Cicero — Ccesar — -Lucretius. 25 



Cicero, the contemporary of Varro, was, as every one knows, as 

 great a philosopher as an orator ; but he was only occupied with 

 the speculative parts of philosophy. We however find in his trea- 

 tise, De Natura Deorum, some passages connected with our sub- 

 ject. He introduces in this dialogue, as interlocutor, a Platonist, 

 who, to prove the existence of a divine Providence, cites different 

 facts in natural history, with a view to illustrate the doctrine of 

 final causes. 



Two other authors of the same period, who did not write ex- 

 pressly upon the sciences, but in whose works we find some infor- 

 mation, are Julius Caesar and Lucretius. 



Julius Caesar was born 98 years B.C. In his youth he travelled 

 to Greece, as was the custom amongst Romans of distinction, and 

 he afterwards went to Rhodes to study under ApoUonius Molo. 

 He was six years younger than Cicero, and died four years before 

 him. Every one is acquainted with the writings he has left, but 

 few people know, that in his works the first notices of the animals 

 of Germany are to be found. Caesar made an incursion into Ger- 

 many after the conquest of Gaul ; but he met with so vigorous a 

 resistance, that after some battles he recrossed the Rhine. He has 

 given, in his memoirs, the results of the observations which he 

 made during this short expedition. He speaks of the physical con- 

 stitution of Germany, of the manners of the inhabitants, and the 

 animals which lived in that country. Amongst these, he mentions 

 the rein-deer, the elk, and the urus, three species which have dis- 

 appeared from the provinces which were visited by Caesar. The 

 aurochs, or urus, is now only found in the forests of Lithuania, the 

 rein-deer and elk in the north of Russia and Sweden. 



Caesar had an expanded mind : he loved the sciences, and in the 

 midst of the tumults of his life, he found time to study them. We 

 know that by his own labour, as well as by that of the astrono- 

 mers whom he employed, he prepared the reform of the calendar, 

 —a reform which lasted fifteen or sixteen centuries after his time, 

 and was only supplanted by that of Pope Gregory. 



Lucretius, who of all the writers of the republic, was most occu- 

 pied with natural philosophy, was the contemporary of Cicero and 

 Caesar : he was only four years younger than the latter. It was 

 said that he received a charm in his youth which afl^ected his rea- 

 son, and that it was in his lucid intervals that he composed his 

 poem De natura rerum. He died at the age of 43 years, 50 years 

 B.C. 



The work of Lucretius, which is a dogmatical treatise on the phi- 

 losophy of Epicurus, is most remarkable in a literary point of view. 

 Notwithstanding the repetition of somewhat harsh verses, and the 

 very frequent use of antique phrases, it is certainly one of the most 

 beautiful specimens which we possess of Latin poesy: the invocation 

 in the first canto, and the view of the progress of human society in 

 the fourth, are passages which scarcely admit of imitation. 



VOL. III. D 



