656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



here, and not the thought of personal profit hereafter, that prompted 

 his observation. 



A century and a half after the death of Epicurus, Lucretius ^ wrote 

 liis great poem, " On the Kature of Things," in which he, a Roman, 

 develoj^ed with extraordinary ardor the philosophy of his Greek prede- 

 cessor. He wishes to win over his friend. Memnius to the school of 

 Epicurus ; and although he has no rewards in a future life to ofier, 

 although his object appears to be a purely negative one, he addresses 

 his friend with the heat of an apostle. His object, like that of his 

 great forerunner, is the destruction of superstition ; and considering 

 that men trembled before every natural event as a direct monition 

 from the gods, and that everlasting torture was also in prospect, the 

 freedom aimed at by Lucretius might perhaps be deemed a positive 

 good. " This terror," he says, " and darkness of mind must be dis- 

 pelled, not by the rays of the sun and glittering shafts of day, but by 

 the aspect and the law of Nature." He refutes the notion that any 

 thing can come out of nothing, or that that which is once begotten 

 can be recalled to nothing. The first beginnings, the atoms, are inde- 

 structible, and into them all things can be dissolved at last. Bodies 

 are partly atoms and j)ai*tly combinations of atoms ; but the atoms 

 nothing can quench. They are strong in solid singleness, and by their 

 denser combination all things can be closely packed and exhibit en- 

 during strength. He denies that matter is infinitely divisible. We 

 come at length to the atoms, without which, as an imperishable sub- 

 stratum, all order in the generation and development of things would 

 be destroyed. 



The mechanical shock of the atoms being in his view the all-suffi- 

 cient cause of things, he combats the notion that the constitution of 

 Nature has been in any way determined by intelligent design. The 

 interaction of the atoms throughout infinite time rendered all manner 

 of combinations possible. Of these the fit ones persisted, while the 

 unfit ones disappeared. Not after sage deliberation did the atoms 

 station themselves in their right places, nor did they bargain what 

 motions they should assume. From all eternity they have been driven 

 together, and, after trying motions and unions of every kind, they fell 

 at length into the arrangements out of which this system of things 

 has been formed. His grand conception of the atoms falling silently 

 through immeasurable ranges of space and time suggested the nebular 

 hypothesis to Kant, its first propounder. " If you will apprehend and 

 keep in mind these things. Nature, free at once, and rid of her haughty 

 lords, is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself, without the 

 meddling of the gods." "^ 



^ Born 99 b. c. 



2 Monro's translation. In his criticism of this work {Contemporary Review, 1867) 

 Dr. Hayman does not appear to be aware of the really sound and subtile observations on 

 which the reasoning of Lucretius, though erroneous, sometimes rests. 



