EPICUREANS

, the sect of philosophers holding or following the principles and doctrine of Epicurus. As the nature of the pleasure, in which the chief happiness i<*> supposed to be seated, is a great problem in the morals of Epicurus, there hence arise two kinds of Epicureans, the rigid and the remiss: the first were those who understood Epicurus's notion of pleasure in the best sense, and placed all their happiness in the pure pleasures of the mind, arising from the practice of virtue: while the loose or remiss Epicureans, taking the words of that philosopher in a gross sense, placed all their happiness in bodily pleasures or debauchery.