DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.50017#0098
18 THE GARDENS OF EPICURUS
friend, both of his prince and his country, the best
governor of Rome, the happiest and ablest negotiator,
the best judge of learning and virtue, the choicest in
his friends, and thereby the happiest in his con-
versation that has been known in story; and I think,
to his conduct in civil, and Agrippa’s in military
affairs, may be truly ascribed all the fortunes and
greatness of Augustus, so much celebrated in the
world.
For Lucretius, Virgil and Horace, they deserve in
my opinion the honour of the greatest philosophers, as
well as the best poets of their nation or age. The
two first, besides what looks like something more than
human in their poetry, were very great naturalists, and
admirable in their morals: and Horace, besides the
sweetness and elegancy of his lyrics, appears in the
rest of his writings so great a master of life, and of
true sense in the conduct of it, that I know none
beyond him. It was no mean strain of his philosophy,
to refuse being secretary to Augustus, when so great
an emperor so much desired it. But all the different
sects of philosophers seem to have agreed in the
opinion of a wise man’s abstaining from public affairs,
which is thought the meaning of Pythagoras’s precept,
to abstain from beans, by which the affairs or public
friend, both of his prince and his country, the best
governor of Rome, the happiest and ablest negotiator,
the best judge of learning and virtue, the choicest in
his friends, and thereby the happiest in his con-
versation that has been known in story; and I think,
to his conduct in civil, and Agrippa’s in military
affairs, may be truly ascribed all the fortunes and
greatness of Augustus, so much celebrated in the
world.
For Lucretius, Virgil and Horace, they deserve in
my opinion the honour of the greatest philosophers, as
well as the best poets of their nation or age. The
two first, besides what looks like something more than
human in their poetry, were very great naturalists, and
admirable in their morals: and Horace, besides the
sweetness and elegancy of his lyrics, appears in the
rest of his writings so great a master of life, and of
true sense in the conduct of it, that I know none
beyond him. It was no mean strain of his philosophy,
to refuse being secretary to Augustus, when so great
an emperor so much desired it. But all the different
sects of philosophers seem to have agreed in the
opinion of a wise man’s abstaining from public affairs,
which is thought the meaning of Pythagoras’s precept,
to abstain from beans, by which the affairs or public