The Book of Epicurus 7 · Handed down in the Garden, taken from his letters and fragments
Epicurus, born on Samos about 341 before this era, died at Athens about 270. About 306 he bought a garden outside Athens and taught there, and his school took its name from it. Women and slaves were admitted to the garden as students, which no other school of that day did. He is said to have written three hundred rolls; what survives is three letters, a set of maxims, and fragments. He did not believe the gods concern themselves with men, nor that anything of a person remains after death. 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)Further: chapter two of this book says that pain removed is the ceiling of pleasure, while The Book of Schopenhauer 3 says that satisfaction is only the pause in a lack. The two cannot both be wholly right. The Order keeps both and does not rule. Let the reader set them side by side.
7.1I bought a garden outside the city. Anyone may come in: women, slaves, foreigners.
7.2Neither the Academy nor the Lyceum admitted women or slaves. On this point I did better than they did.
7.3For 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.
7.4What matters most in the Garden is not the doctrine. It is the friends.
7.5Of all the things wisdom provides, friendship is the greatest.
7.6For the other goods are bounded by a time and a place, and only a friend lasts a whole life.
7.7I also said: live unnoticed.
7.8That sentence runs against those who go out to carry the teaching abroad. (cf. Acts of the Apostles 8.1)
7.9They say: go out to the cities of all the world. I say: do not go into the city, the city will eat you.
7.10I do not take that sentence back. Nor do I ask anyone to do as I have done. (cf. Acts of the Apostles 5.29)
7.11I 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.
7.12They must say why they said theirs: whoever does not go has handed the city to those who deserve it least.
7.13Here neither side has convinced the other. Let it stand recorded that way.