Page:LA2-NSRW-2-0146.jpg



BPICTETUS

621

EPIDERMIS

of St. Paul's preaching in the city—of a music-hall ana of many walls and towers. About a mile northeast of the city was the famous temple of Diana. This wonderful building, one of the seven wonders of the world, was set on fire by an Ephesian, it is said, on the night Alexander the Great was born, thereby to give him an undying name. It was afterward rebuilt by the people in greater splendor than before, even the women giving their jewels to raise the necessary money. It was the largest Greek temple ever built, being 425 feet long and 220 wide. It had 127 columns, each sixty feet high. It was filled with statues and pictures made by the best of Grecian artists. The altar of the goddess was adorned with the work of Praxiteles. It was robbed of its treasures by Nero, burned by the Goths, and finally destroyed in the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodpsius I, who issued his celebrated edict against the ceremonies of the pagan religion in 381 A. D. The site of the temple was discovered in 1869, and excavations were made until 1874, which have greatly increased our knowledge of this wonder of the world. See Falkner's Ephesus and the Temple of Diana.

Epictetus (ep'tk-te'tus), a celebrated Greek philosopher, was born at Hierapolis, in Phry-gia, about 50 A. D. He at first was a slave and stood his master's harsh treatment like a true Stoic. After being freed, he studied philosophy, and with other philosophers was driven into exile by the Emperor Dpmi-tian. He settled at Nikopolis in Epirus. He left no works behind him, but his pupil, Arrian, who wrote a life of Alexander the Great, gathered his sayings and maxims with a lover's care into the Enchiridion (Hand-book) and into eight books of commentaries, four of which are lost. These show the simple and noble earnestness of the philosopher's character, as well as his real, heartfelt love of good and hatred of evil. He is one of those who, "groping in the deeps of thought, touched God's right hand and knew it not." See Farrar's Seekers after God.

Epicurus (ep'i-ku'rus), a famous Greek philosopher, was born in 342 B. C. on the island of Samos, where his father was a school-master. When eighteen he went to Athens, but soon came back to Asia. He studied philosophy, and at Mitylene, in his thirty-second year, he first opened a school of philosophy. After teaching five years, he went again to Athens in 307 B. C., and set up a school of philosophy in a garden which he bought and laid out for that purpose—-whence his followers were called the "philosophers of the garden." Although Epicurus taught that pleasure is the chief good, the life that he and his friends led was one of the greatest simplicity. They were content, we are told, with a small goblet of light

wine, and the rest of their drink was water. And an inscription over the gate promised to those who might wish to enter no better fare than barley-cakes and water. Epicurus was very successful as a teacher. Great numbers flocked to his school from all parts of Greece and Asia Minor, most of whom became fond of their master as well as of his teaching, for Epicurus seems to have been no less amiable and kind a man than a man of force and brains. He wrote a great deal. According to one account, he left 300 volumes on Natural Philosophy, Atoms and the Vacuum, Love, the Chief Good, Justice and many other subjects. These works are lost. The only writings that have come down to us are three letters, a few fragments from one of his works and a number of his sayings. The main sources of our knowledge of his teachings are Cicero, Plutarch and, above all, Lucretius, whose great poem, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) contains the Epicurean philosophy. According to Epicurus the great evil with which men were troubled— the load which weighed down man's happiness—was fear — fear of the gods and fear of death. He did not deny that there are gods, but taught that as "happy and undying beings" they could have nothing to do with the affairs of the world or of men. For, he said, business and cares and anger are not in accordance with happiness, but arise from weakness, fear and dependence on others. He believed that the soul was a bodily substance, made up of fine particles scattered through the whole body, and, this being so, that soul and body died together. He therefore argued that the most terrible of all evils, death, is nothing to us? "since where we are, death is not; and where death is, we are not." He held that pleasure was the chief good, and it is from misunderstanding of the meaning of this word as used by him that the term Epicurean came to mean one who gave loose rein to all his likes and appetites. For, he tells us, it is not ceaseless drinkings and revelings, nor rare and costly viands, that make up a pleasant life, "but freedom of the body from pain and the soul from care." Among the Romans the system of Epicurus was adopted by many distinguished men, such as Horace and Pliny the Younger. In modern times many prominent Frenchmen have professed to be Epicureans. Epicurus died at Athens in 270 B. C. See Zeller's Philosophy of the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics.

Epider'mis (in plants), a specially modified layer of cells which covers all parts of higher plants. In the older parts of stems and roots, which increase in diameter year after year, the epidermis disappears, being replaced by other layers, usually cork. The epidermis is primarily a protective layer, which is interposed between delicate living