860 E P I 
of prefent indulgence to do that which will be produc¬ 
tive of evil, obtain the trued pleafure by declining plea- 
lure. Sobriety, as oppofed to inebriety and gluttony, is 
of admirable ufe in teaching men that nature is fatisfied 
with a little, and enabling them to content themfelves 
with ft tuple and frugal fare. Such a manner of living 
is conducive to the prefervation of health ; renders a 
man alert and adlive in all the offices of life ; affords 
him an exquifite relifh of the occafional varieties of a 
plentiful board ; and prepares him to meet every reverfe 
of fortune without the fear of want. Continence is a 
branch of temperance, which prevents the difeafes, infa¬ 
my, remorfe, and punifhment, to which thofe are expofed 
who indulge themfelves in unlawful amours. Mulic and 
poetry, which are often employed as incentives to licen¬ 
tious pleafures, are to be cautioufly and fparingly ufed. 
Gentlenefs, as oppofed to an irafcible temper, greatly 
contributes to the tranquillity and happinefs of life, by 
preferving the mind from perturbation, and arming it 
againft the afFaults of calumny and malice. A wife man, 
who puts himfelf under the government of reafon, will 
be able to receive an injury with calmnefs, and Jo treat 
the perfon who committed it with lenity. Refraftory 
fervants in a famiiy fhould be chaftifed, and diforderly 
members of a (late punifhed, without wrath. Modera¬ 
tion, in the purfuit of honours or riches, is the only fecu- 
rity againft difappointment and vexation. A wife man, 
therefore, will prefer the fimplicity of ruftic life to the 
magnificence of courts. Future events a wife man will 
confider as uncertain, and will therefore neither fuffer 
himfelf to be elated with confident expectation, nor to be 
deprefTed by doubt and defpair ; for both are equally de- 
ftruCtive of tranquillity. It will contribute to the en¬ 
joyment of life, to confider death as the perfeCt termina¬ 
tion of a happy life, which it becomes us to clofe like fa¬ 
tisfied guefts, neither regretting the paft, nor anxious for 
the future. Fortitude, the virtue which enables us to 
endure pain and to banifh fear, is of great ufe in producing 
tranquillity. Philofophy inffruCls us to pay homage to 
the gods, not through hope or fear, but from veneration 
of their fuperior natures. It moreover enables us to 
conquer the fear of death, by teaching us that it is no 
proper objeCt of terror ; fince whilft we are, death is not, 
and when death arrives, we are not; fo that it neither 
concerns the living nor the dead. The only evils to be 
apprehended are bodily pain and diftrefs of mind. Bo¬ 
dily pain it becomes a wife man to endure with patience 
and firmnefs; becaufe, if it be (light, it may eafily be 
borne, and if it be intenfe, it cannot laft long. Mental 
diftrefs commonly arifes not from nature, but from opi¬ 
nion ; a wife man will therefore arm himfelf againft this 
kind of fuft'ering, by reflecting that the gifts of fortune, 
the lofs of which he may be inclined fo deplore, were ne¬ 
ver his own, but depended upon circumftances which he 
■could not command. If therefore they happen to leave 
him, he will endeavour as foon as pofiible to obliterate 
the remembrance of them, by occupying his mind in 
pleafant contemplations, and engaging in agreeable avo¬ 
cations. JLidice refpeCts man as living in fociety, and is 
the common bond, without which no fociety can exift. 
This virtue, like the reft, derives its value from its ten¬ 
dency to promote the happinefs of life. Not only is it 
never injurious to the man who praftifesit, but nourifhes 
in his mind calm reflections and pleafant hopes ; whereas 
it is impoflible that the mind in which injuftice dwells 
lhould not be full of difquietude. Since it is impoflible 
that iniquitous actions fhould promote the enjoyment of 
life as much as remorfe of confcicncc, legal penalties, 
and public difgrace, muft increafe its troubles, every one 
who follows the dictates of found reafon will praCtife the 
virtues of juftice, equity, and fidelity. In fociety, the 
neceflityof the mutual exercife of juftice, in order to the 
common enjoyment of the gifts of nature, is the ground 
of thofe laws by which it is preferibed. Nearly allied to 
juftice are. the virtues of beneficence, companion, grati. 
