Philinus having ended his discourse, Marcion said: In my opinion, not
only those that separate profit from honesty are obnoxious to Socrates's
curse, but those also that separate pleasure from health, as if it were
its enemy and opposite, and not its great friend and promoter. Pain we
use but seldom and unwillingly, as the most violent instrument. But from
all things else, none, though he would willingly, can remove pleasure.
It still attends when we eat, sleep, bathe, or anoint, and takes care
of and nurses the diseased; dissipating all that is hurtful and
disagreeable, by applying that which is proper, pleasing, and natural.
For what pain, what want, what poison so quickly and so easily cures a
disease as seasonable bathing? A glass of wine, when a man wants it,
or a dish of palatable meat, presently frees us from all disturbing
particles, and settles nature in its proper state, there being as it
were a calm and serenity spread over the troubled humors. But those
remedies that are painful do hardly and by little and little only
promote the cure, every difficulty pushing on and forcing Nature. And
therefore let not Philinus blame us, if we do not make all the sail we
can to fly from pleasure, but more diligently endeavor to make pleasure
and health, than other philosophers do to make pleasure and honesty,
agree. Now, in my opinion, Philinus, you seem to be out in your first
argument, where you suppose the beasts use more simple food and are
more healthy than men; neither of which is true. The first the goats in
Eupolis confute, for they extol their pasture as full of variety and all
sorts of herbs, in this manner,
We feed almost on every kind of trees,
Young firs, the ilex, and the oak we crop:
Sweet trefoil fragrant juniper, and yew,
Wild olives, thyme,--all freely yield their store.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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