The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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206 THE STOIC CREED
public statues
(Diog. Laert. x. 31). These differ in
their psychological significance. The first class are
easily satisfied and at small expense nor
;
is there very
great difficulty in satisfying the second. It is the third
class that create the supreme difficulty ; for they are
vain
desires, and have neither limit nor moderation. 1
Resist transgression of the limit, then. On the duty
of moderating the desires, if true happiness is to be
secured, Epicurus insisted
with as great pertinacity as
the Stoics, and he gave utterance to many sage maxims
which even the Stoics did not disdain to make use of.
Thus, one saying of Epicurus, Seneca loves to quote
namely, "If you wish to make Pythocles happy,
add not to his riches, but take away from his desires."
Nothing could go more direct to the heart of the matter
than that. Seneca could only paraphrase
it when he
said, "It is not he who has little, but he who desires
more, that is poor."
And there is shrewd pagan wis
dom in this of Epicurus : "
We are born once, twice we
cannot be born : for eternity we must be non-existent.
Yet thou who art not master of to-morrow puttest off
the right time. The life of all of us is ruined by pro
crastination, and it is on this account that each of us
dies before he is
ready."
The truth is that hedonism is not incompatible with
high moral efforts and aspirations, and Zeno and
Epicurus were not so far apart as themselves supposed ;
and, when the day of eclecticism arrived, this became
apparent. "Says Epicurus When I was sick, I did
not converse about my bodily ailments, nor discuss such
1
See Cicero, De Finibus,
i.
13.