2 
E P I 
tude, piety, and friendfhip. He who confers benefits 
upon others procures to himfelf the fatisfaftion of feeing 
the dream of plenty fpreading round him from the foun¬ 
tain of his beneficence : and at the fame time he enjoys 
the pleafure of being efteemed by others. The exercife 
of gratitude, filial affe&ion, and reverence for the gods, 
is neceflary, in order to avoid the hatred and contempt of. 
all men. Friendfhips are contracted for the fake of mu¬ 
tual benefit; but by degrees they ripen into fuch difinte- 
refted attachments, that they are continued without any 
profpeCt of advantage. Between friends there is a kind 
of league that each will love the other as himfelf. A 
true friend will partake of the wants and forrows of his 
friend as if they were his own: if he be in want he will 
relieve him; it he be in prifon he will vifit him ; if lie 
be fick he will come to him ; nay, fituations may occur, 
in which he would not fcruple to die for him. It cannot 
then be doubted that friendfhip is one of the raoll ufefui 
means of procuring a fecure, tranquil, and happy, life. 
From this fummary of the Ethics of Epicurus, it will 
readily be feen how unjuftly his enemies mifreprefented 
his doCtrine, when they dated that it offered encourage¬ 
ment to the practice of vice and licentioufnefs, and how 
illiberally they perverted his fenfe of the term plcafure p 
when he taught that it was the ultimate end of living. 
By the notions, however, which it propagated refpeCting 
the gods, it certainly contributed, in common with the 
principles of the atheiftic feCts, and of others who de¬ 
nied, the immortality of the foul, greatly to weaken the 
motives to virtue. It muft, however, be acknowledged; 
that his doCtrine was very early much abufed, and that 
the greater part of thofe who pretended to belong to the 
epicurean fchool, reflected difgrace on the feCt by their 
diffolutenefs of manners. This was the cafe at Athens, 
and afterwards at Rome. In the modern epicurean, 
fchools in France, the members have been more diftin- 
guiflred by their literary refinement, polilhed manners, 
and luxurious indulgences, than their culture of the 
genuine doCtrine of the Greek philofopher. 
EPICY*CLE,yi [etl and xvxho;, Gr,] A little cirelfe- 
whofe center is in the circumference of a greater; or a 
fmall orb, which, being in the deferent of a planet, is 
carried along with its motion; and yet, with its own pe¬ 
culiar motion, carries the body of the planet faftened to it- 
round about its proper centre. It was by means of epi¬ 
cycles that Ptolemy and his followers folved the various 
phenomena of the planets, but more efpecially their fta- 
tions and retrogradations. 
Gird the fphere 
With centric and eccentric, fcribbl’d o’er; 
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb. Milton-. 
EPICY'CLOID, /. [from evi, kvkXo?, andji^;, Gr, 
form.] In geometry, a curve generated by the revolution 
of the periphery of a circle along the convex or concave 
part of another circle. 
EPLCYE'MA,/! [from ejtl upon, and y.va, Gr. to con¬ 
ceive.] Superfcetation. Superimpregnation. Afecond 
conception before the foetus of the firft is difmifled from 
the womb. 
EPIDAM'NUS,. a town of Macedonia on the Adriatic, 
nearly oppofite Brundufium. The Romans planted there 
a colony which they called Byrrachium, conlidering the 
ancient name ominous. Paufanias. 
EPIDAPH'NE, a town of Syria, called alfo Antioch. 
Germanicus, fon of Drufus, died there. Tacitus. 
EPIDAU'RIA, a feftival anciently kept at Athens in 
honour of yEfculupius.—A country of Peloponnefus. 
EPIDAU'RUS, a town at the north of Argolis in Pe¬ 
loponnefus, chiefly dedicated to the worfhip of dEfcula- 
pius, who had there a famous temple. It received its 
name from Epidanrus, a fon of Argus and Evadne. It 
is now called Pidaura. Virgil .—A town of Dalmatia, 
now Ragufi Vecchio .—A town of Laconia, in the Ionian 
Sea, now Molva/ia, in the Morea. 
EPIDE'MIC 3 
