The admirable Plato himself, a most sound authority on such matters, altogether rejected the use of “Joy to you” as bad and pointless. He substitutes “Do well,” which implies a good state of both body and soul. In a letter to Dionysius Ep. III, 315B. he censures him for greeting Apollo with “Joy to you” in his poem to the god; it is unworthy of the Pythian, he says, and not even for men of taste is it becoming, let alone gods.

The divine Pythagoras chose not to leave us anything of his own, but if we may judge by Ocellus the Leucanian and Archytas and his other disciples, he did not prefix “Joy to you” or “Do well,” but told them to begin with “Health to you.” At any rate all his school in serious letters to each other began straightway with “Health to you,” as a greeting most suitable for both body and soul, encompassing all human goods. Indeed the Pentagram, the triple intersecting triangle which they used as a symbol of their sect, they called “Health.” In short they thought that health included doing well and joy, but that the converse did not altogether hold. Some of them called the Quaternion, The sum of the first four integers, i.e. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10. their most solemn oath, which made for them the perfect number, the Beginning of Health. Philolaus, for example.

But why quote the ancients when there is Epicurus? He certainly enjoyed joy, and chose Pleasure as the chief good. In his more serious letters (there are not many of these) and in those to his dearest friends he generally began straightway with “Health to you.” In tragedy too and in Old Comedy you will often find “Health” said straightway first. The greeting “Good health and joy be yours” Homer, Od. xxiv, 402. clearly puts health before joy. Alexis Frag. 297 K. says “Good health, my lord! At long last you arehere,” and Achaeus Frag. 44 N-2. “I come in dreadful case, but health I wish toyou,” and Philemon Frag. 163 K. “First I beg good health, and second doing well,Thirdly to have joy, and last to owe no debts.” What does the writer of that drinking-song which Plato mentions say Plato, Gorgias, 451e. The scolium is quoted in full by Athenaeus, Deipn., xv, 40. ? “Good health is best, then good looks, third wealth,” and he never mentions joy at all. I need hardly mention that most familiar piece of all which everybody quotes, “I’d live with thee, O Health, chief of the godsThrough all the mortal life that’s left to me.” Attributed to Ariphron of Sicyon, Ath., Deipn., xv, 63. Then if health is the chief of the gods, her work—the enjoyment of good health—is to be preferred to other blessings.

I could show you thousands of other passages in the poets and historians and philosophers which put health first, but I shall beg to be excused, or my writing will be guilty of the bad taste of an adolescent, and only knock one nail out with another. But a few things from ancient history I remember are to the point, and I may as well add them for you.