Epicurus has been much misunderstood, and his doctrines were subsequently perverted, especially when the arts of life were brought into the service of luxury, and a gross materialism was the great feature of society.

Materialism itself is the result of imagination, which is so impressed by matter that it cannot realise the existence of spirit.

This Materialism is a seducing system to young and superficial minds: it allows its disciples to talk, and dispenses them from thinking.

I should not wonder if "gross and brutal materialism" were the mildest phrase applied to them in certain quarters.