Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/39

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[ 23 ]

that as for the Notion of Good, as some People understood it, he neither knew where 'twas, nor what. Nothing was Good to him; that was not Good to his [1] Senses, that did not please him in his Eyes, or in his Ears, in his Touch, his Taste, or his Smelling,

No Man, says the Poet in Seneca, is [2] Happy who does not think himself so: Yes, says Epicurus; he must [3] fancy himself superlatively Happy, or else it won't do: Now how can that Man have such a pleasant Fancy, that lies Agonizing in Pain? And owns himself afflicted with the greatest Evil, and in the highest Degree imaginable?

But Epicurus's Lodgings are too Rank to stay in; a little better Air won't do amiss, and therefore wee'l take a turn in Zeno's Piazza.

Now the Stoicks are of a quite different Complexion, and directly opposite to the Epicurean Tenents above-mention'd.

These Philosophers have admirable Notions; "They [4] hold that God Almighty governs the Universe; that his Providence is not only General, but Particular, and reaches to Persons, and Things: That [5] he presides over Humane Affairs; that he assists Men not only in the greatest Concerns, in the Exercises

[b 4]
"of
  1. Epicur. apud Laert. lib. 10. Cicer de finib. 1. 2. Tusc. 1. 3.
  2. Senec. Ep. 9.
  3. Epicur. apud Laert.
  4. Epict. dissert. 1. 1. c. 12. & c. 14. & 16.
  5. Marc. 1. 1. Sect. 17. & alib.