834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



relation Lucretius actually bears to science that this summary of his 

 principles was written. 



Titus Lucretius Carus was born 96 b. c, and was thus the con- 

 temporary of Cicero, Cresar, and Sallust. As with many other great 

 men, little of his personal life is known. It appears that in his youth 

 he studied philosophy at Athens in company with Cicero and other Ro- 

 mans afterward distinguished in politics and literature. Beyond this 

 we know nothing certain of his life. He died b. c. 52, while Horace 

 was still a schoolboy at Rome and Virgil had just reached the age 

 of manhood. There is a story that his wife, fearing a decrease in his 

 affection toward her, had given him a love-philter, which made havoc 

 with his brain, and filled his mind with base thoughts, so that sooner 

 than endure them he killed himself. This version of his death is well 

 known through Tennyson's poem " Lucretius " ; it, however, is a mat- 

 ter of tradition, and not of history. 



From his life we now turn to his great work, " The Nature of 

 Things." In this he lays down the whole system of the Epicurean 

 philosophy, a system which has been more vilified and misrepresented 

 than any other put forth by man. Its physical basis was the atomic 

 theory, which was first promulgated by Leucippus. The real founder 

 of the school was Democritus of Abdera, to whom Bacon awards a 

 high place among great thinkers. The great exponent of these doc- 

 trines was Epicurus, from whom the system takes its name. He lived 

 mostly at Athens in the third and fourth centuries before Christ, and 

 was noted for his frugal and virtuous life. His moral principles did 

 not consist in reckless indulgence of the senses, but in moderation in 

 all things, and in avoidance of pain, whether moral, mental, or physi- 

 cal. This principle is continually set forth and illustrated by Horace, 

 especially in his " Satires." In him the tenets of the Epicurean phi- 

 losophy become the maxims of a prudent, intelligent man of the 

 world. 



But it is with the scientific aspect of this system, as set forth by 

 Lucretius, that we have chiefly to do. Its principles are contained in 

 six books of twelve or thirteen hundred lines apiece. It is best to 

 take up the books in their order, as the argument is closely connected 

 throughout. 



The first book contains the broad principles of the atomic theory. 

 After a beautiful passage describing the benumbing power of super- 

 stition, he asserts that the only means of overcoming this is found in 

 the study of nature, and declares that the difficulty of the task shall 

 not prevent hira from attempting it. The first principle which he lays 

 down is, that all matter is uncreated ; or, as he expresses it, nothing 

 can spring from nothing. For, if anything can spring from nothing, 

 what need is there of these long processes of birth and growth and 

 these aids to development ? Why should all this labor be spent in vain, 

 if anything could become what it is without labor ? This is simply 



