LUCRETIUS AND THE EVOLUTION IDEA. 171 



stitution of matter;^ the doctrine of fibns,- which recalls Newton's 

 corpuscular theory and the very recent discovery of the 'Becquerel 

 rays'; the relations of waste and repair in youth and age;^ the invio- 

 lability of natural law.* 



Of special interest to us is a passage in the fifth book^ which sets 

 forth the ideas of the struggle for existence and natural selection in 

 terms of remarkable clearness for a pre-Darwinian writer. Lucretius 

 even announces them in connection with the domestication of animals, 

 which was the precise point from which Darwin started in his effort to 

 account for 'the origin of species.' 



And many races of living things must have then died out and been unable to 

 beget and continue their breed. For in the case of all things which you see 

 breathing the breath of life, either craft or courage or else speed from the begin- 

 ning of its existence protected and preserved each particular race. And there 

 are many things which, recommended to us by their useful services, continue to 

 exist consigned to our protection. In the first place, the fierce breed of lions and 

 the savage races their courage has protected, foxes their craft and stags their 

 proneness to flight. But light-sleeping dogs with faithful heart in breast and 

 every kind which is born of the seed of beasts of burden and at the same time 

 the woolly flocks and the horned herds are all consigned, Memmius, to the pro- 

 tection of man. For they have ever fled with eagerness from wild beasts and 

 have ensued peace and plenty of food obtained without their own labor, as we 

 give it in requital of their useful services. But those to whom nature has 

 granted none of these qualities, so that they could neither live by their own 

 means nor perform for us any useful ser%ace in return for which we should 

 suffer their kind to feed and be safe under our protection, those, you are to 

 know, would lie exposed as a prey and booty of others, hampered all in their 

 own death-bringing shackles, until nature brought that kind to utter destruc- 

 tion.' 



In close sequence comes the most interesting portion of the entire 

 poem, the detailed account of the evolution of human society from the 

 rude ^ife after the roving fashion of wild beasts' up to the settled 

 security and elegancies of the highest civilization. Noteworthy in this 

 account is the representation of childhood as the first humanizing in- 

 fluence, the origin and growth of language, religious beliefs and social 

 order, the development of industries and of art, until the poet himself 

 appears 'to consign the deeds of men to verse.' Thus, says Lucretius, 

 "time by degrees brings each several thing forth before men's eyes, and 

 reason raises it up into the borders of light ; for things must be brought 

 to light one after the other and in due order in the different arts, until 

 these have reached their highest point of development." 



^I. 267-328; II. 80-141, 333-477, 660-699. 



' IV. 29 f . 



»II. 1118-1147. 



♦ V. 55-58. 



"V. 855-877. 



'Here, as elsewhere, I have used Munro's translation. 



