24 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



Rerum Natura. Of that remarkable man but little 

 is recorded, and the record is untrustworthy. He 

 was probably born 99 B. c., and died by his own 

 hand, Jerome says, but of this there is no proof in 

 his forty-fourth year. It is difficult, taking up his 

 wonderful poem, to resist the temptation to make 

 copious extracts from it, since, even through the 

 vehicle of Mr. Munro's exquisite translation, it is 

 probably little known to the general reader in these 

 evil days of snippety literature. But the temptation 

 must be resisted, save in moderate degree. 



With the dignity which his high mission inspires, 

 Lucretius appeals to us in the threefold character of 

 teacher, reformer, and poet. " First, by reason of 

 the greatness of my argument, and because I set the 

 mind free from the close-drawn bonds of supersti- 

 tion; and next because, on so dark a theme, I com- 

 pose such lucid verse, touching every point with the 

 grace of poesy." As a teacher he expounds the doc- 

 trines of Epicurus concerning life and nature; as a 

 reformer he attacks superstition; as a poet he in- 

 forms both the atomic philosophy and its moral ap- 

 plication with harmonious and beautiful verse swayed 

 by a fervour that is akin to religious emotion. 



Discussing at the outset various theories of ori- 

 gins, and dismissing these, notably that which asserts 

 that things came from nothing " for if^so, any kind 

 might be born of anything, nothing would require 

 seed," Lucretius proceeds to expound the teaching 

 of Leucippus and other atomists as to the constitu- 



