AN ANCIENT SCIENTIST. 833 



dated by the writer's own admissions : " They are repeated in remote 

 provinces, among half-wild tribes who hardly (the italics are ours) 

 ever see the negroes. . . . Many of the tortoise myths are told by the 

 Mundurucfi Indians, the majority of whom can not speak Portuguese." 

 Mr. Smith also confirms, what has been said above, that these stories 

 are told in Rio by the negroes, and a very suspicious circumstance is 

 the introduction of a lion into one of the stories (p. 551), which, as Mr. 

 Smith remarks, " shows that the narrator had heard of lions, probably 

 from the slaves." 



In taking leave of this interesting subject we must reiterate our 

 praise of Mr. Harris's charming volume, and we trust that its scientific 

 side may not be overlooked, but awaken an interest in negro folk-lore 

 which will result in other works as entertaining and valuable as " Uncle 

 Remus." 







AN ancie:n^t scientist. 



EEADERS of Mrs. Browning will remember in the "Vision of 

 Poets " the description of Lucretius, as one 



" "Who dropped his plummet down the broad, 

 Deep universe, and said, 'No God,' 



"Finding no bottom. He denied 

 Divinely the Divine, and died 

 Chief poet by the Tiber side." 



In spite of this high encomium, approved by men of taste in all ages, 

 the subject of this sketch is far less known to fame than many others 

 of much smaller ability either as poets or as philosophers. He is un- 

 known to many, to whom Virgil, Horace, Juvenal, and even Ovid, are 

 household words. And yet, of these foui-, Virgil alone can contest the 

 palm of supremacy with him. When Tyndall, in his famous Belfast 

 Address, introduced his typical Lucretian as an opponent to Bishop 

 Butler, many well-informed people were driven to their classical dic- 

 tionaries to discover whom the orator meant. 



It is not easy to say what are the causes of this neglect, Lucre- 

 tius is not only one of the few first-class poets in Latin literature, but 

 he is also one of the most subtile and original thinkers that Rome ever 

 produced. His system shows how far scientific speculation had gone 

 in his day, and what views the most enlightened took in regard to the 

 structure of the universe and the problems of matter and life. His 

 theories are plausible, and sometimes have anticipated modern hypothe- 

 ses and discoveries. Yet few really know who he was and what his 

 doctrines are. It is to supply this wanting knowledge to show what 

 VOL. XVIII, 53 



