"I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple of our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which you say you are yielding. One of his canons, you know, was that "that indulgence which presents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater pain, is to be avoided." Your love of repose will lead, in its progress, to a suspension of healthy exercise, a relaxation of mind, an indifference to everything around you, and finally to a debility of body, and hebetude of mind, the farthest of all things from the happiness which the well-regulated indulgences of Epicurus ensure; fortitude, you know, is one of his four cardinal virtues. That teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them, like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain, for they will meet and arrest us at every turn of our road....
[A paragraph follows, inviting Short and his friend Correa to Monticello, with some news of the progress at the University]
I will place under this a syllabus of the doctrines of Epicurus, somewhat in the lapidary style, which I wrote some twenty years ago; a like one of the philosophy of Jesus, of nearly the same age, is too long to be copied. Vale, et tibi persuade carissimum te esse mihi."
- LETTER: Thomas Jefferson to William Short - October 31, 1819
{I don't mean to bore my subscribers with wierd stuff like this, but it is all history, and in this case it is directly connected to the founding of the United States of America, and because of that, it should interest us.
jbranstetter04}
That was only the beginning. When he read the poem initially, Greenblatt recalls, he was amazed at its apparent prescience. "So much that is in Einstein or Freud or Darwin or Marx was there," he says. "I was flabbergasted." And indeed, from Galileo to Darwin to Einstein, who paid tribute to Lucretius in the preface to a 1924 translation of the poet's work, science would begin to describe empirically a universe of atomic particles with behaviors dictated by forces independent of the divine. Meanwhile, Greenblatt finds Lucretius in the very roots of the American tradition: "I am an Epicurean," proclaimed Thomas Jefferson, the owner of at least five editions of De rerum natura, who put his stamp on a Declaration of Independence emphasizing the "pursuit of happiness."
In the end, Greenblatt acknowledges, history is complicated—there is not a straight line between Lucretius and the modern world. "And yet the vital connection is there," he writes. "Hidden behind the worldview I recognize as my own is an ancient poem, a poem once lost, apparently irrevocably, and then found."
Lucretius - Roman Poet and Philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus
Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 98-55 B.C.) was a Roman Epicurean epic poet who wrote De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). De rerum natura is an epic, written in 6 books, which explains life and the world in terms of Epicurean principles and Atomism. Lucretius may have died before De rerum natura was finished.
Epicurus
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) was born in Samos and died at Athens. He studied at Plato's Academy when it was run by Xenocrates. Later, when he joined his family on Colophon, Epicurus studied under Nausiphanes, who introduced him to the philosophy of Democritus. In 306/7 Epicurus bought a house in Athens. It was in its garden that he taught his philosophy. Epicurus and his followers, who included slaves and women, secluded themselves from the life of the city.
The Virtue of Pleasure
Epicurus and his philosophy of pleasure have been controversial for over 2000 years. One reason is our tendency to reject pleasure as a moral good.
We usually think of charity, compassion, humility, wisdom, honor, justice, and other virtues as morally good, while pleasure is, at best, morally neutral, but for Epicurus, behavior in pursuit of pleasure assured an upright life.
"It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life."
- Epicurus, from Principal Doctrines
