THREE:The qualities which enabled Epicurus to compete successfully with much greater thinkers than himself as the founder of a lasting sect, were practical rather than theoretical. Others before him had taught that happiness was the end of life; none, like him, had cultivated the art of happiness, and pointed out the fittest methods for attaining it. The idea of such an art was a real and important addition to the resources of civilisation. No mistake is greater than to suppose that pleasure is lost by being made an object of pursuit. To single out the most agreeable course among many alternatives, and, when once found, steadily to pursue it, is an aptitude like any other, and is capable of being brought to a high degree of perfection by assiduous attention and self-discipline.211 No doubt the capacity for enjoyment117 is impaired by excessive self-consciousness, but the same is true of every other accomplishment during the earlier stages of its acquisition. It is only the beginner who is troubled by taking too much thought about his own proficiency; when practice has become a second nature, the professor of hedonism reaps his harvest of delight without wasting a thought on his own efforts, or allowing the phantom of pleasure in the abstract to allure him away from its particular and present realisation. And, granting that happiness as such can be made an object of cultivation, Epicurus was perfectly right in teaching that the removal of pain is its most essential condition, faulty as was (from a speculative point of view) his confusion of the condition with the thing itself. If the professed pleasure-seekers of modern society often fail in the business of their lives, it is from neglecting this salutary principle, especially where it takes the form of attention to the requirements of health. In assigning a high importance to friendship, he was equally well inspired. Congenial society is not only the most satisfying of enjoyments in itself, but also that which can be most easily combined with every other enjoyment. It is also true, although a truth felt rather than perceived by our philosopher, that speculative agreement, especially when speculation takes the form of dissent from received opinions, greatly increases the affection of friends for one another. And as theology is the subject on which unforced agreement seems most difficult, to eliminate its influence altogether was a valuable though purely negative contribution to unanimity of thought and feeling in the hedonistic sect.
FORE:The race was out of their hands."How did you get here?" she asked curtly. "How did you find me out?"
THREE:"And she killed my brother," he said. "Oh, yes, there is no doubt about that. If I had not been a fool I should have been avenged last night."
FORE:
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THREE:He had no time to pay attention to that situation. The imminent culmination of the race chained his gaze.
FORE:The upflow of currents of warmed water are a common cause of irregular cooling and springing of steel tools in hardening; the water that is heated, rises vertically, and the least inclination of a piece from a perpendicular position, allows a warm current to flow up one side.
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THREE:"I have," Gordon said, "but I shan't tell it to you today. Let us talk of something else. Let us forget the world for ourselves."Hetty smiled up into her lover's face. From under her long lashes she could see that Leona Lalage was regarding her intently.
FORE:In making designs it is best to employ no references except such as are carried in the memory. The more familiar a person is with machinery of any class, the more able he may be to prepare designs, but not by measuring and referring to other people's plans. Dimensions and arrangement from examples are, by such a course, unconsciously carried into a new drawing, even by the most skilled; besides, it is by no means a dignified matter to collect other people's plans, and by a little combination and modification produce new designs. It may be an easy plan to acquire a certain kind of proficiency, but will most certainly hinder an engineer from ever rising to the dignity of an original designer.Whether Plotinus was or was not the disciple of Ammonius, it is beyond all doubt that he considered himself the disciple of Plato. There are more than a hundred references to that philosopher in the Enneads, against less than thirty references to all the other ancient thinkers put together;428 and, what is more remarkable, in only about half of them is he mentioned by name. The reader is expected to know that he always means Plato. And it is an article of faith with Plotinus that his master cannot be mistaken; when the words of oracular wisdom seem to contradict one another, there must be some way of harmonising them. When they contradict what he teaches himself, the difficulty must be removed by skilful interpretation; or, better still, it must be discreetly ignored.429 On the other hand, when a principle is palpably borrowed from Aristotle, not only is its derivation unacknowledged, but we are given to understand by implication that it belongs to the system which Aristotle was at most pains to controvert.430
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