Page:Philosophical Review Volume 2.djvu/41

1.] of good as in the avoidance of evil, placing the chief end of existence in a life that is free from pain and sorrow, — an end which in truth falls to the lot of those who are indifferent about the objective causes of pleasure."

A few paragraphs before this passage, in enumerating the followers of Aristippus, Diogenes mentions Hegesias as known by the sobriquet of — "persuader to die" (II 86). Of this no explanation is given by Diogenes, except such as may be suggested by the subsequent account of Hegesiac teaching, which has just been quoted, but the reason why the influence of Hegesias was thus characterized is more definitely furnished in the brief allusion to him by Cicero. There are two items of information preserved in this allusion. One is the fact, that Hegesias was author of a work bearing the title, — a dialogue in which the principal speaker is described as committing suicide by starvation, and in answer to the dissuasive efforts of his friends, recounting to them the numerous evils of life which form the justification of his suicidal purpose. To this fact Cicero adds a second bit of information, that in his lectures in the schools of Alexandria this theme was treated by Hegesias with so much eloquence, that he was said to have induced many of his hearers to commit suicide, and to have been therefore prohibited from lecturing on the subject by the Ptolemy of his day. These two items of information are certainly not communicated by Cicero in the same tone. The work of Hegesias is spoken of in language which implies that, if Cicero had not actually read it, he had satisfactory means of knowing its existence and drift. On the other hand, the story about the effect of the lectures of Hegesias is told as if it were a mere report, for the accuracy of which Cicero does not undertake to vouch: "prohibitus esse dicatur" is the form of his statement. One may therefore, not without reason, suspect that the story is merely one of those bits of vulgar gossip, such as may be picked up all through anecdotical literature, in which the popular mind is seen pitching upon some superficial aspect of a philosophical system, and assuming that the practical issues, which it seems to involve, must be carried out in actual life.