152 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



curus was at peace. He neither sought nor expected, here 

 or hereafter, any personal profit from his relation to the 

 gods. And it is assuredly a fact that loftiness and seren- 

 ity of thought may be promoted by conceptions which in- 

 volve no idea of profit of this kind. ''Did I not believe, " 

 said a great man 1 to me once, "that an Intelligence is at 

 the heart of things, my life on earth would be intoler- 

 able." The utterer of these words is not, in my opinion, 

 rendered less, but more, noble by the fact that it was the 

 need of ethical harmony here, and not the thought of per- 

 sonal happiness hereafter, that prompted his observation. 

 There are persons, not belonging to the highest intel- 

 lectual zone, nor yet to the lowest, to whom perfect clear- 

 ness of exposition suggests want of depth. They find 

 comfort and edification in an abstract and learned phrase- 

 ology. To such people Epicurus, who spared no pains to 

 rid his style of every trace of haze and turbidity, ap- 

 peared, on this very account, superficial. He had, how- 

 ever, a disciple who thought it no unworthy occupation to 

 spend his days and nights in the effort to reach the clear- 

 ness of his master, and to whom the Greek philosopher is 

 mainly indebted for the extension and perpetuation of his 

 fame. Some two centuries after the death of Epicurus, 

 Lucretius 3 wrote his great poem, "On the Nature of 

 Things," in which he, a Koman, developed with extraor- 

 dinary ardor 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 



1 Carlyle. 2 Born 99 B.C. 



