The Book of Epicurus 4 · Handed down in the Garden, taken from his letters and fragments
He comes after Aristotle. He appeals to no god and promises no afterlife. This book is chosen by the six axioms: what accords is set forward, what runs against is set back and not deleted. (cf. Acts 5.29)
4.1I bought a garden outside the city. Anyone may come in: women, slaves, foreigners.
4.2Neither the Academy nor the Lyceum admitted women or slaves. On this point I did better than they did.
4.3For the Teacher had said long before: in the sight of the Logos there is no slave and no master. (cf. Gospel of Xenophon 3.9) They read it and did not act on it. I acted on it.
4.4What matters most in the Garden is not the doctrine. It is the friends.
4.5Of all the things wisdom provides, friendship is the greatest.
4.6For the other goods are bounded by a time and a place, and only a friend lasts a whole life.
4.7I also said: live unnoticed.
4.8That sentence runs against the Order’s Great Commission. (cf. Acts 7.1)
4.9They say: go out to the cities of all the world. I say: do not go into the city, the city will eat you.
4.10The Order does not delete this sentence of mine, and does not adopt it either. (cf. Acts 5.29)
4.11I will say why I said it: I have watched too many good men walk into the forum and come out a different kind of man.
4.12They must say why they said theirs: whoever does not go has handed the city to those who deserve it least.
4.13Here neither side has convinced the other. Let it stand recorded that way.