The Manual of Xefolius

page the grand words wisdom, virtue, sovereign good sovereign good: the "summum bonum," or the highest good that serves as the ultimate goal of human life, &c., without learning there what wisdom, virtue, or the sovereign good actually are. The gods of Epicurus Epicurus (341–270 BC) taught that the gods exist but do not involve themselves in human affairs are but lazy mortals, indifferent to the fate of men, who, according to him, are also nothing more than machines organized by chance. Pyrrho founder of the school of Skepticism doubts everything, even his own existence; the apathetic Stoic claims that Aristides Aristides "The Just," an Athenian statesman known for his integrity was as unjust as Phalaris a Sicilian tyrant famous for his cruelty, specifically the "brazen bull" execution device; Brasidas a renowned Spartan general as cowardly as Dolon a Trojan spy in the Iliad depicted as a coward; Plato as ungrateful as Meletus the primary accuser in the trial of Socrates. By placing the love of glory among the virtues, Themistocles is praised because the victories of Miltiades Themistocles' rival and the hero of the Battle of Marathon kept him from sleeping, without considering that, to be consistent, one would also have to praise him for having the "Just Man" of Greece exiled, since it was equally the love of glory that drove him to envy and persecute Aristides; a love which differs in no way from the love of other objects that men cannot possess in equal measure, and whose value varies with climates, governments, and the centuries. Everywhere, the love of glory is nothing but the love of status, of praise, of power—the principle of discord original: "difcordances" — an archaic spelling hostile to rest, and the source of divisions and innumerable evils. If this