THE popular conception of an Epicurean has varied
at different times, but at no time has it been either
very fair or very favourable. To the writers of the
Roman classical period the charges against Epicurean-
ism were drawn from its denial of the divine pro-
vidence, its open proclamation of pleasure as the
chief good, its opposition to a merely literary and
intellectual culture, its withdrawal of its followers
from political interests and occupations, and the
grotesque features in some of its physical and physio-
logical speculations. Its unscientific character, and
its studied indifference, and even hostility, to the
prevailing literary and logical as well as mathema-
tical investigations of that epoch, were probably the
chief charges in the count. During the ages of
theological supremacy which succeeded the downfall
of the Empire, Epicurean became synonymous with
atheist and unbeliever; it meant a follower of the
lusts of the flesh, with whom there was no fear of
God to terrify, no ideal aspirations to ennoble, no
belief in immortality to check or cheer. Irreligion,
free-thinking, scepticism, infidelity, on the side of
divine affairs: and on the human side, a selfish

-85-