. 
THE BELFAST ADDRKSS. 449 
the extension and perpetuation of his fame. Some two 
centuries after the death of Epicurus, Lucretius* wrote If 
his great poem, " On the Nature of Things," in which he, 
a Roman, developed with extraordinary ardor the philos- 
ophy of his Greek predecessor. He wishes to win over 
his friend Memniusto the school of Epicurus; and although 
he has no rewards in a future life to offer, 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 supersti- 
tion; and considering that men in his day 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 be deemed a positive 
good. " This terror," he says, " and darkness of mind, 
must be dispelled, 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 anything can come out of 
nothing, or that what is once begotten can be recalled to 
nothing. The. Jir&LJbegi nn ings, the atoms, are indestruct- 
ible, and into them all things can be resolved at last. 
Bodies are partly atoms and partly 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 enduring strength. He 
denies that matter is infinitely divisible. We come at 
length to the atoms, without which, as an imperishable 
substratum, all order in the generation and development of 
things would be destroyed. 
The mechanical shock of the atoms being, in his view, 
the all-sufficient 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 
* Born 99 B. c. 
V M-' 
