142 FEAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



ethical harmony here, and not the thought of personal 

 happiness hereafter, that prompted his observation. 



There are persons, not belonging to the highest 

 intellectual zone, nor yet to the lowest, to whom per- 

 fect clearness of exposition suggests want of depth. 

 They find comfort and edification in an abstract and 

 learned phraseology. To such people Epicurus, who 

 spared no pains to rid his style of -every trace of haze 

 and turbidity, appeared, on this very account, superfi- 

 cial. He had, however, a disciple who thought it no un- 

 worthy occupation to spend his days and nights in the 

 effort to reach the clearness of his master, and to whom 

 the Greek philosopher is mainly indebted for the ex- 

 tension and perpetration of his fame. Some two cen- 

 turies after the death of Epicurus, Lucretius* wrote 

 his great poem, ' On the Nature of Things,' in which 

 he, a Eoman, developed with extraordinary ardour the 

 philosophy of his Greek predecessor. He wishes to 

 win over his friend Memnius to the school of Epicurus; 

 and although he has no rewards in a future life to 

 offer, although his object appears to be a purely nega- 

 tive 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 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 dis- 

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

 of day, but by the aspect and the law of nature.' He re- 

 futes the notion that anything can come out of noth- 

 ing, or what is once forgotten can be recalled to noth- 

 ing. The first beginnings, the atoms, are indestruc- 

 * Born 99 B. c. 



