not practise that dignity and reserve in the expression of the emotions that was expected of
ancient philosophers; his letters are amazingly natural and unaffected.
The life of the community was very simple, partly on principle, and partly (no doubt) for lack of
money. Their food and drink was mainly bread and water, which Epicurus found quite
satisfying. "I am thrilled with pleasure in the body," he says, "when I live on bread and water,
and I spit on luxurious pleasures, not for their own sake, but because of the inconveniences that
follow them." The community depended financially, at least in part, on voluntary contributions.
"Send me some preserved cheese," he writes, "that when I like, I may have a feast." To another
friend: "Send us offerings for the sustenance of our holy body on behalf of yourself and your
children." And again: "The only contribution I require is that which -----ordered the disciples to
send me, even if they be among the Hyperboreans. I wish to receive from each of you two
hundred and twenty drachmae * a year and no more."
Epicurus suffered all his life from bad health, but learnt to endure it with great fortitude. It was
he, not a Stoic, who first maintained that a man could be happy on the rack. Two letters written,
one a few days before his death, the other on the day of his death, show that he had some right
to this opinion. The first says: "Seven days before writing this the stoppage became complete
and I suffered pains such as bring men to their last day. If anything happens to me, do you look
after the children of Metrodorus for four or five years, but do not spend any more on them than
you now spend on me." The second says: "On this truly happy day of my life, as I am at the
point of death, I write this to you. The diseases in my bladder and stomach are pursuing their
course, lacking nothing of their usual severity: but against all this is the joy in my heart at the
recollection of my conversations with you. Do you, as I might expect from your devotion from
boyhood to me and to philosophy, take good care of the children of Metrodorus." Metrodorus,
who had been one of his first disciples, was dead; Epicurus provided for his children in his will.
Although Epicurus was gentle and kindly towards most people, a different side of his character
appeared in his relations to philos-
* About twenty dollars.