28.
[68]
Some one will say, “How did you find out all
this?” I will not indeed, describe any one in such a manner as to
insult him, especially if he be an ingenious and learned man, a class with
whom I could not be angry, even if I wished it. There is a certain Greek who
lives with him, a man, to tell the truth, (I speak as I have found him,) of
good manners, at least as long as he is in other company than Piso's, or
while he is by himself. He, when he had met that man, as a young man, though
even then he had an expression of countenance as if he were angry with the
gods, did not disdain his friendship, as the other sought for it with great
eagerness; he gave himself up to intimacy with him, so as indeed to live
wholly with him, and I may almost say, never to depart from him. I am
speaking not before illiterate men, but, as I imagine, in a company of the
most learned and highly accomplished men possible. You have no doubt heard
it said, that the Epicurean philosophers measure everything which a man
ought to desire by pleasure;—whether that is truly said or not is
nothing to us, or if it be anything to us, it certainly has no bearing on
the present subject; but still it is a tempting sort of argument for a young
man, and one always dangerous to a person of no great intelligence.
[69]
Therefore, that profligate fellow, the
moment that he heard that pleasure was so exceedingly praised by a
philosopher, inquired nothing further; he so excited all his own senses
which could be affected by pleasure, he neighed so on hearing this
statement, that it was plain he thought that he had discovered not a teacher
of virtue, but a pander to his lust. The Greek first began to distinguish
between those precepts, and to separate them from one another, and to show
in what sense they are uttered; but that cripple held the ball, as they say;
he was determined to retain what he had got; he would have witnesses, and
would have all the papers sealed up; he said, that Epicurus was an eloquent
man. And so he is; he says, as I conceive, that he cannot understand the
existence of any good when all the pleasures of the body are taken away. Why
need I say much on such a topic?
[70]
The
Greek is an easy man, and very complaisant; he had no idea of being too
contradictory to an “Imperator” of the Roman people.
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