimplicity had happily nurtured vir¬ 
tue, felt the attack, and was corrupted. When Cyneas 
fpoke of the tenets of the Epicureans in the Roman fe- 
nate. Fabricius indeed intreated the gods that all the 
enemies of the republic might become his followers. But 
thofe were the feeble efforts of expiring virtue ; and when 
Lucretius intfoduced the popular dodtrine in his poetical 
compofition, the fmoothnefs and beauty of the humbers 
contributed, with the effeminacy of the Epicureans, to 
enervate the conquerors of the world. 
The principles of the Epicurean Philosophy, were 
as follow : No thing can fpring from nothing, nor can any 
thing return to nothing. The univerfe always exifted, 
and will always remain ; for there is nothing into which 
it can be changed. There is nothing in nature, nor can 
any thing be conceived, befides body, and Jpace. Body 
is that which poffeffes the properties of bulk, figure, re¬ 
finance, and gravity ; it is this alone which can touch;, 
or be touched. Space, or vacuum , deftitute of the pro- 
iq I perties. 
