LUCRETIUS AND THE ATOMIC THEORY 197 



great, and their motion is indestructible ; it can neither increase 

 nor diminish. This motion escapes our senses only because 

 atoms are very small. But they are not infinitely small. Atoms 

 have no colour, nor are they of themselves hot, cold, noisy, 

 moist, coloured, or scented. These properties are given by 

 motion, shape, and arrangement. We shall better understand 

 the extraordinary merit and good sense of these propositions 

 after considering some rival theories. 



Where Lucretius breaks down is in the attempt to account 

 for the origin of the power found in the universe, and for the 

 various regulated motions required to explain what we observe 

 and for the apparent anomaly between the strict causation re- 

 quired and perceived in inanimate nature, and the free-will of 

 which he was conscious. Here he fails entirely, and many 

 others have failed too. Although lie would have cared little for 

 our commendation of his physics, coupled with a rejection of 

 his proud claim to have set free mankind from grovelling super- 

 stition, by explaining the mystery of the existence of matter 

 and man's mind, we may derive sincere pleasure in recognising 

 the early germs of discoveries which have required two thousand 

 years to reach their present development. Let us not be too 

 indignant at his scornful rejection of divine agency. Divinity 

 to him meant either the old pagan gods or the pale abstract 

 idea of a First Cause, which explained nothing, being but one 

 form of statement that something was left to be explained. 

 What wonder that he rejected both ? We may admire those 

 old philosophers who could clothe divinity with noble attri- 

 butes, and find in their own hearts the motive for their faith, 

 but we need not therefore despise those who, smitten with the 

 great truth that nature's laws are constant, fancied that in this 

 constancy they saw the proof that nature's laws are self- 

 existent. But we are diverging from our subject. 



We will not compare our author's views with other ancient 

 theories at any great length ; these at first sight seem greatly 

 inferior to the atomic doctrine. Of the idea that the universe 

 is composed of four elements, earth, fire, air, and water, no trace 

 remains except in language, but careful investigation might 

 show that the believers in these elements, or. in some one or 

 more of them, as the material of the universe, meant something 



