ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 65 
the origin of matter and how it is constituted, or for the 
origin of force and how it operates, the sphinx is dumb. 
When they attempt to get behind the phenomena of heat, 
electricity, magnetism, they are chailenged by a sentinel 
they can not bribe nor force.’ * 
On an examination of this poem the essential difference 
between the ancient scientific method and the present is 
revealed and with it the reason for much failure and little 
progress. Lucretius first announced his theory and then 
proceeded to fit it, forcibly if need be, to every fact that 
came within his observation. This process is reversed 
by the modern man of science. He first gathers his facts 
and from their study develops his theory. A mind al- 
ready full cannot receive new truth. The emptied ves- 
sel is the only one which is ready for filling. 
To the mind of Lucretius the ‘‘Universe is a real exist- 
istence and absolutely dual in nature. Body and space, 
or matter and vacuum, are, the two essential elements ad- 
mitting nothird. Bodies, are therefore, made up of atoms 
and pores. Neither can exist where the other is. The 
atoms are composite, yet, paradoxical as it may seem, are 
solid, single, indivisible and indestructible.”’ 
Know, then, the entire of Nature sole consists 
Of Space and Body: this the substance moved 
And that the area of its motive power. 
Know, too that bodies, in their frame consist, 
Part of primordial atoms uncombined, 
And part combined and blending: these alone 
Previous and rare; while those so solid formed 
No force create can sever, or dissolve. 
Now the task which Lucretius sets himself is to take 
this theory and by meaus of it explain the formation of 
the material world without the introduction of any cre- 
ative intelligence, the genius of man and animals, the 
causative forces in all the natural phenomena and even 
* Harrington. Meth. Quart. Rev. 1876. LVIII. 64, 
a 
