A Slip of the Tongue in Greeting (6)

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” [*]

clearly puts health before joy. Alexis [*] says

“Good health, my lord! At long last you are

here,”

and Achaeus [*]

“I come in dreadful case, but health I wish to

you,”

and Philemon [*]

“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 [*] ? “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 gods

Through all the mortal life that’s left to me.” [*]

Then if health is the chief of the gods, her work—the enjoyment of good health—is to be preferred to other blessings.