Nor time destroy the eternal grief we feel!'
What, then, has death, if death be mere repose,
And quiet only in a peaceful grave,--
What has it thus to mar this life of man?" [820]
[Footnote 820: ][ (return) ] Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. iii. l. 906-926.
This is all the comfort that Epicureanism can offer; and if "the wretch still laments the approach of death," she addresses him "with voice severe"--
"Vile coward! dry thine eyes--
Hence with thy snivelling sorrows, and depart!"
It is evident that such a system of philosophy outrages the purest and noblest sentiments of humanity, and, in fact, condemns itself. It was born of selfishness and social degeneracy, and could perpetuate itself only in an age of corruption, because it inculcated the lawfulness of sensuality and the impunity of injustice. Its existence at this precise period in Grecian history forcibly illustrates the truth, that Atheism is a disease of the heart rather than the head. It seeks to set man free to follow his own inclinations, by ridding him of all faith in a Divinity and in an immortal life, and thus exonerating him from all accountability and all future retribution. But it failed to perceive that, in the most effectual manner, it annihilated all real liberty, all true nobleness, and made of man an abject slave.
STOICISM.